m 


PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


\ 


Presented    by~V^<S\S  .  0\rV\^^^T-~Vo-V^5 

Division "T^     ^—"v— '• 


Section 


THE  BRITISH  WEEKLY  PULPIT. 


THE 


British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


A   Companion  Journal  to 
THE    BRITISH     WEEKLY. 


VOLUME    III 


FUNK     &     WAGNALLS, 
i8  &  20,  ASTOR  PLACE. 


INDEX. 


Rev.  Dr.  Antliff. 


SERMONS. 

PAGE 


With  Christ    113 

ReY.  C.  A.  Berry. 

The  Living  Christ    50 

Rev.  Robert  Browin. 
My  Lamp  (Children's  Sermon)  24 

Rev.  Phillips  Brooks,  D.D. 

Character  and  Service    219 

Rev.  A.  R.  Buckland,  M.A. 

The  Queen  of  Sheba   »4i 

Right  Rev.  W.  Boyd-Carpenter,  D,D.,  Bishop 
of  Rlpon. 

The  Arrow  o<  the  Lord's  Deli vciiincc     145 

Rev.  Principal  Cave,  B.A.,  D.D. 

Tasting  Death  for  Every  Man 225 


Rev.  Thomas  Champness. 

Some  Lessons  from  an  Unfamiliar  Text 


Rev.  Thomas  Cochrane. 

The  Nativity  of  the  Redeemer    


Rev.  Professor  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 

The  Incarnation  of  the  Word 


Rev.  Canon  Driver,  D.D. 

The  Religious  Value  of  the  Old  Testament 


Professor  Henry  Druramond. 

'Joy,  Rest,  and  Faith    


Rev.  Principal  Dykes,  D.D. 

Christ  tlie  Saviour  of  the  Body 101 

Lift-J^orc_Abundantly    257 

Rev.  John  Evans. 

Hope  for  the  Worst  of  Sinners 321 

Venerable   Archdeacon    Farrar,  D.D.,  F.R.S. 

The  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language  391 
Following  after  Righteousness 451 

Rev.  A.  F.  Forrest. 


Rev.  Richard  Glover. 

The  Glowing  Missionarj'  Heart 

Rev.  A.  Goodrich,  D.D. 

The  Brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus    


Rev.  J.  G.  Greenhough,  M.A. 

The  Will  of  your  Father  33 

Rev.  W.  H.  Harwood. 

The  True  Conception  of  God  497 


Professor  A.  Harper,  M.A. 

Old  Testament  Probleas 


Right  Rev.  W.  How,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of 
Wakefield. 

"  Darkest  England  "    433 

Rev.  J.  R.  Illingworth,  M.A. 

Knowledge  and  Love 348 

Dr.  Jamos  M.  King. 

My  Father's  House 407 

Rev.  A.  F.  Klrkpatrick,  B.D, 

The     Old     Testament     in     the     Christian 
Church  465 

The  Late  Rev.  Canon  H.  P.  Liddon,  D.D. 

The  Inspiration  of  Selection    65 

Rev.  John  McNeill. 

The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake   120 


Very  Rev.  D.  J.  Moorhouse,  Bishop  of 
Manchester. 

The  Development  of  Christian  Doctrine   ...  369 

Rev.  Arthur  Mursell. 

Christ's  Second  Coming  a  Necessity   385 


Rev.  Dr.  Nevius. 

Pilate's  Question 245 


Rev.  C.  New. 

The  Power  of  Christ's  Name  161 


vi  .  Ill 

PAGE 

Rev.  Canon  Paget,  D.D. 

The  Forgiveness  of  Sins  457 

Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

Sons  of  Eli,  3'et  Sons  of  Belikl  88 

The  Last  Words  of  the  Old  Testament 156 

The  Ideal  Ministry  353 

(Rev.  James  Paterson. 

"  Talitha  Cumi  "   (a  Sermon    to  Children)     12 

Very  Rev.  F.  Pigon,  D.D.,  Dean  of 

Chichester. 

The  Promised  Power 209 

Rev.  T.  Puddicombe. 

Kept  from  the  Evil  One 473 

Rev.  John  Robertson. 

The  Eternel  Love  of  Jesus 481 

Rev.  W.  Sanday,  D.D.,  Dean  Ireland's  Pro- 
fessor of  Exegesis  of  Scripture. 

New  Light  on  Christianity  401 

Dr.  F.  Schleiermacher. 

The  Saviour's  Rule 326 


PAGE 

Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

Exposition  of  Job  i 280 

Exposition  of  Is.  l'iii.,lxiv 315 

Enduring  Trial 337 

Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D. 

The   Discontent  of   the  Times   (a  Thanks- 
giving-Sermon)    513 

The  Right  Rev.  W.  Stubbs,  Bishop  of 
Oxford. 

Preaching  Christ  Crucified  181 

Rev.  N.  R.  Thomas. 

The  Root  and  Fruit  of  True  Life  273 


Very  Rev.  Dr.  Yaughan,  Dean  of  Llandaff. 
The  Sympathy  of  God 168 

Rev.  Francis  Wayland. 

Choragin  and  Bethsaida 57 

Right  Rev.  Dr.  E.  R.  Wilberforce,  Bishop  of 
Newcastle. 

Peace 359 

Right   Rev.   J.  Wordsworth,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Salisbury. 

The  First  Gospel 202 


SERMONS    TO    CHILDREN. 


"Talitha   Cumi."    By  the  Rev. J.  Paterson     12 
My  Lamp.      By  the  Rev.  Robert  Brewin     24 


The  Five  Great   Powers  of  Life.      By  the 
Rev.  J.  C.  Carrick    


SERVICES   COMPLETELY  REPORTED. 

A    Service    at    Camberwell    Presbyterian  |     A  Service  at  the  City  Temple,  Conducted  by 

Church,  Conducted  by  the  Rev.  Principal  the  Rev.  loseph  Parker,  D.D 193 

Dykes,  D.D 97    1 


SERMONETTES  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSONS. 

15,  32,  48,   64,  80,  96,   112,  12S,  144,   160,  176,   igi,  224,  240,  256,  372,  287,  304,  320,  336, 
352|  367,  383,  400,  415,  447,  464,  478,  494i  495,  5a7,  535- 


ORIENTAL   LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSONS.     BY   THE 
REV.  CANON  H.  B.  TRISTRAM,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

154,  '75,  189,    207,  222,  239,  253,  271,  286,  302,  318. 


Index. 


OUTLINES  OF  SERMONS. 


I'AGE 

My  Brother's  Keeper.     By  the  Rev.  H.  V. 

Taylor   30 

Empty   Nets  and  Sending  Boats.     By  the 

Rev.  J.  Vinson  Stephens  3' 

Sanctified  with  the  Blood  of  Christ.  By  the 

Rev.  T.  M.  Rees   63 

The   Burning  Bush.      By  the  Rev.  J.  A. 

Watt  77 

•   The  Greatest  Question  in  the  World.     By 

the  Rev.  D.  F.  Roberts 78 

The  Christian    Name.      By    the   Rev.   \V. 

Morton,  B.D 76 

Compromise  with  Evil.     By  the  Rev.  T.  O. 

Stalberg-    93 

A  Childlike  Man.    By  H.  C 95 

House  Building 109 

A  Special  Prayer  Meeting.     By  the  Rev.  J. 

V.  Stephens    no 

Seeking  Knowledge.  By  H.  Clarach    in 

Jacob's  Vow.     B-  the  Rev.  |.  N.  Knight  ...  118 
Is  not  this  the  Christ  ?    By  the  Rev.  J.  B. 

Meharry   iig 

Nature  and  the  Bible.     By  the  Rev.  J.  M. 

Gibson,  D.D 120 

Household  Words  of  the  Family'  of  Heaven 

and  Earth.     By  the  Rev.  C.  Garrett 121 

The  World's   Voices.      By   the  Rev.  W.  J. 

Dawson 122 

The  Ethiopian  Eunuch  and  the  Prophecj-  of 

Christ.     By  the  Rev.  G.  A.  Smith,  M.A.  124 
Life   and    Principle  of    Thought.     By  the 

Rev.  Dr.  Patton 125 

Enduring  Trial.  By  the  Rev.  Dr.  R.  Whyte  127 


Praiseworthy  Discontent.  By  the  Rev. 
Albert  Lee  

Fragments.     By  the  Rev.  W.  Seward 

Making  Light  of  the  Gospel.  By  the  Rev. 
R.  Brewin  

A  Strange  Sight.     By  the  Rev.  R.  Brewin 

Christ  our  Life.    By  the  Rev.  P.  Mearns  ... 

The  Ascension.      By  the  Rev.  H.  F.  Foster 

Patches.     By  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Richards 

Jesus  Revealed.      By  the  Rev.  E.  Spurrier 

Current  Opinion  in  Theology.  By  the  Rev. 
President  Patton,  D.D 

Perfect  Soundness.  By  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Per- 
kins  

Life.     By  the  Rev.  J.  Oswald 

Christ  All  in  All.  By  the  Rev.  D.  R.  Key, 
M.A 


285 


Spiritual  Song.     By  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Douglas  385 

Knowing  God.     By  the  Rev.  H.  Cook 299 

God's  Dealings  with  Men.    By  the  Rev.  D. 

Lloyd 300 

The     Impossible.       By     the   Rev.    W.    H. 

Richards  301 

The  True  Test  of  Character.     By  the  Rev. 

Prof.  M.  Dods,  D.D 365 

Mine  and  His.     By  the  Rev.  A.  Jeffrey 382 

The   Three   Marys.      By    the   Rev.   G.   A. 

Gordon 413 

The   Choking  oC  the  Word.      By  the  Rev. 

A.  Maclaren,  D.D 446 

God's  Manifold  Mercies.      By  the   Rev.  J. 

C.  M'Clintock 491 


PULPIT   PRAYERS. 


Rev.  C.  A.  Berry 

Rev.  Principal  Cave,  D.D 

Rev.  T.  Champness 

Rev.  Dr.  Clifford 138, 

Rev.  R.  W.  Dale,  D.D.,  LL.D 


97, 


Rev.  Principal  Dykes,  M.Vi 

Rev.  A.  (.oodrich,  MX) 87 

Rev.  J.  G.  Greenhough,  M.A 38 

Rev.  E.  Griffith-Jones,  B. A 5,0 


Rev.  W.  H.  Harwood 443 

Rev.  A.  Maclaren,  D.D 282,  301 

Rev.  J.  McNeill 345 

Rev.  A.  Mursell    379 

Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D 70,  195,  358 

Rev.  Dr.  John  Pulsford 157 

Rev.  John  Robertson 490 

Rev.  N.  R.  Thomas    270 

Rev.  S.  A.  Tipple 15 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


The  Heckmondwike  Lecture 118 

Professor  Drummond  on  the  Will  of  God  ..  251 
Dr.  Robinson  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  252 
A  Talk  about  Books.     By  Professor  Drum- 
mond    ^38 

A  Ball,  a  Doll,  and  a  Man.     From  I'ansy  ...  480 


Mr.  Horton  on  Ritualism 463 

Vinet  and  Liddon.    By  the  Rev.  Principal 

King,  D.D 504 

R.aai  ig.     By  the  Rev.  Thomas  Champness  534 
Tray  ol  Diamonds 76,  109,  117,  140,  155 


Jiu:,x. 


INDEX    OF    TEXTS. 


I'AC.E 

Genesis  iv.  9   

Genesis  \iii.  ji  392 

Genesis  xxviii.  20-22    118 

Genesis  xxx^ii.  i2 9^ 

Exodusiii 77 

I  Samuel  ii.  12    >B 

I  Kings  xvi.  25  30 ^  5 

lobi 280 

Job.  i.  22   357 

lob  xxxvii.  21 :-,oo 

Psalm  >ix ; 120 

Psalm  cvii.  1-9 ^91 

Psalm  cxix.  18 401 

Psalm  cxix.  105 24 

Psalm  cxlv.  4 497 

Ecrlesiastesx.  8 255 

Ecclesiastes  xii.  3-6 395 

Song  of  Solomon  ii.  16 382 

Isaiah  ix   6  529 

Isaiah  xxix.  13    no 

Isaiah  Ii.  I   440 

Isaiah  Ixiii. ) 

Isaiah  Ixiv.  )"  j'S 

Jeremiah  iv.  3 -.84 

Jeremiah  xir.  5  127 

Mala-hi  iv 196 

Matthew  V.  17 465 

Matthew  vii.  24-27 10^ 

Matthew  \ii.  24-29 365 

Matthew  xi.  23,  24 57 

Matthew  xi.  29   178 

Matthew  xii.  13  301 

Matthew  xii.  42 241 

Matthew  xvi.  24 326 

Matthew  xvi li.  14  ;3 

Matthew  xix.  26 t?; 

Matthew  xxii.  5 142 

Matthew  xxvi.  ;o  185 

Matthew  xxvii.'22 78 

Matthew  xxvii.  22     245 

Mark  ii.. 21    15 

Mark  iv.  .18,  19   446 

Mark  iv.  31-41 i>9 

Mark  iv.  38  168 

Mark  V.  41    12 


Luke  iv.  28,  29... 

Luke  V.  i-ii 

Luke  vii.  13 

Luke  ix.  28-36... 

Luke  X.  1-16 

Luke  X.  13-1S  ... 
Luke  X.  25-37  ... 
Luke  xi.  1-13  ... 
Luke  xii.  13-21... 
Luke  xii.  22-34... 
Luke  xiii.  10-17 
Luke  xiv.  1^-24 
Luke  xiv.  19-31 
Luke  xiv.  25-33 
Luke  xiv.  25-35 
Luke  XV.  i-io  ... 
Luke  XV.  i-io  ... 
Luke  XV.  11-24... 
Luke  XV  11-24... 
Luke  xvi.  19-31 
Luke  xvii.  1-14 
Luke  xvii. 
Luke  xviii 
Luke  xviii 
Lvke  xviii.  i5-3( 
Luke  xix.  i-ic. 
Luke  xix.  11-27 
Luke  rix.  12-27 
Luke  xir.  37-48 
Luke  XX.  9-19  .. 
Luke  xxii.  7-20 

54  71 
39-53 
•  13  2; 


9 239,  240 

4  256 

30 271 

30 ■....  272 

286,  1:87 


ukc 
Luk 
Lull 
Luke 

Luke  xxiii.  33-47 

Luke  XV  iv.  1-12  ..  ... 

Luke  '  xiv.  13-27 

Luke  ^xiv.  28-43 , 

Luke  xxiv.  35 

Luke  Xfiv.  49,  50   .. 

lohn  i.  I  14  

.lohni.  3S 

John  iv.  29   


PAGE 

John  vi.  12   141 

lohn  vii.  17 348 

jtlin  X.  'o 258 

jotin  xiii.  25 in 

lohn  xiv.  2  407 

Jo   nxiv.  27 359 

John  X   .  II    .  178 

John  xvi.  14. 65 

John  xvii.  3 299 

John  xvii.  15   473 

John  xix.  25 413 

lohn  XX   30,  31    202 

John  xxi.  7  HI 

Acts  i.  9 156 

Acts  i.  II  385 

Acts  iii.  16   i6i 

Acts  iii.  16  254 

Acts  xi.  26 79 

Romans  ix.  1-3  17 

I  Corinthians  i.  23,  24 181 

I  Corinthians  ix.  25 219 

1  Corinthians  xiii,  9 369 

1  Corinthians  xiv.  10   122 

2  Corinthians  iii.  6   125 

2  Corinthians  iii.  18 179 

2  Corinthians  v.  19  235 

2  Coiinthians  xi^r.  20   94 

Galatians  ii.  20  273 

Galatians  v   i 403 

Galatians  vi.  17 81 

K.phesians  v.  23  loi 

Hhilippians  i.  21 143 

t-'hilippians  i.  23 113 

Colossians  iii.  2 336 

Hebre'^s  252 

Hebrews  ii   g 225 

Hebrews  xi.  13-16 141 

Hebrews  xiii.  12    63 

iPeterv.  7   264 

2  Peter  ii.  4 397 


John  ii. 
I  John  iv.  19 
Revelation  i. 
Kevilation  i. 
Revelation  i. 


457 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  los,  Vol.  III.]  MAY  9,  1890. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  VALUE  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

A  Sermon  hy 

The  Rev.  Canox  Driver,  D.D. 

Preached  at  Great  St \Mary  s  Church,  Cambridge,  on  Sunday,  April  27,  1890. 

"  God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets,  by  di\ers 
portions  and  in  divers  manners,  hath  at  the  end  of  these  days  spoken  unto  us 
in  His  Son." — Hebrews  i.  i,  2. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  opens  in  the  Greek  with  two  signifi- 
cant adverbs  TroXvyaepw?  and  ttoXi; r/ooTro)?,  which  the  writer  uses  for 
the  purpose  of  characterising  the  revelation  contained  in  the  Old 
Testament.  The  first  of  these  adverbs  is  one  which  it  is  difficult 
to  reproduce  in  our  language  at  once  forcibly  and  idiomatically. 
Perhaps  the  sense  expressed  by  it  will  be  best  understood  if  we 
recollect  that  it  is  opposed  to  a/xepw?,  which  would  denote  singly, 
undividedly :  and  that  it  thus  conveys  the  idea  of  what,  instead  of 
being  single  and  undivided,  is  broken  into  many  parts.  If  we 
might  illustrate  the  Apostle's  meaning  by  a  metaphor,  we  might 
say  that  he  represents  God's  former  revelation  as  not  concentrated 
in  a  single  volume,  or  mediated  by  a  single  agent,  but  as  distri- 
buted through  many  channels,  and  mediated  by  a  succession  of 
different  agents.  In  the  use  of  the  term  it  is,  moreover, 
indirectly  involved  that  the  individual  agents  in  whom 
-God  thus  severally  spake,  received  but  a  partial — we 
might  almost  say  fragmentary — revelation  of  His  will. 
TToXuT/aoTrft)?,  the  other  adverb  which  the  writer  of  the  Epistle 
uses,  is  explained  more  readily;  it  indicates  simply  diversity 
of  manner,  "  in  many  modes."  The  same  two  adverbs  are 
used,  as  it  happens,  in  combination  by  Clement  of  Alexandria,*  in 
illustration  of  the  epithet  ttoXv-koUiXo^  applied  by  St.  Paul  to  the 
wisdom  of  God  in  Eph.  iii.  10,  which  displays  itself,  this  father 
says,  "  for  our  advantage  *  in  many  parts  and  in  many  modes,'  in 
art,  in  knowledge,  in  faith,  in  prophecy."     It  is  the  manifold  and 

■'■  Quoted  by  Dr.  Westcott  in  his  note  ad loc. 


The  British  Weekly  Fulpit. 


multiform  manifestation  of  God,  received  of  old  by  the  fathers 
through  the  prophets,  which  the  Apostle  here  describes,  and  with 
which  he  contrasts  the  single  and  supreme  revelation  made  "at 
the  end  of  these  days,"  in  One  who  was  no  prophet,  or  other  sub- 
ordinate minister,  but  "a  son." 

I  propose  to  offer  for  your  consideration  to-day  some  reflections 
suggested  by  these  words  of  the  Apostle,  on  the  variety  of  form 
and  circumstance  and  occasion,  with  which,  as  recorded  in  the 
Old  Testament,  God  revealed  Himself  to  the  fathers.  And  first 
and  foremost  He  revealed  Himself  to  them  in  the  prophets  pro- 
perly so  called.  With  but  few  exceptions,  it  is  only  the  prophets 
who  make  the  claim  to  announce  God's  "word,"  to  enunciate  a 
message  which  they  have  received  from  Him.  The  prophet  is  in 
a  peculiar  sense  the  organ  of  Jehovah's  will.  He  has  listened  in 
the  council  of  the  Alm.ighty;  he  has  stood,  in  vision,  in  the 
presence-chamber  of  the  Most  High,  and  heard  there  words  which 
thrilled  through  his  inmost  being ;  he  has  felt  within  him  the 
impulse  before  which  he  quailed  as  at  the  lion's  roar,  or  which 
consumed  his  bones  as  a  hidden  fire  ;  he  knows  that  Jehovah 
"  doeth  nothing  but  He  revealeth  his  secret  to  his  servants  the 
prophets ; "  ever  and  anon,  as  he  speaks,  it  is  "  Thus  saith 
Jehovah,'*  *'  Hear  ye  the  word  of  Jehovah,"  "  'Tis  the  oracle  of 
Jehovah."  If  there  are  degrees  of  inspiration,  the  highest  degree 
must  surely  be  sought  in  those  who  thus  constantly  and  un- 
waveringly declare  the  plenitude  of  their  inspiration,  and  claim 
to  bring  directly  to  men  the  message  of  the  Most  High.  But 
the  prophets  did  not  always  receive  this  message  through  the 
same  activity  of  their  mental  organism.  Sometimes  they  became 
conscious  of  it  in  a  vision  ;  more  frequently,  as  it  would  seem, 
by  an  impulse  or  direction  given  to  their  waking  thoughts, 
or  by  a  quickening  of  their  natural  faculties  of  intuition 
or  reflection.  And  their  message  when  received  was  communicated 
to  men  in  many  different  forms.  Sometimes  it  was  expressed  in 
plain,  direct  language;  sometimes  it  was  made  palpable  in  a 
significant  act ;  more  often  it  was  clothed  by  the  prophet's 
imagination  in  the  gorgeous  dress  of  poetic  symbolism.  In  genius 
and  character  the  individual  prophets  differ  widely  ;  but  they  all 
possess,  in  ajrare  degree,  the  power  of  presenting  their  thought  in  an 
attractive  literary  garb.  The  flowing  periods  of  Amos,  the  con- 
densed vehemence  of  Hosea,  the  majestic  oratory  of  Isaiah,  the 
artless  pathos  of  Jeremiah,  the  studied  pictures  of  Ezekiel,  the 
warm  and  impassioned  eloquence  of  the  great  prophet  of  the 
exile — all,  in  different  ways,  while  they  reflect  the  diversified 
individuality  of  their  authors,  at  the  same  time  excite  profoundly 
the  reader's  interest  and  attention. 

Nor  are  the  topics  with  which  the  prophets  deal  less  varied  than 
their  styles.  The  prophets  come  to  the  forefront  in  many  capacities. 
They  move  with  the  times,  and  are  the  representatives  of  the  best 


The  Religions  Value  of  the  Old  Testament, 


thought  and  of  the  best  culture  which  the  Israelitish  nation  could 
produce.     Politically,  they  are  their  nation's  truest  counsellors  at  . 
the    critical  moments  of  its  history.     In    earlier  times  they  are 
influential  in  setting  up  or  dethroning  dynasties  :  at  a  later  time 
they  stand  beside  the  king  to  admonish  or  advise.  They  saw  more 
clearly  than  their  contemporaries,  as  the  result  repeatedly  showed, 
the  bearing  upon  Israel  of  the  movements  and  tendencies  operative 
about  them  :  they  interpreted  beforehand  the  signs  of  the  times, 
and  warned  their  countrymen  how  to  face  the  future.     With  what 
clear  insight  do  Amos  and  Rosea  detect  the  germs  of  dissolution  in 
the  fabric  of  the  northern  kingdom  !     How  confidently  and  how 
unerringly   does    Isaiah    declare,  first    the   failure   of  Syria  and 
Ephraim,  then  the  failure  of  those  more  formidable  aggressors, 
the  Assyrians,  in  their  projects  for  the  ruin  of  Judah  !  With  what 
a  just  instinct  does  he  plant  his  finger  upon  the   hollowness  of 
Egyptian  promises !     And  how  truly  a  century  afterwards  does 
Jeremiah,  apparently  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  line  pursued  by 
his  great  predecessor,  foresee  the  success  of  the  Chaldeans,  and 
divine  the  purpose  of  Providence  to  crown  Nebuchadnezzar  as  the^ 
monarch  of  Western  Asia  !     And  3''et  another  prophet,  still  in  ad- 1 
vance  of  his  contemporaries,    when   the   appointed   term  of  the  I 
Babylonian   empire   was    approaching,   heralded  the    advent    of 
the  conqueror  who  was  to  overthrow  it,  sustained  with  glowino- 
promises  the  failing  spirits  of  his  countrymen,   and  sketched  in 
grand,  imposing  outline  his  nation's  future  destiny.     From  the  I 
time  of  Moses  onwards,  at  every  important  epoch  in  the  history  of  ' 
Israel,  it  v/as  a  prophet  who  assumed  the  place  of  authority,  r-d 
taught  his  people  the  duty  which  the  age  required  of  it.  i 

But  the  prophets  were  more  than  political  counsellors  ;  tlicy . 
were  the  chief  upholders  of  morality  and  religion.  Not  only  did  they  i 
uphold  generally,  in  accents  of  solemn  earnestness  which  can  never 
lose  their  spell,  the  claims  of  righteousness,  philanthropy,  equity, 
and  other  social  virtues — so  apt  in  all  countries,  but  especially  in 
Eastern  countries,  to  be  disregarded— and  the  claims  of  Jehovah 
as  against  other  gods  whose  worship  possessed  often  such  a  strange 
attractiveness  for  the  less  spiritually  minded  Israelites;  but  they 
taught  also  many  special  lessons.  Amos,  for  instance,  teaches  the 
impartiality  with  which  God  views  all  nations,  and  shows  that  he 
dernands  of  Israel  precisely  the  same  standard  of  equity  and  right 
which  He  exacts  of  other  nations.  Hosea,  the  prophet  of  religious 
emotion,  teaches  the  love  with  which  Jehovah  regards  Israel,  and 
while  reproacWng  Israel  for  the  imperfect  manner  in  which  His  love 
was  requited  by  it,  deduces  the  lesson  that  the  individual  Israelite 
who  seeks  to  participate  in  God's  love,  must  show  love,  on  his  own 
part,  to  his  brother  man.  Isaiah,  in  imagery  of  which  he  alone 
is  master,  sets  forth  the  majesty  of  Jehovah's  Godhead,  declares 
the  triumph  of  righteousness  and  true  religion  in  the  overthrow 
of  ihci  Assyrian,  and  holds  up  before  his  nation  the  inspiring  ideals 


•^ 


rhe  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


of  a  renovated  human  nature,  a  purified  and  transformed  society. 
Ezekiel,  while  watching  from  his  distant  exile's  home  the  toils 
closing  around  Jerusalem,  asserts,  in  uncompromising  stringency, 
the  doctrine  of  individual  responsibility,  and  vindicates — though  in 
a  very  different  manner  from  Isaiah — the  majesty  of  Jehovah, 
which  might   seem  to  have  been  disparaged  by  the  disastrous 
ruin  of  the  city  of  His  choice.     And  the  prophet  to  whom  I  have 
already  alluded  as  heralding  the  advent  of  Cyrus,  ftjreaches,  in 
language  more  exalted  and  impressive  than  is  to  be  found  in  any 
other  part  of  the  Bible,  the  transcendence,  the  omnipotence,  the 
infinitude  of  Israel's  God,  His  incomparable  and  incommunicable 
Being,  and  withal  His  purposes  of  salvation,  which,  though  they 
are  directed  with  special  affection  towards  Israel,  comprehend 
within  their  ultimate  scope  all  the  kindreds  of  the  earth.     In  the 
approaching   restoration    of  the    exiled    nation,    he    sees,    what 
Ezekiel  did  not  see,  an  event  of  crucial  significance  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  and  one  adapted  in  the  end  to  create  a  revolution  in 
the  religious  feelings  of  mankind.     In  the  case  of  every  prophet^ 
the  message,  which  it  is  distinctively  his  to  bring,  is  correlated 
partly  with  his  individual  character  and  genius,  partly  with  the 
circumstances  and  history  of  his  age.     And  thus  in  many  parts 
and  in  many  modes  did  God  speak  to  the  fathers  in  the  prophets. 
The  historical  books  describe  another  aspect  of  God's  dealings 
with  His  people  ;  they  narrate  from  different  points  of  view,  and 
.  ,    with  different  degrees  of  historical  precision,  Israel's  chequered 
*  ''•history — the  story  how  from  small  beginnings  and  through  many 
vicissitudes  it  rose  to  be  an  organised  nation,  able  to  hold  its  own 
among  its  neighbours,  shorn  of  part  of  its  glory  by  the  Assyrians, 
but  succumbing  finally  only  to  the  Chaldaeans,  and  then  wonder- 
fully restored  to  its  ancient  home  in  order  to  complete  its  destined 
course  of  history.     Providence  watched  over  Israel's   path,  and 
guided  the  hands  of  its  leading  men.     And  the  history,  as  it  is 
told,  is  penetrated  from  the  beginning  with  religious  ideas.  ;  The 
narrative  of  the  Creation  sets  forth,  in  a  series  of  representative 
pictures,  the  sovereignty  of  God  ;  His  priority  to,  and  separation 
from,  all  finite,  material  nature ;  His  purpose  to  constitute  an 
ordered  cosmos ;  His  endowment  of  man  with  the  peculiar,  unique 
possession  of  self-conscious  reason,  in  virtue  of  which  he  becomes 
capable  of  natural  and  moral  life,  and  is  even  able  to  hold  com- 
munion with  his  Maker.     The  story  of  the  Fall  shows  how  human 
wilfulness  thwarted  God's  purpose  in  regard  to  the  future  of  man, 
and  introduced  into  the  world  moral  disorder.    The  account  of  the 
Flood  becomes  a  typical  illustration  of  God's  anger  against  sin,  as 
the  covenant  formed  by  Him  with  Noah  evinces  the  gracious  regard 
with  which,  if  they  would  but  respond.  He  views  the  whole  race  of 
mankind.     In  the  narratives  which  follow,  although  it  is  probable 
that  we  have  mostly  traditions  rather  than  the  testimony  of  eye- 
witnesses, both  the  contents  and  the  animating  spirit  are  not  less 


remarkable.  In  the  history  of  the  patriarchs  we  have  the  picture 
of  men,  who,  in  that  distant  age,  are  witnesses  and  examples  of  a 
lively  faith  to  those  of  other  nations  with  whom  they  come  in 
contact,  and  who,  while  moving  about  with  their  flocks  and  their 
herds,  and  though  drawn  by  their  wives  and  children  and  family 
connections  into  various  entanglements,  are  still  the  founders  of  a 
religious  cofnmunity  :  "  For  I  have  known  him,  to  the  end  that 
he  may  command  his  children  after  him,  that  they  may  keep  the 
way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judgment — "  (Gen.  xviii.  19). 
"jlThe  patriarchs  are  engaged  in  founding  not  one  of  the  empires  of 
/ithe  world,  but  a  kingdom  of  which  righteousness  is  to  be  the  rule. 
The  ideal  character  and  aims  of  the  people  of  God  are  prefigured 
in  their  history.  It  is  the  religious  colouring  of  the  narrative 
which  impresses  us,  the  didactic  aim  which,  apparently  unsought 
for,  nevertheless  attaches  to  it.  The  story  of  Israel's  ancestors 
might  have  been  told  very  differently.  The  religious  spirit  might 
have  been  absent  from  it  altogether.  As  it  is,  the  patriarchs  are 
types  of  religious  characters  ;  and  their  lives  abound  with  lessons 
for  ourselves. 

Nor  is  the  case  different  afterwards.  In  the  Mosaic  age  the 
conspicuous  figure  is  the  character  of  Moses  himself.  The 
character  of  Moses  is  sketched  with  peculiar  vividness  and  force  : 
he  is  represented  as  endowed,  in  a  pre-eminent  degree,  with  single- 
ness of  aim,  with  nobility  of  mind,  with  unwearied  and  self-sacri- 
ficing devotion  for  the  welfare  of  his  people,  and  with  that  modesty 
both  of  word  and  demeanour  which  is  observable  in  all  the  best 
characters  of  Old  Testament  history.  Hosea  styles  him  a  prophet  : 
prophetic  insight  and  foresight  are  ascribed  to  him  in  the  Penta- 
teuch :  Jehovah  is  represented  as  holding  converse  with  him,  not 
by  a  vision  or  a  dream,  but  with  some  special  and  distinctive  clear- 
ness, "  as  a  man  speaketh  with  his  friend."  To  the  period  while 
Israel  was  at  Sinai,  there  is  referred  the  re-affirmation  of 
the  aim  of  Israel's  national  existence,  which  was  foreshadowed  in 
the  history  of  Abraham  :  "  Now,  therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  My 
voice  indeed,  and  keep  My  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar 
I  treasure  to  Me  above  all  peoples:  for  all  the  earth  is  Mine: 
)  and  ye  shall  be  unto  Me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  an 
/  holy  nation  "  (Exod.  xix.  5,  G).  To  Moses,  in  a  supreme  moment 
of  his  life,  is  vouchsafed  the  manifestation  of  Jehovah's  gracious 
character  which  dominates  Israel's  history  and  which  jirophets 
and  psalmists,  one  after  another,  re-echo  :  "And  the  Lord  passed 
by  before  him,  and  proclaimed,  Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a  God  merciful 
and  gracious,  longsuffering  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth  ; 
keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression 
and  sin  :  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty ;  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  children's 
children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation.  And  Moses 
made  haste,  and  bowed  his  head  toward  the  earth  and  worshipped  " 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


(Exod.  xxxiv.  6 — 8).  To  Moses  are  attributed  the  words  which  with 
a  burst  of  grateful  enthusiasm  celebrate  the  theocratic  privileges  of 
the  chosen  people  :  "  There  is  none  like  unto  God,  O  Jeshurun, 
Who  rideth  upon  the  heaven  for  thy  help,  and  in  His  excellency  on 
the  skies.  .  .  .  Happy  art  thou,  O  Israel :  who  is  like  unto  thee,  a 
people  saved  by  the  Lord,  the  shield  of  thy  help,  and  that  is  the 
sword  of  thy  excellency  !  and  thine  enemies  shall  submit  them- 
selves unto  thee  ;  and  thou  shall  tread  upon  their  high  places  " 
(Deut.  xxxiii.  26 — 29).  Upon  all  the  pictures  which  we  possess  of 
the  Mosaic  age,  there  is  impressed  a  profound  consciousness  of 
Israel's  vocation,  of  the  duties  imposed  upon  it,  and  of  the  privi- 
leges which  it  enjoys. 

In  the  Law  of  Moses,  God  speaks  in  different  waj^s ;  and  we 
hear  his  voice  accommodating  itself  to  the  needs  of  different  ages, 
and  of  different  classes  of  men.  In  one  group  of  laws  the  needs 
of  a  simple,  comparatively  immature,  agricultural  society  appear 
to  be  held  in  view.  While  the  Decalogue  embodies  the  funda- 
mental maxims  of  man's  duty  towards  God  and  his  neighbour, 
such  as  are  valid  while  human  nature  remains  the  same,  the  group 
of  laws  following  it  regulates  such  subjects  as  slavery,  the  rights 
of  neighbours  possessing  contiguous  fields  and  pastures,  com- 
pensation for  injury  to  life  or  limb,  cases  of  damage  to  property ; 
and  prescribe  rudimentary  principles  of  sacrifice  and  religious 
worship.  One  or  two  of  the  provisions  strike  us  as  harsh ;  and 
certainly,  when  applied  literally,  in  ages  deficient  in  the  historical 
instinct,  to  altered  conditions  of  society,  these  have  sometimes 
led  to  disastrous  consequences  ;  but  side  by  side  with  them  we  are 
sensible  of  an  atmosphere  of  true  philanthropy,  and  in  one 
instance,  note  the  anticipation,  in  a  form  suited  to  the  time,  of  a 
genuinely  Christian  spirit,  in  the  injunction,  viz.,  not  to  refuse 
help  to  an  enemy  in  his  need — "  If  thou  meet  thine  enemy's  ox  or 
his  ass  going  astray,  thou  shalt  surely  bring  it  back  to  him 
again.  If  thou  see  the  ass  of  him  that  hateth  thee  lying  under 
his  burden,  thou  shalt  forbear  to  leave  it  to  him  alone  ;  thou 
shalt  surely  loosen  it  with  him  "  (Exod.  xxiii.  4,  5).  In  another 
group  of  laws,  those  embodied  in  Deuteronomy,  the  requirements 
of  a  more  advanced  society  are  contemplated  :  the  provisions  of 
the  code  embrace  more  complicated  relations  of  life  ;  great  stress 
is  laid  upon  the  moral  and  religious  motives  which  should  prompt 
obedience  to  them  ;  the  spiritual  teaching  is  higher  and  more 
definite.  In  yet  another  group  (Lev.  xvii. — xxvi.)  the  holiness 
which  should  determine  and  pervade  the  Israelite's  life  is  em- 
phasised ;  and  the  principle  is  made  the  basis  of  a  series  of 
important  moral  and  social  obligations.  And  a  fourth  and  larger 
group  regulates  with  some  minuteness  the  ceremonial  institu- 
tions, which  as  time  advanced  became  more  and  more  distinctly 
the  formal  expression  of  Israel's  faith.  The  ceremonial  system  of 
ancient  Israel  has  played  an  important  function  in  the  religious 


Tlie  Religious  Value  of  the  Old  Tcstavient. 


education  of  mankind.  It  enforced  and  deepened  tiie  sense  of 
sin.  It  declared  the  need  of  restoration  and  forgiveness.  It  ' 
developed — perhaps  gradually — in  the  form  of  institutions  the 
great  principles  which  regulate  man's  converse  with  God.  It 
emphasised  the  significance  of  sacrifice  under  its  different  aspects, 
as  eucharistic,  dedicatory,  propitiatory.  It  taught  more  and 
more  distinctly  that  an  atoning  rite  must  precede  the  acceptance 
of  the  worshipper  by  God.  It  thus  established  the  principles 
which  in  the  fulness  of  time  were  to  receive  their  supreme  and 
final  application  in  the  sacrifice  of  Christ.  In  all  its  stages,  the 
Mosaic  law  held  before  the  eyes  of  Israel  an  ideal  of  duty  to  be 
observed,  of  laws  to  be  obeyed,  of  principles  to  be  maintained ; 
it  taught  them  that  human  nature  needed  to  be  restrained,  it  im- 
pressed upon  them  the  necessity  of  discipline.  And  in  an  age 
when  disintegrating  influences  might  have  operated  disastrously 
upon  the  nation,  the  institutions  of  the  law  bound  together  the 
majority  of  its  members  in  a  religious  society,  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  forces  which  threatened  to  dissolve  it.  In  many  parts 
and  in  many  modes  did  God,  through  the  ordinances  of  the  law, 
speak  to  His  people,  training  it  till  it  should  be  able  to  dispense 
with  their  aid,  and  be  ready  to  assimilate  the  higher  teaching  of 
Christ.  But  the  imperfect  and  provisional  character  of  the  law 
is,  in  principle,  expressly  recognised  by  our  Lord,  Who  says  of  one 
enactment  that  it  was  written  "for  the  hardness  of  your  hearts," 
and  Who  even  propounds  a  higher  standard  of  action  than  is  pre- 
sented in  the  Decalogue  itself.  It  thus  affords  a  conspicuous 
e.xample  of  God  speaking  to  His  people  in  language  that  had  not 
only  a  relative  value,  and  was  suited  only  to  the  needs  of  a 
particular  people,  and  of  particular  times. 

God  spake  again  to  the  fathers  through  poetry,  the  language  of 
the  emotions,  the  language  in  which  every  nation  has  uttered 
some  of  the  deepest  thought  of  its  heart.  The  poetry  of  the  Old 
Testament  is  surpassed  in  its  kind  by  none ;  who  is  insensible 
to  the  charm  of  its  light  and  graceful  movement,  its  balanced 
responsive  rhythm,  so  grateful  to  the  ear  even  in  a  translation,  the 
truth  and  force  with  which  the  scenery  of  nature  or  human  life  and 
character  are  delineated  in  it  ?  It  is  moreover  singularly  varied  in 
its  themes ;  the  Hebrew  poets  speak  in  many  strains  and  in  many 
moods.  We  hear  fragments  of  the  martial  lyrics  in  which 
national  victories  or  the  deeds  of  national  heroes  were  celebrated 
by  the  nation's  poets ;  and  more  than  one  triumphant  ode  in  which 
the  nation  or  an  individual  renders  thanks  for  the  deliverance 
vouchsafed  by  Jehovah  has  been  preserved  complete.  We  have 
the  dramatic  poem,  in  which  by  the  interchange  of  argument  a 
great  problem  of  human  life  is  illustrated  on  its  different  sides, 
and  the  reader  is  thus  gradually  led  up  to  the  truth  which  the 
poet  desires  finally  to  unfold.  We  have,  at  least  in  a  rudi- 
mentary form,  the  drama  itself,   in  the  Song  of   Songs,  where 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


with   rare  delicacy  of  language,    and  beauty  of  figure    and    of 
thought  there  is  represented  the  triumph  of  faithful  love  over 
the  blandishments  of  a  monarch  and  the  attractions  of  a  gilded 
court.     We   have   the  elegy,  in  which    the  poet    in  accents  of 
tenderness  bewails  his  lost  friend,  or  speaking  on  behalf  of  his 
nation  dwells  pathetically  upon  its  sufferings,  appeals  beseech- 
ingly to  the  Divine  compassion,  and  ends  with  the  assurance  of 
restoration  to    come.      We  have  gnomic  poetry,  founded,  as  it 
seems,  by  the  wise  king  Solomon,  cultivated  after  him  by  others 
of   those  shrewd  observers  of   life  and    character  whom   Israel 
produced,  in  which  the  wisdom  of  many  generations  is  stored  up 
for  the  instruction  of  future  ages.     In  the  Psalter  all  voices  of 
the  human  soul  are  heard.     There  is  a  despondency  unrelieved 
by  any  gleam  of  light ;  there  is  grief  ending  in  hope,  or  even  in 
a   strain   of   thanksgiving   in    confident  anticipation  of    coming 
deliverance  ;  there  is  distress  and  anguish,  sometimes  caused  by 
persecuting   foes,    sometimes   by   a    faithless   friend,    sometimes 
resulting  from  sickness,  sometimes  produced  by  the  conscious- 
ness   of    sin ;    there    are    psalms  of   faith    and    resignation,   of 
rejoicing  and  jubilation,  of  yearning  for  God's  presence,  and  the 
spiritual  privilege  of  communion  with  Him  ;  there  are   didactic 
psalms,  psalms  deducing  lessons  from  the  past,  or  meditating  on 
the  problems  and  contradictions  of  the  present ;  there  are  psalms 
echoing  national  calamities  or  successes ;    there  is   the   cry   of 
penitence  wrung  from  the  nation's  heart  by  the  bitter  experiences 
of  exile  ;  there  is  its  new-born  consciousness  of  a  wider  and  more 
,  glorious  future  in  store  for  it,  in  the  psalms  which  declare  that 
"  the    Lord   is  King " ;    there   are   prophetic    outlooks   into   the 
future  ;  there  are  meditations  on  the  power  and  goodness  of  God 
as  shown  in  creation,  in  history,  in  His  dealings  with  the  human 
race  and  with  Israel.     In  the  Psalms  the  devotional  element  of 
the  religious  character  finds  its  completest  expression  ;  and  the 
soul  is  displayed  in  converse  with  God,  disclosing  to   Him  its 
,  manifold   emotions,    desires,    aspirations.     It   is   the    surprising 
variety  of  mood,  and  subject,  and  occasion  in  the  Psalms,  which 
gives  them  their  catholicity,  and  fits  them  to  be  the  hymn-book, 
not  of  the  second  Temple  only,  but  of  the  Christian  Church.     In 
the  Psalms  we  hear  the  voices  of  many  different  men,  possessed 
of  different  temperaments,  moving  in  the  midst  of  different  cir- 
cumstances, and  living  at  very  different  periods  of  the  nation's 
I  life.     But  national  history  was  the  instrument  which,  in  God's 
hands,    struck   the   keynote   of  the   deepest   utterances    of    the 
psalmist,  not  less  than  of  the  prophet,  in  ancient  Israel. 

And  thus  in  many  parts  and  many  modes  did  the  voice  of  God  | 
speak  unto  the  fathers  in  the  prophets.     Yet  we  must  not  sup-  ' 
nosji  that  it  spoke  in  them  mechanically :  the  prophet  was  not, 
^^1     fQ..pe  Gi'eel-^  /u-dvri'i  was   imagined   to   be,  the   unintelligent 
medium  thr^Sh  which  truth  from  another  world  was  communi- 


\ 


The  Religious  Value  of  the  Old  Testament. 


cated  to  man.  '  The  psychical  conditions  under  which  God  spoke 
in  them,  the  nature  and  operation  of  the  initial  impulse  which 
brought  them  to  the  consciousness  of  Divine  truth,  may  belong  to 
those  secrets  of  man's  inner  life  which  God  has  reserved  to  Him- 
self:  but  by  whatever  means  this  consciousness  was  aroused,  the 
Divine  element  which  it  contained  was  assimilated  by  the  pro- 
phet, and  thus  appears  blended  with  the  elements  that  were 
the  expression  of  his  own  character  and  genius.  The  Divine 
thought  takes  shape  in  the  soul  of  the  prophet,  and  is  pre- 
sented to  us,  so  to  speak,  in  the  garb  and  imagery  with 
which  he  has  invested  it ;  it  is  expressed  in  terms  which  bear 
the  external  marks  of  his  own  individuality,  and  reflect  the 
circumstances  of  time  and  place  and  other  similar  conditions, 
under  which  it  was  first  propounded.  Divine  truth  is  always  pre- 
sented through  the  human  organ  :  it  is  always,  though  not  perhaps 
always  to  the  same  degree,  coloured  by  the  medium  through 
which  it  has  been  transmitted.  The  Divine  and  the  human 
elements  are  inseparably  blended,  and  not  as  it  would  seem,  in 
every  part  of  the  Old^  Testament,  in  precisely  the  same  propor- 
tions. The  material  data  contained  in  the  historical  books  lay  no  - 
claim  to  be  derived  from  other  than  human  sources,  and  there  are 
at  least  portions  of  the  same  books,  the  spiritual  value  of  which  is 
not  as  great  as  that  of  the  Prophets  or  the  Psalms.  Nor  can  it  be 
denied  that  there  are  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  in  which  a  per- 
sonal, or  national,  temper  asserts  itself  in  a  spirit  which  is  not  that 
of  Christ.  And  if,  moreover,  it  be  true  that  in  the  religion  of 
Israel  that  which  is  perfect  is  not  yet  attained,  but  is  only  in 
process  of  being  reached,  then,  as  the  venerable  Delitzsch  has 
remarked  in  his  last  work,*  it  ought  not  to  offend  us  even  should 
the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  prove  to  contain  more  elements 
that  are  relatively  imperfect  than  has  hitherto  been  supposed  to  be 
the  case. 

But  viewed  generally  the  human  element,  whether  it  be  present 
in  a  larger  or  smaller  proportion,  is  interpenetrated  and  suffused 
by  an  element  higher  than  itself:  it  is  illumined,  elevated,  and  re- 
fined by  a  peculiar  and  unique  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  True 
and  noble  thoughts  gleam  like  flashes  of  light  from  the  pages  of 
the  great  thinkers  of  ancient  Greece;  the  labours  of  modern  scholars 
have  disclosed  to  us  the  forms  of  those  searchers  after  truth,  who 
in  a  remote  past,  and  in  distant  climes,  felt  after  God,  and  in  part 
also  found  Him  (for  "  He  left  not  Himself  without  witness  "  among 
men)  :  but  the  voices  of  these  men  are  dim  and  faltering,  as  coni-  i  i 
pared  with  the  clear  and  vivid  consciousness  of  truth  which  is 
reflected  in  every  part  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  the  truths  which 
they  reached  contrast  strongly,  in  respect  of  fulness,  warmth,  and 
richness,  with  those  which  are  enunciated  by  the  prophets  and 

*  Messianische  Weissngiaij^oi  (1890),  p.  20. 


The  British  Weekly  PtilpiL 


poets  of  ancient  Israel.  These  writers  speak  from  a  soul  that  has 
been  touched,  and  a  heart  that  has  been  warmed  by  the  Spirit  of 
the  living  God.  And  that  the  religion  of  Israel,  though  subject  in 
its  growth  to  historical  conditions,  is  not  to  be  explained  as  arising 
solely  out  of  them,  is  not,  in  other  words,  to  be  treated  as  a 
natural  product  of  the  genius  of  the  people,  appears  besides  from 
the  fact  that  it  stands  from  the  beginning  above  the  ordinary 
level  that  was  reached  by  the  nation  generally :  throughout  its 
history  the  people  are  represented  as  needing  to  be  taught  by 
others,  as  declining  from  truth  by  which  they  ought  to  have  been 
guided,  as  falling  short  of  the  ideal  propounded  to  them.  The 
natural  tendencies  of  the  nation  did  not  move  in  the  direction  of 
spiritual  religion.  There  is  no  ground  to  suppose  that,  apart  from 
the  special  illumination  vouchsafed  to  the  great  teachers  who 
originated,  or  sustained,  the  principles  of  its  faith,  the  religious 
history  of  Israel  would  have  differed  materially  from  that  of  the 
kindred  nations  by  which  it  was  surrounded. 

I  close  with  some  thoughts,  suggested  by  what  has  been  said, 
on  the  permanent  importance  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  im- 
portant in  the  first  place,  on  account  of  the  revelation  which  it 
contains  of  the  character  of  God,  Who  is  represented  in  it  as  a 
personal  Being,  Who,  though  depicted  under  the  most  vivid 
anthropomorphic  imagery,  is  nevertheless  conceived  always  as 
purely  spiritual,  is  never  confused  either  with  the  world  or  with 
material  emblems  of  His  presence ;  Who  possesses  a  definite 
moral  character,  all  holy,  all  just,  all  wise  ;  Who  condescends  to 
enter  into  relations  of  grace  with  His  intelligent  creatures  ;  Who 
loves  rnan,  and  will  in  turn  be  loved  by  him ;  Whose  anger  is 
aroused  by  sin,  but  Who  is  gracious  to  the  repentant  sinner ;  Who 
manifests  Himself  in  His  redemptive  purpose  to  Israel,  and 
designs  in  the  future  to  manifest  Himself  toother  nations  as  well ; 
Who  leads  His  nation  step  by  step  as  with  a  father's  hand,  through 
joy  and  sorrow,  through  success  and  disappointment,  through 
victory  and  defeat,  to  know  Him  better,  and  to  learn  His  character 
more  clearly. 

Secondly,  the  Old  Testament  sets  before  us  an  ideal  of  human 
character  ;  it  stimulates  us  by  many  a  noble  example  of  faith  and 
action.  Of  course  the  characters  which  it  brings  before  us  are 
not  faultless  ;  some  are  held  up  as  warnings;  in  the  case  of  others, 
it  is  evident,  their  faults  are  fewer  and  less  grave  than  they  would 
have  been,  had  they  lived  where  the  purifying  and  mellowing 
influence  of  the  religion  of  Israel  could  not  have  reached  them. 
Even  in  the  prehistoric  and  patriarchal  ages  the  principal  characters 
are  so  delineated  as  to  be  typically  significant ;  they  constitute 
examples  to  be  either  imitated  or  shunned.  In  a  later  age  we 
see  a  man  like  David,  endowed  with  high  personal  qualities, 
amiable,  generous,  disinterested,  loyal,  *'  a  born  ruler  of  men,"  in 
spite  of   the    occasion    of   his    great    fall,  and    in    spite  also  of 


The  Reliirions  Value  of  the  Old  Testament. 


some  other  occasions  on  which  he  was  not  superior  to  the  spirit 
of  his  age — manifesting  in  his  demeanour  and  actions  generally 
the  softening  influence  of  his  religion.  We  see  in  a  book  like 
Ruth  religion  operative  in  a  lowlier  sphere,  sanctifying  and 
elevating  the  ordinary  duties  of  life.  We  see  exemplified  in  the 
prophets  sincerity  of  purpose,  uncompromising  opposition  to  vice 
and  sin,  constant  devotion  to  principle,  firm  faith  in  a  higher 
power.  We  see,  as  I  have  already  said,  the  devotional  temper, 
under  many  different  aspects,  exemplified  in  the  Book  of  Psalms. 
The  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  produced  a  type  of  character 
which,  though  it  ma}'  have  lacked  the  finer  graces  which  the 
teaching  and  example  of  Christ  produced,  is  one  which  we  may  all 
strive  to  imitate.  Naturally  our  judgment  upon  individuals  must 
be  controlled  by  the  absolute  principles  of  conduct  recognised 
by  the  Old  Testament  itself;  nor  must  we  forget  that  in  some 
respects  the  circumstances  of  ancient  Israel  were  different  from 
ours,  so  that  maxims  of  action  beyond  the  pale  of  what  is  moral 
and  spiritual,  cannot  be  transferred  immediately  to  ourselves : 
but  in  its  predominant  features  human  nature  is  the  same  in  all  ^ 
ages  ;  so  that  the  lesson  as  a  rule  can  be  applied  directly.  cr'±~^ 

Thirdly,  the   Old  Testament  has  an  intimate  and  important 
bearing  upon  the  Christian  faith.  As  a  matter  of  history,  Judaism 
was  the  cradle  of  Christianity.     Viewed,  humanly,  Christianity  in 
its  origin  took  the  form  of  a  reaction  against  the  paralysing  in- 
fluences of  Rabbinism,  a  reaction  resting  primarily  upon  a  return  ,  ,! 
to  the  more  spiritual  religion  of  the  prophets — a  call  of  which  thej  f 
first  note  was  struck  by  John  the  Baptist,  "the  heir  of  the  pro-J/| 
phets."     I  am  speaking  of  it  in  its  initial  stage  :  of  course  many  ' 
fresh  elements  were  added  afterwards.     But  although  Christianity 
was  thus  a  reaction  against  the  unspiritual  developments  of  the 
later  legalism,  it  does  not  need  to  be  pointed  out  how  deeply  its 
roots  were  laid  in  the  ancient  faith  of  Israel,  what  vital  doctrine;, 
it  appropriated  from  Israel's  teaching,  and  took  for  granted;  or 
how  the  long  and  gradual  preparation  of  history  fitted  the  soil  for 
its  growth.     Of  the  elements  forming  the  preparation  in  history 
for  Christ,  while  some,  it  is  true,  were  contributed  from  other 
quarters,  those  of  central  and  material  importance  were  supplied 
by  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Old  Testament  is  also  of  importance,  for  us,  evidentially. 
When  all  deductions  which  exegetical  and  critical  honesty 
demands  have  been  made,  it  is  impossible  to  overlook  or  deny  the 
correspondence  subsisting  between  the  anticipations  and  ideals  ot 
Israel  and  their  fulfilment  in  Christ.  It  is  remarkable  how,  while 
most  nations  placed  their  visions  of  perfection  in  the  past  and 
looked  back  sorrowfully  to  a  golden  age  which  had  passed  forever 
away,  the  Jews  uniformly  look  forward  :  how  their  most  represen- 
tative men  expressed  expectations  which  nothing  in  their  own  age 
satisfied ; .  how   they    held    out,   and    adhered   to,    ideals   which 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


remained  unrealised;  how,  heedless  of  the  irony  of  history,  they 
still  projected  the  image  of  a  changed  social  state  ;  how  they 
proclaimed  the  advent  of  a  Prophet  and  of  a  King,  who  by  the 
supreme  graces  of  His  person,  and  the  superhuman  qualities  of 
His  rule,  should  transform  and  regenerate  human  nature  ;  how 
they  announced  confidently  the  future  abolition  of  restrictions 
which  the  principles  of  their  own  religion  appeared  to  treat  as 
permanently  valid.  The  prophets  shadow  forth  a  summuin 
honum,  transcending  experience  in  which  the  Gentiles  are  to  parti- 
cipate equally  with  the  chosen  people,  and  which  they  believe  is 
destined  assuredly  to  be  realised.  And  when  we  look  more  closely 
we  perceive  that  distinct  lines  of  prophecy  and  type  converge 
upon  Christ,  and  He  fulfils  them.  In  Him  the  ideals,  flung  forth 
with  magnificent  profusion  upon  the  pages  of  the  Old  Testament, 
are  gathered  up  and  realised.  Special  predictions  are  indeed 
sometimes  doubtful  exegetically,  sometimes  capable  of  being 
otherwise  explained;  but  there  is  one  truth  writ  too  large  in  the 
Bible  to  be  obliterated  or  debated,  that  the  Old  Testament 
exhibits  the  development,  by  successive  stages,  of  a  grand 
redemptive  purpose,  and  that  the  New  Testament  records  its 
completion.  In  the  Gospel  the  principles  inchoate  in  the  Old 
Testament  are  matured  ;  in  the  kingdom  which  Christ  has  founded 
the  aims  and  aspirations  of  the  great  teachers  of  Israel  are 
satisfied  and  fulfilled. 


"TALITHA    CUMI." 

A  Sermon  to  Children. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Paterson,  Belgrave  Presbyterian  Church,  London. 

"  Talitha  cumi." — St.  Mark  v.  41. 

JThese  words,  though  very  strange  words  to  us,  were  beautiful  words 
to^Mark.  As  pediaps  you  already  know,  there  were  three  languages  used 
in  the  country  where  Jesus  lived.  You  remember  how,  when  they 
crucified  Him,  they  put  above  His  head  His  accusation,  written  in 
Hebrew  and  in  Greek  and  in  Latin.  Hebrew  was  the  mother  tongue  of 
that  country ;  Greek  was  used  by  the  men  that  wrote  books  ;  and  Latin 
was  used  in  the  Roman  Law  Courts.  jNIark  is  telling  the  story  of  our 
Saviour's  life  in  the  Greek.  But  many  of  the  talks  of  Jesus  were. in 
Hebrew,  so  Mark  has  to  put  the  Hebrew  into  Greek  as  he  writes.  Usually 
that  was  an  easy  enough  task.  When,  however,  he  came  to  these  two 
words,  he  felt  that  they  lost  their  beauty  in  the  Greek.  For  the  sake  of 
his  Hebrew  readers,  he  put  down  the  very  words  Jesus  used,  and  then  he 
tried  to  tell  in  Greek  what  they  meant.  His  difficulty  was  this — 
"Talitha"  is  the  Hebrew  word  for  "a  little  lamb,"  and  the  Greeks  did 
not  speak  about  their  children  as  lambs.  But  we  have  not  the  same  diffi- 
culty. We  do  speak  of  children  as  lambs,  fo  we  can  give  the  exact 
meaning  of  the  words.  In  English,  they  mean  "Little  lamb,  arise,"  and 
in  Scotch,  "  Wee  lambie,  get  up."     Are  they  not  beautiful  words? 

But  they  are  also  loving  words.     I  think  I  know  where  Jesus  got  them. 


Talitha  Cwni."  13 


\ou  know  that  as  a  child  He  never  caused  His  mother  any  needless 
trouble.  I  am  sure  He  would  lie  still  in  His  little  bed  till  she  was  ready 
to  have  Him  arise.  And  when  at  last  she  was  ready  to  have  Him  arise 
she  would  come  up  to  His  little  bed,  with  all  her  heart  going  out  to  her 
child  in  fondest  love.  You  children  little  know  how  much  your  parents 
love  you.  I  think  it  would  be  the  happiest  part  of  His  mother's  day 
when  she  took  her  loved  child  by  the  hand  to  awake  Him  from  sleep,  and 
I  think  that  the  words  she  used  were,  "  Little  Iamb,  arise."  And  Jesus 
opened  His  eyes,  and  He  looked  up  into  the  eyes  of  love  that  were  looking 
at  Him  so  fondly.  He  was  quick  to  see  things.  With  these  words  to 
awake  Him  to  a  mother's  love,  the  very  words  became  words  linked  with 
kindliness.  He  did  not  want  to  frighten  that  little  girl.  Oh  how  ready  we 
are  to  think  of  God  as  fond  of  scolding  boys  and  girls.  Were  He  the  kind 
of  God  we  often  think  He  is,  He  would  have  said  :  '«  You  bad  girl,  you 
deserved  to  die  ;  but  for  your  father's  and  your  mother's  sake,  I'll  bring 
you  back  to  life."  Oh  how  different  our  thoughts  of  God's  ways  to  tha° 
"Little  lamb,  arise  !"  The  same  loving  words  that  His  mother  used  to 
awake  Him,  and  that  her  mother  used  to  awake  her,  were  used  by  Jesus, 
Who  IS  God  as  well  as  man,  Avhen  He  came  to  awake  this  girl  of  twelve. 
You  know  something  of  your  mother's  love.  Jesus  loves  you  far  more 
than  your  mother  loves  you.     He  is  far  kinder  than  she  can  be. 

But  they  were  words  of  po7oer2\%o.  A  mother  can  awake  you  from  sleep. 
Sometimes  when  you  are  sick  and  unconscious,  a  mother's  loving  voice 
will  reach  you  when  the  voice  of  one  who  loved  you  less  would  fail. 
But  the  sleep  of  death  is  too  deep  for  even  a  mother-love.  One  day  I 
stood  in  a  room  beside  a  coffin  in  which  lay  the  body  of  a  boy  of  seven- 
teen years.  The  friends  had  taken  their  last  look.  They  were  putting  on 
the  hd.  Suddenly  the  mother  dashed  it  aside,  flung  herself  over  her1)oy, 
and  cried,  "Robbie,  Robbie,  wuU  ye  no  speak  tae  me."  All  a  fond 
mother's  love  went  out  in  that  cry,  but  the  bar  of  the  cold  ear  moved  not. 
Even  a  mother's  love  failed  to  burst  the  gates  of  death.  Her  love  was 
not  divine  enough  to  bring  her  child  back  from  the  land  of  the  long  sleep. 
Herein  is  the  difference  between  a  fond  mother's  love  and  God's  love. 
His  love  is  so  strong  that  it  bursts  the  gates  of  death. 

As  with  the  body,  so  with  the  soul.  I  have  seen  a  boy  turning  into  the 
ways  of  sin,  which  are  the  ways  of  death.  A  stranger  called  him  back. 
The  call  was  unheeded.  A  loved  one  called.  Ah  !  then  it  was  different. 
You  listen  to  the  teacher  that  you  know  loves  you,  and  I  have  seen  a  boy 
dead  to  God.  A  fond  teacher  called.  A  fond  mother  called.  A  fond 
lather  called.  It  was  all  in  vain.  But  Jesus  called,  and  the  dead  soul 
awoke  to  life.  He  loves  you  with  a  love  so  divine  that  it  bursts  the  gates 
of  that  death  that  is  worse  than  the  death  of  the  body.  What  power  is 
in  a  loving  God's  "  Little  lamb,  arise  !  "  And  He  speaks  these  beautiful, 
loving,  powerful  words  to  you  to-day.  He  wants  you  to  arise.  You  ask 
how  high  ?  He  points  you  to  the  clouds  through  which  Jesus  has  ascended, 
and  he  says,  "  My  lambs,  follow  Me."  Whenever  I  am  tempted  to  think 
of  God  as  far  away  from  me,  or  cross  with  me,  or  wanting  to  do  me 
harm,  I  flee  to  that  story  of  these  two  strange  words,  and  it  brings  me 
near  to  my  Father  again.  Can  a  God  who  would  use  the  words,  "  Little 
lamb,  arise  "  (Wee  lanibie,  get  up),  be  unkind  ?  Not  if  He's  an  unchanging 
God.  But  is  He  unchanging  ?  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  for  ever. 


14  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


PULPIT  PRAYERS. 

By  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Tipple. 

Thou  who  givest  whatsoever  in  true  prayer  we  breathe,'  inspire  us  with  the 
spirit  of  aspiration,  giving  us  that  prayer  through  which  we  may  be  strength- 
ened to  come  to  Thee  in  truth  and  love.  Thou  hast  made  us  to  express 
Thee,  but  to  express  Thee  as  we  should  we  need  to  be  impressed  from 
Thee.  Let  us  receive  from  on  high,  that  we  may  be  clothed  with  due 
patience  and  courage  and  fidelity,  with  the  right  answer  to  the  circum- 
stances of  our  lot  and  to  the  claims  which  our  several  relationships  involve. 
Shed  Thou  abroad  in  our  hearts  that  grace  and  charity  that  may  go  forth 
from  us  to  some  kindly  use  for  some  helpful  ministry.  We  would  be  re- 
newed in  the  spirit  of  our  minds  by  communion  with  the  Highest ;  we  would 
put  off  the  old  man,  with  his  lust  and  weakness,  and  put  on  the  truer  man, 
after  the  pattern  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  All  around  us  now  steams  out 
a  hidden  life  over  the  land,  robing  gradually  bare  hedge  and  naked  tree 
with  welcome  verdure,  so  clothe  Thou  us  outwardly  from  within  with  the 
beauty  of  goodness,  with  the  garment  of  righteousness.  Touch  us  with  the 
ambition  that  tends  to  elevate  and  purify,  revive  in  us  the  faith  by  which 
brave  works  are  done,  reinforce  holy  principle  to  greater  influence,  and 
command  our  conduct.  Kindle  us  afresh  with  love,  the  presence  of  which 
in  the  heart  is  the  pledge  of  truth  and  beauty  in  life.  So  visit  us  in  Thy 
mercy  and  fulfil  our  petitions,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Thou  grace  of  God,  unfailing  and  sure,  wider  than  our  widest  wanderings, 
stronger  than  our  stubbornest  sin,  we  trust  in  Thee ;  and,  counting  on  Thy 
daily  ministry  to  us  and  thy  final  fulfilment  in  us,  we  again  commit  to  Thy 
secret,  invisible  energy  ourselves  and  the  world.  The  reality  art  Thou  of 
that  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  which  went  with  the  Hebrew  tribes 
through  the  wilderness,  and.  left  them  not  day  nor  night;  and  of  that 
wondrous  stricken  rock  from  which  the  living  water  burst  that  followed 
them  in  ceaseless  stream,  and  failed  not  to  the  end.  And  of  those  images 
of  a  Presence  unseen  conducting,  protecting,  guiding,  with  which  from 
age  to  age  men  have  strengthened  and  sustained  their  hearts;  dreaming  only 
dreams,  yet  dreaming  withal  because  One  was  really  with  them  Whom  they 
knew  not.  We  bless  Thee  for  the  sense  of  need  and  wickedness,  for  the 
feeling  of  mystery, "for  the  vision  of  the  more  that  we  would  be 
which  constrains  us  to  look  up,  and  brings  us  to  Thy  feet,  begetting  and 
preserving  within  us  the  tender  humility,  with  the  wistful  yearning  through 
which  Thou  findest  Thine  access  to  us. 

Thou  art  the  Blessed,  in  Whom  we  are  blessed.  Thou  openest  Thine 
hand,  and  we  are  filled  with  good.  Thou  liftest  upon  us  the  light  of  Thy 
countenance,  and  we  are  glad.  In  Thee  is  all  our  peace,  and  from  Thee 
also  the  tumult,  the  strife,  the  battle,  without  which  there  is  no  peace — it  is 
of  Thy  giving.  In  Thee  we  triumph,  and  from  Thee  it  is  that  we  are 
sore  vanquished  and  beaten.  Who  teachest  us  thus  until  we  learn  with  pain 
how  to  be  strong  and  confident. 

We  rejoice  in  the  faith  that  we  may  be  definitely  served  by  unhappiness, 
as  well  as  by  joy,  and  are  heavily  burdened.often,  and  afflicted  because 
Thou  art  moving  upon  us  and  working  in  us  toward  our  inheritance  of  the 
true  and  living  rest. 


Sermoneite  for  Childrm  on  ihc  Iniernational  Lc 


We  thank  Thee  for  those  difliculties  and  hindrances,  the  merciful  meaning 
of  which  we  can  perceive,  and  the  sweet  fruit  of  which  we  have  tasted.  We 
thank  Thee  for  those  evils  which  are  made  visible  and  become  intolerable 
to  us  through  our  inward  growth  and  ascending,  and  in  our  earnest  conflict 
with  which,  however  little  it  may  accomplish,  we  grow  and  ascend  the 
more.  We  thank  Thee  for  in  so  far  as  Thou  do3t  mar  and  stain  the  actual 
for  us  by  showing  us  in  dream  a  fairer  and  nobler  reality  not  yet  embodied. 
Help  us  to  believe  not  with  any  faith  but  with  the  faith  which  is  obtained 
by  overcoming  the  world,  and  which  being  obtained  enables  us  again  to 
overcome  it  more  mightily  with  the  faith  which  is  born  of  doing  good,  of 
trying  to  assist  in  promoting  the  bettering  of  things,  of  seeking  to  be  rather 
than  to  have,  with  the  faith  which  grows  quietly,  softly  upon  the  heart, 
mellowed,  chastened,  and  deepened  by  experience.  Help  us  to  enjoy  to 
the  full  each  other's  work,  separated  from  it  by  no  unconventional  dividing 
hedge,  by  no  barriers  of  class  or  party,  blinded  to  it  by  no  dust  of  con- 
troversy, by  no  consideration  of  the  attention  upon  obtruding  faults  and 
blemishes,  but  quick  to  recognise  and  appreciate  the  measure  of  grace 
which  is  given  to  every  man.  For  why  should  our  eyes  miss  aught  of 
beauty  that  blossoms  before  them  ? 

And  help  us  to  be  kind  one  to  another,  tender  hearted,  patient,  gracious, 
generous,  remembering  that  we  men  and  women  are  alive  upon  the  earth, 
that  there  are  no  other  creatures  around  us  to  whom  we  can  look  for  due 
understanding  and  sympathy,  remembering  that  all  we  are  in  the  same 
school  of  experience  and  often  perplexing  discipline,  that  for  all  there  ij 
some  burden  to  be  borne,  some  hard  fight  to  be  fought,' which  our  kindness 
or  lack  of  kindness  may  at  any  moment  serve  to  aggravate,  and  that  by  all 
at  times,  at  times  when  it  may  not  be  known,  the  touch  of  a  brotherly  hand, 
the  touch  of  some  human  sympathy,  is  indeed  for  comfort  and  salvation 
Teach  us  to  cherish  more  as  our  ideal  and  craving,  not  something  for  our- 
selves, whether  now  or  hereafter,  but  something  by  and  through  us,  some- 
thing to  flow  forth  from  us  in  aid  of  the  fulness  of  man  until  thus  we  enter 
a:  length  into  the  very  joy  of  our  Lord,  in  fellowship  with  Wnose  faith  we 
worship  Thee,  the  Father  of  all  now  and  ever.     Amen. 


vSERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  TPIE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  May  \Z\  LUKE  ix.  28— 36.     Goldoi  Text:  Verse  35. 

The  Transfiguration. 

We  have  in  our  lesson  to-day  Christ's  prayer  and  its  answer.  The  trans- 
figuration scene  was  an  answer  to  His  prayer.  This  does  not  mean  that 
our  Saviour  actually  prayed  for  the  glorious  shining  of  His  face  and  clothes, 
but  all  the  same,  this  was  God's  way  of  answering  His  prayer. 

This  scene  took  place  just  before  Jesus  quitted  Galilee,  and  set  out  on 
His  journey  which  had  the  awful  cross  as  its  end.  This  future  of  suffering 
and  death  was  much  in  our  Lead's  thoughts,  and,  in  consequence,  He  was 


These  Sermoncttcs  r.re  original  or  abridged. 


1 6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

very  much  in  prayer.  This  was  always  the  habit  of  Jesus  when  about  to 
face  difficult  circumstances,  temptation,  or  trial.  He  resorted  to  prayer 
for  the  needed  strength. 

Martin  Luther  used  to  say,  when  unusually  worried  or  anxious  :  ''  I  have 
so  much  to  do  that  I  find  I  cannot  get  on  .without  three  hours  a  day  of 
praying." 

Let  us  not  say,  '*  I  was  too  much  troubled,  too  busy  to  find  time  for 
prayer."     Remember  the  example  which  Jesus  shows  us. 

Though  this  glorious  transfiguration  scene  was  intended  partly  for  the 
sake  of  the  three  disciples,  it  was  chiefly  intended  for  Jesus  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  what  lay  before  Him  in  Jerusalem.  In  these  moments  of  loneli- 
ness on  the  cross,  when  He  cried,  "  My  God,  My  God,  why  hast  Thou 
forsaken  Me,"  would  not  the  memory  of  this  transfiguration,  and  the  voice 
from  the  cloud,  "  This  is  My  beloved  Son,"  come  back  upon  His  spirit 
with  consolation  and  strength.  The  hours  on  the  mount  were  to  prepare 
for  the  sore,  sad  work  on  the  plain. 

We  are  told  that  our  Lord's  countenance  was  altered,  and  his  raiment  was 
like  lightning.  "  As  some  hidden  light  breaks  through  all  veils,  the  pent- 
up  glory  of  the  great  '  God  with  us  '  seemed  to  stream  through  His  flesh, 
and  tinge  with  splendour  even  the  skirts  of  His  garment." 

To  lift  up  the  soul  to  God  in  prayer  always  calms  and  ennobles.  When 
Robert  Hall  felt  perturbed,  he  had  recourse  to  prayer,  and  used  to  say, 
"  Lamb  of  God,  calm  my  spirit."  There  is  also  a  spiritual  beauty  bestowed 
in  some  degree  on  all  God's  people  who  pray  much.  You  remember 
Moses,  after  being  forty  days  in  the  mount  with  God,  shone  with  the  same 
kind  of  light  as  the  disciples  saw  in  their  Master  on  the  Holy  Mount. 

Let  us  more  and  more  prize  the  privilege  of  prayer  as  our  Saviour  did. 
In  the  Yellow  Country  what  do  you  think  is  the  name  of  prayer  !  "  The 
gift  of  the  knees."  May  God  give  us  all  that  gift.  It  is  a  gift.  Ask  God 
for  it. 


Published  by  Hodder  &  Stgughton,  27,  Paternoster-row,  London,  and  printed  by  Unwin  Brothers, 
The  Gresham  Press,  71A,  Ludgate  HHl,  E.C. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  io6,  Vol.  III.]  MAY  i6,  1890  One  Penny. 


THE  GLOWING  MISSIONARY-HEART. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Richard  Glover. 

Preached  in  Great  Queen-street  Chapel^  on  behalf  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary 

Society. 
"  I  say  the  truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  conscience  also  bearing  me  witness 
in  the  Holy  Ghost  that   I  have  great  heaviness  and  continual  sorrow  in  my 
heart.     For  I  could  wish  that  myself  were  accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren, 
my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh." — Romans  ix.  i — 3. 

I  regret  that  it  falls  to  me  to  occupy  this  pulpit  to-day,  too  cold  of  heart 
either  to  plead  the  cause  of  missions  or  to  expound  the  text  which  pre- 
sumptuously I  have  taken.  But  I  pray  for  God's  help,  and  I  confide  in 
you  that  your  interpretative  sympathy  may  take  in  good  part,  and  enlarge 
and  apply  and  improve  every  suggestion  that  I  make.  You  will  not  be 
surprised  that  I  find  my  text  in  this  great  Epistle.  It  is  the  Magna  Charta 
of  Christian  missions.  Christian  missions  took  their  great  beginning,  you 
might  almost  say,  with  the  Apostle  Paul.  They  offended  at  once  the 
philosophy  and  the  prejudice  of  every  Jew — their  philosophy,  for  they 
thought  that  the  heathen  were  incapable  of  religion,  lacking  the  conscience, 
the  faculty  for  all  that  was  Divine,  content  with  the  creed  that  sanctioned 
every  corruption,  without  the  aspiration  that  could  appreciate  help  to  any- 
thing that  was  higher.  And  as  their  philosophy  indulged  no  hope  about 
the  heathen,  their  prejudice  provoked  them  to  resist  every  effort  to  evan- 
gelise them.  The  favours  of  God  were,  they  thought,  for  them.  It 
seemed  to  dispute  the  special  election  of  Israel  to  diffuse  God's  mercies  to 
those  outside ;  and  when  the  Apostle  preached  a  Gospel  unaccompanied 
by  the  preaching  of  a  law,  they  held  that  he  was  subverting  the  very 
'foundations  of  morality,  dispensing  with  the  very  discipline  which  alone 
could  fit  men  to  receive  the  Gospel,  that  he  was  disparaging  and  destroying 
the  law  J  that  without  authority  he  was  putting  it  on  one  side,  that  he  was 
placing  heathenism  at  an  advantage  and  investing  it  with  a  freedom  which 
the  Jew  did  not  enjoy.  Paul  has  to  defend  himself,  and  this  Epistle  is 
his  defence.  You  know  how  he  proceeds.  He  startles  them  by  saying, 
"  There  is  no  difference  between  men."  He  indicates  that  all  have  sinned 
and,  in  a  common  need,  he  places  his  foundation  for  a  common  hope. 
God  has  concluded  all  under  sin,  Jew  as  well  as  Gentile,  that  He  might 
have  mercy  upon  all.  He  says  that  all,  heathen  as  well  as  Jews,  are 
capable  of  faith,  that  salvation  is  of  faith,  that  it  may  be  by  grace,  to  the 

nd  that  it  may  be  sure  to  all  the  seed,  the  heathen   as  well  as  the  Jew. 

:  c  puts  Christ  before  men,  not  as  a  second  .Abraham,  head  of  Israel,  but 


1 8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

as  a  second  Adam,  head  of  man.     He  asks,  *'  Is  He  the  God  of  the  Jew 
only?     Is  He  not  the  God  of  the  heathen?"  and  answers,  "Yes,  He  is 
the  God  of  the  heathen  also."     He  shows  that  the  election  of  Israel  is  an 
election  for  the  diffusion  of  blessing,  and  not  for  the  special  enjoyment  of 
it ;  that  it  turns  to  reprobation  when  Israel  begins  to  obstruct ;  that  every 
soul  of  man  is  embraced  by  the  love  of  God,  by  the  shadow  of  the  Cross ; 
that  we  become  members  of  the  elect,  not  by  circumcision,  but  by  faith.    So 
the  argument  goes  on.   Read  "  Heathen  "  wherever  it  is  translated  "Gentile," 
and  you  will  see  that  every  line  leads  up  to  some  missionary  argument 
and  impulse.     I  take  my  text  from  the  beginning  of  a  rider  to  this  argu- 
ment.    He  would  show  that  his  zeal  for  the  heathen  is  not  due  to  any 
indifference  to  his  kindred.     He  loves  them,  has  sorrow  at  heart  for  them, 
could  wish  himself  accursed  from  Christ,  if  so  be  that  they  might  be 
saved.     Some  of  them  will  be  saved.     His  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to 
God  for  Israel  is  that  they  may  be  saved.     They  will  be  grafted  in  again, 
if  they  continue  not  in  unbelief.     There  is  an  Israel  within  Israel,  and  so 
all  the  true  Israel  will  be  saved.     Of  the  argument  of   that   rider,    so 
pathetic,  moving,  marvellous,  I  take  the  first  word,  and  take  it  as  our  text 
to-day  :  majestic  in  its  way,  the  nearest  approach  to  the  pity  that  was 
embodied  in  Calvary  that  any  mere  heart  of  man  has  ever  reached.     You 
cannot  explain  it  away.     Unmitigated  it  stands  there  in  its  naked  majesty 
and  rapture  of  woe  and  pity.     We  marvel  at  it.     When  hope  of  heaven 
was  brightest,  securest,  richest :  a  single  memory,  a  thought  of  others, 
turns  all  his  hope  to  melting  pity  and  woe.     The  connection  of  hope  with 
love  is  here  beautifully  illustrated.     We  cannot  deal  with  this  word,  so  full 
of  lustrous  light  in  all  directions.     The  philosopher,  for  instance,  might 
ask  the  question,  What  creates  such  love  ?     We  want  love  in  this  world. 
It  is  the  biggest  want.     How  to  get  it  is  the  despair  and  the  problem  of 
men.     This  might  give  some  hint — for  his  heart  was  once  a  heart  barren, 
cruel,  indifferent.     What  has  melted  that  heart  and  changed  it?     What  a 
testimony  to  the  Christ,  to  the  Gospel,  that  it  can  create  love  here,  and 
make  such  a  wilderness  blossom  as  the  rose  !     It  has  testimony  with  regard 
to  man,  to  his  state,  and  to  his  fate.     It  is  a  solemn  thing  to  think  that 
there  is  any  class  of  men  who  can  properly  awaken  such  pity  in  a  heart 
like  Paul's,  that  there  should  be  in  any  life  the  elements  of  sadness  and 
despair  that  makes  a  sorrow  like  this  legitimate.     It  is  more  marvellous 
slill  when  you  remark  that  St.  Paul  was  the  broadest-thoughted  Christian 
that  ever  lived,  and  yet  he  has  this  woe  and  pity.     We  know  not   the 
dimensions  of  his  dreams  and  conceptions  of  the  Gospel.    No  theologian, 
so  far  as  I  know,  has  ever  developed  or  reached  them ;  perhaps  not  been 
able  to  understand  them.     Nobody  but  St.  Paul  has  ever  taken  the  empire 
of  death  and  sin,  and  seen  in  them  something  like  the  measure  of  the 
empire  of  Jesus  Christ :  "As  sin  hath  reigned  unto  death,  even  so  might 
grace  reign  through  righteousness  unto  eternal  life  by  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord."     What  heart  has  had  the  dream  in  it  of  conquest  for  the  Gospel 
like  to  that  ?     He  is  one  who  looks  at  the  Christ  as  the  Maker,  as  the 
Sustainer,  and  the  ultimate  Home  and  Rest  of  all  things — "  Of  Him,  and 
through  Him,  and  to  Him  are  all  things."     "  He  must  reign  until  all 
enemies  are  under  His  feet."     All  things  are  to  be  reconciled  by  Him.     I 
expect  none  here  has  ever  heard  a  sermon  on  "  As  in  Adam  all  died,  even 
so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive."     I  have  never  dared  to  preach  on 
that  word,  nOr  think  I  understood  it.     I  only  want  to  indicate  that  this 


The  Glowing  Missionary-Heart.  ig 


man  is  the  broadest-hearted  man  that  ever  adored  our  Lord  and  Saviour  • 
and  yet  he  sees  in  the  state  and  fate  of  men  around  him  that  which  melts' 
his  heart  with  woe  and  moves  him  to  pity.  Oh,  be  broad,  be  hopeful,  be 
full  of  charity  !  But  charity  does  not  make-believe.  It  heals  the  wounds  ; 
it  does  not  gloss  them  over.  Testimony  to  Christ,  testimony  about  men 
flow  forth  in  all  directions ;  on  human  nature,  its  changes,  the  powers  that 
will  produce  these  changes ;  this  word  is  full  of  radiance  upon  these  all. 
I  therefore  cannot  attempt  to  deal  with  the  mass  of  its  testimony,  but  I 
venture  to  ask  you  to  come  nigh  to  this  burning  bush,  this  Christ-like 
Gethsemane;  and  I  want  to  occupy  your  thoughts  with  this  one  con- 
sideration, that  love  and  pity,  such  as  are  expressed  here,  are  the  mark  of 
the  Christian  man,  are  what  is  produced  by  grace  in  all  its  activities,  are 
what  we  should  aim  at.  This  word  is  the  expression  of  the  missionary 
heart  in  its  finest  glow ;  it  is  the  expression  of  feelings  that  should 
have  a  home  in  all  our  hearts.  I  therefore  ask  you  to  take  two  or. three 
superficial  lines  of  thought  and  consider  : — 

1.  That  love  and  pity  like  this  are  the  mark  of  discipleship. 

2.  That  they  are  the  secret  of  prophetic  light. 

3.  That  they  are  the  power  of  all  usefulness. 
May  God  help  me  to  enforce  these  three  lessons  : — 

I.  I  begin  first  of  all  with  indicating  that  love  and  pity  of  this  sort  are 
the  mark  of  discipleship.  We  want  a  new  die  for  discipleship,  for  the 
image  that  is  upon  us  is  imperfect,  and  the  superscription  is  illegible.  We 
give  and  take  the  name  of  Christian  lightly.  It  suggests  to  our  minds 
chiefly  something  negative :  freedom  from  coarser  faults,  from  vuJgar 
ambitions,  from  undue  worldliness,  enough  of  faith  to  save  one's  own  soul, 
enough  of  religion  to  reach  propriety  and  faultiessness.  And  where  you 
get  these  things  with  some  little  kindliness  of  heart  and  feeling,  you  take 
it  that  you  have  Christianity  as  the  Saviour  meant  it.  Albeit,  God  is  love, 
and  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  and  we  have  the  example,  impulse, 
and  requirement  of  a  great  consecration  ;  yet  we  sit  and  think  that  mere 
proprieties  of  life,  conventional  respectability,  a  higher  prudence,  virtues 
which  are  sometimes  only,  as  Coventry  Patmore  puts  it,  "  Vices  tied,  like 
Samson's  foxes,  by  the  tails,"  constitute  the  "Christian  life." 

Now,  I  would  like  you  to  mark,  brethren,  that  there  is  not  a  true  grace 
of  a  Christian  man,  nor  a  true  activity  of  the  disciple  of  Christ,  which  does 
not  lead  to  pity  and  love  like  this.  Repentance  leads  to  it,  for  repentance 
laments  selfishness  as  the  essence  of  its  evil,  and  dreads  relapsing  into  a 
religion  which  would  be  merely  a  selfishness  refined ;  and  repentance  re- 
members its  lost  estate,  the  fearful  pit  and  miry  clay,  and  pities  those  that 
are  still  struggling  in  it ;  so  repentance  cherishes  love  and  moves  to  pity. 
Faith  kindles  these  virtues.  You  cannot  take  refuge  in  the  heart  of  Christ, 
and  build  your  hope  upon  redeeming  love,  and  rejoice  in  His  saving  pity 
that  stooped  to  Calvary,  without  catching  some  of  the  qualities  on  which 
you  rest.  Your  heart  softens  with  the  warmth  of  that  heart  on  which  it 
rests,  and  is  kindled  by  the  pity  in  which  it  takes  refuge. 

As  our  faith  leads  to  these  qualities,  decision  moves  to  them.  Except 
we  deny  ourselves  we  cannot  be  disciples.  Self-renunciation,  which  is 
the  beginning  of  discipleship,  leaves  the  heart  free  to  cherish  love.  The 
comforts  of  religion  move  to  them.  Forgiveness,  and  peace,  and  hope, 
and  gratitude  swell  the  heart  with  the  question,  "  What  shall  I  render  ?" 
and  move  it  to  share  its  mercies  with  those  that  still  lack  them. 


20  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

All  adoration  of  God  kindles  them.  In  the  degree  in  which  we  see 
Him  as  He  is,  see  Him  in  the  face  of  Christ,  see  Him  as  He  weeps  over 
Jerusalem  or  groans  on  Calvary,  in  the  degree  in  which  we  see  the  pitiful 
woe  that  sometimes  fills  God's  heart :  in  that  degree  we  are  changed.  All 
hope  changes  the  heart  and  fills  it  with  this  spirit,  as  we  see  from  the  con- 
text of  my  text.  Hope  of  earthly  providence  and  hope  of  immortal 
heaven,  both  move  men  to  Pity,  and  to  Love.  Every  step  you  take  in 
following  Christ  kindles  pity,  for  when  He  leads  it  is  not  always  unto  green 
pastures  and  rapturous  heights  :  it  is  to  the  haunts  of  misery,  to  the  widows 
of  Nain,  to  homes  of  grief.  He  would  use  us,  borrows  our  hand  to  wipe 
away  a  tear,  our  voice  to  still  a  grief.  Exactly  in  that  degree  in  which  He 
employs  us,  and  we  follow  Him  step  by  step,  exactly  in  that  degree  do  we 
catch  the  spirit  in  which  He  lived,  and  the  compassion  which  is  the  ever- 
lasting motive  and  the  perpetual  habit  of  our  God.  So  that  I  want  you  to 
observe  that  there  is  not  a  single  Christian  instinct,  activity,  relationship, 
employment,  or  grace  which  does  not  work  out  in  love  and  pity. 

Now  that  is  a  very  solemn  thing,  because  you  see  it  flows  at  once  from 
this,  that  our  love  and  our  pity  measure  our  discipleship.  How  much  of 
this  sort  of  woe  have  you  or  I  ?  We  have  that  much  Christianity  and  no 
more.  Now  I  think  that  is  solemn.  I  do  not  suggest  that  the  Church  is 
void  of  these  great  affections  to-day.  I  remember  that  we  are  molehills 
and  Paul  is  an  Alpine  height.  But  still  are  not  these  things  conspicuous 
by  their  absence  ?  Would  any  outsider  say  that  a  Christian  was  a  man 
melting  with  love  and  kindled  with  pity  }  Would  that  be  the  first  descrip- 
tion of  a  Christian  man  that  would  be  suggested  to  other  people's  minds  ? 
Have  we  not  almost  ceased  to  aspire  to  this  ? 

We  almost  cherish  lukewarmness,  calling  it  wisdom,  the  golden  mean 
between  fanaticism  on  the  one  hand  and  worldliness  on  the  other.  Brethren, 
we  worship  a  God  of  pity.  He  who  has  seen  the  Christ  of  Gethsemane 
and  of  Calvary  hath  seen  the  Father  ;  and  we  are  His  children  and  His 
disciples  only  in  the  degree  in  which  pity  and  love  like  His  move  and  melt 
our  hearts.  Let  us  repent,  brethren,  of  turning  our  back  upon  the  out- 
lying world ;  that  we  have  not  aimed  at  being  even  our  brother's  keeper, 
when  God  meant  us  to  be  our  brother's  brother  ;  which  is  a  bigger  thing. 
Let  us  own  our  guilt,  our  sin  against  His  lost  children,  and  the  wandering 
souls  He  died  for ;  and  let  us  pray  God  for  that  essential  goodness  which 
shall  be  an  effective  compassion  for  the  salvation  of  men.     ("  Amen  !  ") 

2.  Now  turn  over  leaf  to  a  second  consideration.  This  love  and  this 
pity  are  the  secret  of  all  prophetic  light.  Paul  was  the  great  theologian 
of  Christianity,  so  much  so  that  some  have  treated  him  as  if  he  were  the 
maker  of  it  and  gave  it  its  essence  as  well  as  form.  (A  laugh.)  We  know 
too  well  to  accept  that.  But  it  is  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  somehow 
his  luminous  soul  dropped  crystalline  utterances  which  phrased  for  all  ages 
the  fitness  of  the  Gospel  for  the  human  heart,  and  expressed  the  contrast 
between  it  and  the  poorer  religions  of  men. 

Every  age  wants  its  own  theology.  One  of  the  supreme  needs  of  the 
Church  to-day  is  the  theologian.  For  you  will  observe  that  every  great 
spiritual  movement  amongst  men  has  rested  upon  a  theology ;  and  we 
must  not  begin  to  build  without  a  foundation.  It  was  so  with  Paul's  great 
work.  Part  of  his  great  work,  of  course,  was  due  to  his  personality  ;  but 
his  message  was  the  supreme  thing ;  that  the  one  God  was  Father  of  all ; 
that  one  Christ  was  Saviour  of  all ;  that  by  faith,  possible  to  all,  every  soul 


The  Glowing  Missionary-Heart.  21 


of  man  might  live.  That  message  was  a  dawn  of  heavenly  light  upon  the 
world,  and  changed  men's  darkness  to  light.  The  Reformation  rested 
upon  a  theology  that  swept  away  priestly  obstructions  that  had  clustered 
about  men's  way  to  God,  and  proclaimed  Him  so  near  and  so  full  of  love 
that  the  guiltiest  might  go  to  Him  direct,  and  that  simple  faith,  the  entrust- 
ment  of  the  soul  to  Him,  was  the  sole  condition  of  salvation.  That  creed 
roused  Europe,  and  sent  men  by  millions,  like  prodigals,  to  the  Father. 

The  great  Reformation,  the  great  Evangelical  revival,  of  the  last  century 
under  Wesley,  rested  upon  theology.  You  know  how  the  conceptions  of 
Christianity  had  degenerated  in  diverse  directions ;  in  this  direction  to 
Socinianism,  which  held  that  man's  efforts  were  sufficient  to  save  him  ;  or 
to  hyper- Calvinism,  which  on  the  other  hand,  held  that  man's  efforts  were 
utterly  superfluous,  needless,  and  in  spite  of  them  he  might  perish  ;  two 
creeds,  one  of  which  tells  of  a  Saviour  for  no  man,  and  the  other  of  a 
Saviour  for  but  a  few.  Wesley  came  and  preached  a  living  Christ,  God's 
universal  love — repentance  necessary,  faith  necessary  but  always  saving. 
And  thus  he  opened  the  way  to  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Christ. 

We  want  a  theology  to-day.  Each  age  has  to  frame  its  own  theology, 
discover  it  for  itself,  express  it  for  itself,  apply  it  for  itself.  We 
want— may  I  say— a  new  theology.  No  new  creed,  but  the  old 
creed  that  we  have  had  from  the  beginning;  and  yet  a  new  creed 
—new  in  its  answers  to  new  questions,  in  its  light  on  new  duties, 
in  its  guidance  to  new  opportunities  and  hopes.  Each  age  has  its  own 
questions.  When  the  dispute  was  whether  authority  lay  in  the  Bible  or  in 
tiie  Pope,  our  fathers  settled  that.  But  now  we  begin  to  ask.  What  is  the 
Bible  ?  Its  inspiration,  what  is  it  ?  How  does  the  voice  of  the  Spirit 
blend  to  the  voice  of  the  Bride  in  it?  What  human,  what  Divine?  We 
ask  other  questions  about  God.  Was  the  governmental  view  of  God  into 
which  Popery  had  degenerated,  and  which  our  reformers  too  bodily  took 
over,  the  whole  of  God  ?  Is  He  Father  ?  What  are  His  sorrows.  His 
joys  ?  What  is  there  in  the  Cross  of  Christ  besides  atonement  ?  There 
is  much,  of  course.  What  are  the  points  of  contact  and  contrast  between 
our  and  other  creeds  ?  Those  are  the  questions  that  are  being  asked  all 
around  us.  Now,  it  is  of  no  use  frowning  on  them.  You  cannot  stop 
them  by  frowning  on  them,  (Hear,  hear.)  I  do  not  think  you  ought  to 
stop  them,  if  you  could.  "  The  torch  of  truth,  the  more  it's  shook,  it 
shines."  What  we  have  to  do  is  not  to  rebuke  them,  but  to  reply  to  them. 
(Hear,  hear.)  But,  alas  !  where  is  the  prophet  and  the  theologian  ?  Our 
.  churches  seem  to  divide  themselves  into  two  classes :  those  who  superficially 
repeat  and  those  who  superficially  repudiate  the  findings  of  their  fathers. 
(Laughter.)  Brethren,  I  do  not  mean  anything  satirical,  but  there  is  an 
aching  void  for  voices  that  will  not  be  mere  repetitions  of  the  traditions  of 
the  past,  for  living  men  who  have  lived  themselves  into  the  truth,  or  loved 
themselves  into  the  truth,  turning  their  backs  on  no  difficulty,  sympathetic 
with  every  inquiry,  commanding  the  confidence  of  those  they  speak  to, 
lifting  their  voice  with  strength,  and  able  to  convey  conviction  and  disperse 
doubt.  We  wait  for  the  theologian — am  I  right  ?  I  judge  you  by  our- 
selves. Many  preachers  :  how  many  prophets  ?  That  is  the  world's  want 
to-day.     We  wait  for  them. 

I  want  to  point  out  that  in  love  and  pity,  such  as  is  here  expressed, 
you  have  not  merely  the  work  of  the  disciple,  but  you  have  the  secret  of 
prophetic  light :  that  Paul's  light  was  due,  not  to  his  genius,  not  to  his 


22  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

erudition,  not  even  so  much  specially  to  heavenly  effulgence  that  visited 
him,  as  to  the  fact  that  he  had  a  heart  of  love  and  pity  that  could  enter  and 
absorb  the  light  of  God.  Is  it  not  obvious  that  it  was  so  ?  We  know  God 
by  what  is  kindred  to  Him,  and  by  what  resembles  Him.  It  was  Paul's 
love  of  man  that  could  read  God's  love  of  man,  that  gazed  on  God  till 
"  the  shadow  "  grew  into  a  "  Face  "  and  the  "  Face  "  of  God'was  seen  glow- 
ing with  infinite  Love.  He  would  have  been  in  the  darkness  till  now  if 
his  love  had  not  permitted  him  to  see  God's  love.  The  light  is  ever 
shining.  It  is  the  eye,  the  eye  of  the  heart,  that  is  wanted ;  and  that  he 
had.  He  looked  on  man,  not  with  the  cynical  eye  that  sees  only  what 
moves  men  to  despair  of,  or  to  despise  them  ;  but  he  looked  with  a  loving 
heart,  and  could  see  the  world  in  God's  light ;  something  that  made  man 
a  pearl  of  great  price  in  his  Saviour's  eyes.  He  could  see  Divine  movings 
in  them ;  high  capacity ;  possibilities  of  change ;  unrest.  All  these 
Divine  elements  on  which  grace  could  move,  and  which  grace  could  lead 
to  light.  He  looked  in  the  face  of  Christ,  and  his  yearning  permitted  him 
to  behold  Christ's  yearning,  so  that  his  love  and  his  pity  enlarged  his 
heart,  and  opened  it  to  light.  He  walked  in  the  hght  of  the  Lord,  and 
truths  too  grand  for  poorer  eyes  lay  naked  and  open  to  his. 

One  of  the  greatest  theologians  of  the  century,  Neander,  took  for  his 
motto,  "It  is  the  heart  that  makes  the  theologian."  And  one  of  the 
greatest  historians,  Niebuhr,  uttered  some  similar  words  :  "  I  have  said 
again  and  again,  I  will  have  no  metaphysical  deity,  but  the  God  of  the 
Bible,  who  is  heart  to  heart." 

Brethren,  the  light  is  shining.  God's  Spirit  leads  still  into  all  truth. 
We  have  heard  with  our  ears,  and  our  fathers  have  told  us  the  wonders 
that  He  did  in  their  days,  and  in  the  times  of  old ;  but  to-day,  as  well  as 
yesterday,  is  the  day  of  salvation ;  now,  not  merely  then,  is  the  accepted 
time ;  and  we  grope  in  darkness  in  the  very  noonday  of  light,  because  our 
hearts,  are  pitiless  and  our  love  is  small. 

We  wait  for  the  theologian,  who  with  large  and  loving  heart  will  gaze 
on  the  face  of  man  and  interpret  the  face  of  God  ;  and  when  he  comes 
wasting  naught  of  the  precious  heritage  of  the  ages,  but  bringing  into 
bright  effulgence  some  special  gleam  of  truth  for  the  age  in  which  we  live, 
the  ever  new,  the  never  old  truth  of  God  will  commend  itself  afresh  to  the 
hearts  of  men.  Brethren  in  the  ministry,  pray  for  the  heart  of  love.  It 
is  not  culture,  nor  scholarship,  nor  science,  nor  history,  nor  the  power  to 
fit  text  to  text,  and  make  a  mosaic  of  the  creed ;  it  is  not  that  quality 
that  will  let  you  enter  the  hearts  of  men,  and  master  them  with  the  sweet 
authority  with  which  the  Saviour  spoke.  We  want  love  and  pity.  God 
grant  us  a  baptism  of  these  ! — ("  Amen  ") — and  the  prophets  that  we  wait 
for  will  appear  in  our  midst. 

3.  Now,  one  word  more.  This  love  and  this  pity  are,  lastly,  the  power 
of  usefulness.  I  do  not  say  that  every  Christian,  but  every  man  worthy 
of  the  name,  is  "  Proud  to  be  useful,  scorning  to  be  more."  Usefulness  is 
the  glory  of  God.  All  our  life  is  fading  into  retrospect!  Its  retrospect 
will  be  a  horror,  if  it  be  not  one  of  usefulness.  The  Church  is  alert  to-day, 
to  some  extent.  Men  are  aiming  at  usefulness  of  all  sorts  :  the  better 
housing  of  the  poor,  the  speeding  of  the  temperance  cause,  and  of  educa- 
tion. Enterprises  that  aim  at  informing,  refining,  and  amusing  men  are 
afoot  in  all  directions.  Sometimes  they  are  presumptuous,  and  bid  the 
Church  stand  on  one  side  and  let  them  do  her  work  a  little  better  than  she 


The  Glowing  Missionary-Heart. 


manages  it.  Sometimes  they  are  modest,  and  wish  only  to  aid.  They  are 
always  apt  to  be  disappointing,  and  to  find  obstacles  where  they  expected 
acquiescence ;  and  to  discover  more  difficulties  than  they  anticipated  in  the 
way  of  realising  the  millennial  bliss  on  earth. 

We  have  no  rebuke  to  give  to  any  who  seek  to  bless  or  brighten  their 
fellow- men.  God  bless  them  and  speed  them  !  But  I  want  you  to  mark 
where  lies  the  secret  of  usefulness.  It  is  not  in  what  men  would  call  the 
practicability  of  their  schemes,  the  mere  externality  of  their  endeavours. 
It  is  not  in  their  using  charms  to  allure  and  induce  men  to  follow  them. 
It  is  not  in  any  compromise  that  usefulness  will  be  found.  Usefulness 
attends  on  love  and  pity,  and  follows  naught  else  in  this  world  ;  and  we 
have  our  usefulness  in  the  degree  in  which  we  have  these.  You  see,  how 
they  wrought  with  Paul ;  what  colossal  usefulness  he  reached ;  what  multi- 
tudes were  saved  through  his  message ;  what  a  wide  expanse  he  evangel- 
ised ;  how  firmly  he  planted  the  root  of  truth  ;  and  how  his  usefulness 
grew  from  age  to  age  until  it  never  was  so  great  as  it  is  to-day.  Love  did 
it,  pity  did  it ;  for  love  awakens  no  opposition  or  reduces  it  to  a  minimum; 
no  reserve,  resentment,  suspicion.  Then  love  charms  the  trust  of  men. 
Love  is  wise.  Love  aims  at  the  root  of  evil,  at  the  soul,  the  vital  part, 
knows  that  it  is  easier  to  mend  the  whole  than  it  is  to  mend  a  part.  It 
begins  at  the  central  heart  of  man,  and  linking  it  to  God  it  sets  it  to  mend 
itself  of  every  evil 

Love  has  patience,  can  bear  with  resentment,  with  delays,  with  failures  ; 
persists  till  the  desire  of  the  heart  is  given  to  it.  Above  all,  love  can 
pray,  which  is  not  easy,  for  every  petition  is  an  altar.  You  pray  for 
guidance  and  give  up  your  self-control,  if  your  prayer  is  honest ;  for 
blessing  on  others  and  thereby  promise  to  share  your  blessing,  if  the 
prayer  is  honest.  Few  people  can  pray.  But  love  can  pray,  and  its  peti- 
tions wing  their  flight  to  heavenly  levels  and  lodge  themselves  in  the  heart 
of  God.  One  jot  or  tittle  of  such  prayers  will  not  pass  until  all  are 
fulfilled.  So  love  has  the  kingly  mien  of  abiding  usefulness.  The  mark 
of  discipleship,  the  secret  of  light,  it  has  the  power  of  benediction.  Let 
us  seek  it,  not  looking  to  right  and  left,  nor  misled  by  any  promising 
easier  path  to  the  usefulness  we  desire  to  reach. 

I  have  tried  your  patience.  I  beg  you  to  apply  these  things  to 
yourselves.  Love  and  pity  have  been  the  secret  of  all  great  usefulness 
from  Christ  downwards.  Especially  I  want  you  to  mark,  this  morning,  that 
they  have  been  the  secret  of  all  missionary  usefulness.  From  St.  Paul  to 
St.  Patrick,  from  Boniface  to  Monte  Corvino,  from  Dr.  Coke  and  Dr. 
Carey  to  the  great  missionaries  of  to-day,  it  is  love  and  pity  that  have  been 
the  investment  of  all  power.  That  love  and  pity  have  rested  largely  on  the 
churches  of  this  denomination  in  the  past.  The  missionary  marvels  which 
have  been  wrought  by  Methodists  in  the  three  generations  that  are  gone, 
in  the  West  Indies,  in  America,  in  Africa,  the  Islands  of  the  Southern  Sea, 
in  India  and  in  China  make  one  of  the  most  marvellous  pages  in  that 
missionary  history. 

But  your  love  and  pity,  brethren,  seem  to  be  decaying  and  withering 
away — I  say  "  seem"  for  I  am  an  outsider.  Are  they?  Your  courteous 
secretary  has  given  me  some  figures  in  connection  with  your  growth  and 
missionary  contributions  during  the  last  twenty  years.  As  a  denomination 
you  have  slightly  grown  in  that  period.  You  have  exactly  kept  pace  with 
the  growth  of  our  population,  but  nothing   more.     Our  population  has 


24  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

increased  largely  in  wealth.  The  income-tax  returns  have  gone  up  48  per 
cent,  in  that  period ;  I  suppose  the  wealth  in  a  still  larger  degree  ;  and  I 
suppose  that  of  that  wealth  all  Nonconformist  denominations  have  rather 
more  than  less  than  the  usual  share  ;  for  it  has  come  chiefly  to  the 
distributors  and  wage-earning  class,  which  more  than  other  classes  are  with 
us.  Fifty  per  cent,  at  least  your  wealth  has  increased  in  that  period,  and 
your  missionary  giving  has  increased  one  and  a  third  per  cent.  1  If  I  took 
a  shorter  period  it  would  look  much  worse.  This  year  you  have  the  lowest 
income  that  you  have  had  for  eighteen  years.  The  state  of  things  is  this. 
Out  of  the  sum  from  which  twenty  years  ago  a  Methodist  gave  a  shilling, 
he  now  gives  eightpence  to  Christian  Missions.  There  may  be  explanations 
that  will  mitigate  the  awfulness  of  that  fact ;  what  they  are  I  know  not. 
But  is  there  not  a  call  in  such  a  state  of  things  ?  It  is  serious  to  decline  in 
wealth,  more  serious  in  numbers,  more  serious  to  decline  in  truth;  but  to 
decline  in  compassion  and  in  love,  oh,  brethren,  that  is  to  lose  the  living 
Christ  out  of  the  heart.  Is  it  to  go  on  ?  Is  Ichabod  to  be  written  on  our 
walls  ? 

The  days  in  which  we  live  are  great.  Never  were  there  such  open 
doors.  Never  were  we  so  near  the  heathen.  Never  were  they  in  such 
peril  from  the  enterprises  of  unhallowed  trade  as  to-day.  The  time  is 
short.  If  the  Church  of  Christ  in  this  land  rose  up  in  the  strength  of  her 
mercy,  this  generation  need  not  pass  till  the  world  is  brought  to  the  feet 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Brethren,  let  us  repent,  all  of  us,  of  our  neglect 
of  our  brethren;  repent  of  our  failure  to  feel  the  pity  that  is  here  expressed. 
Who  is  to  regard  the  spiritual  woes  of  men  if  we  are  not ;  who  to  look  at 
their  burden  of  guilt  if  we  are  not ;  who  to  lead  them  to  the  peace  of  God ; 
who  to  appreciate  their  thirst  after  the  living  God,  and  to  point  them  to 
Christ  ?  Who  is  to  comfort  Rachel  weeping  for  her  children,  by  pointmg 
to  Christ's  empty  grave,  and  to  the  father  heart  of  God,  and  to  the  homes 
of  many  mansions,  if  we  do  not?  Oh,  let  us  repent,  and  asking  the  for- 
giveness of  our  Father  for  neglecting  His  children,  and  of  our  Saviour  for 
neglecting  those  He  died  to  save  ;  let  us  lay  our  hearts  upon  His  altar ; 
and  when,  getting  nearer  to  Him,  we  catch  His  love  and  pity,  we  will  go 
forth  and  find  that  the  Gospel  in  our  lips  is  the  omnipotence  of  God  unto 
salvation,  and  multitudes  that  now  are  perishing  will  rise  to  the  nobility 
and  bhss  of  the  great  salvation. 

MY  LAMP. 

A  Sermon  to  Children. 

By   the   Rev.   Robert   Brewin,  United  Methodist  Free  Church   Mittister, 

Loughborough. 

"  Thy  Word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a  light  unto  my  path." — Psalm 
cxix.  105. 

The  Word  of  God  is  compared  by  those  who  received  and  delivered 
it  to  men  to  many  beautiful  and  impressive  objects,  such  as  lie  everywhere 
around  us.  Moses  compared  it  to  the  dew  and  to  the  rain.  He  says  : 
"  My  doctrines  shall  drop  as  the  rain  ;  my  speech  shall  distil  as  the  dew, 
as  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb,  and  as  the  showers  upon 
the  grass  "  (Deut.  xxxii.  2).  The  dew  and  rain  are  refreshing  and 
cooling  to  the  hot  and  dry  ground,  and  life-giving  to  all  things.  Many 
evil  books  are  like  those  prairie  fires  that  sweep  across  the  plains  doing 


My  Lamp.  ^^ 


untold  destruction,  and  leaving  blackness  and  misery  everywhere  behind 
them.  The  Word  of  God  is  like  the  dew  and  rain  that  once  more  restores 
such  a  wilderness  into  a  fruitful  garden,  and  makes  "the  desert  rejoice  and 
blossom  as  the  rose."  It  is  compared,  among  other  things,  to  the  purest 
silver  (Psalm  xii.  6),  to  an  important  message,  to  a  smelting  furnace,  to 
wheat  among  which  there  is  no  chaff,  and  to  a  hammer  such  as  that  with 
which  men  who  work  in  stone-quarries  break  the  rocks  in  pieces 
(Jer.  xxxii.  28,  29).  It  is  compared  to  bread,  which  is  our  principal  food 
(Matt.  iv.  4),  to  a  sharp  sword  with  two  edges,  that  cuts  its  way  deep  into 
the  soul  (Hebrew  iv.  12),  and  to  a  clear  purifying  stream  that,  passing 
through  the  heart,  leaves  it  white  and  clean  (John  xv.  3).  In  this 
wonderful  Psalm  there  are  several  other  striking  comparisons  which  may 
help  us  to  understand  how  precious  the  Word  of  God  is.  Sometimes 
persons  who  have  to  go  about  among  fevers  or  other  infectious  diseases, 
carry  sprinkled  upon  their  clothes  or  hidden  about  them,  something  which 
will  protect  them  from  taking  these  disorders.  God's  Word  hidden  in  the 
heart  is  thus  said  to  keep  us  from  the  infection  of  sin  (ver.  11).  It  is  like  a 
magnificent  temple  or  palace,  into  which  if  a  blind  man  were  taken  he  could 
indeed  see  nothing,  but  where,  if  his  eyes  could  be  opened,  he  would  be 
enchanted  with  its  wonders  and  glories  (ver.  18 ).  It  is  compared  .to  a  sweet 
song  full  of  music  and  gladness  (ver.  54),  to  treasures  "  better  than  thou- 
sands of  gold  and  silver  (ver.72),"  to  the  beautiful  fixed  stars  in  the  sky 
(ver.  89),  to  something  sweeter  than  honey  to  the  taste  (ver.  103),  to  the 
rising  of  the  sun  which  chases  all  darkness  away  (ver.  130),  to  a  draught  of 
cool  thirst-quenching  water  on  a  hot  day  (ver.  131),  and  to  hidden  treasures 
such  as  were  sometimes  unexpectedly  found  in  the  field,  turned  up  by  the 
ploughshare  in  the  course  of  daily  toil  (ver.  162.) 

In  the  text  the  Word  of  God  is  compared  to  a  lamp  or  lantern  such  as 
that  which  is  carried  on  dark  nights  in  country  places  in  all  lands  where 
fixed  lights  are  not  found.  •'  Thy  Word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet,  and  a  light 
unto  my  path."  Let  us  now  see  how  the  Word  of  God  may  be  compared 
to  such  a  lamp. 

First,  hke  a  lighted  lantern  on  a  dark  lonely  journey,  it  is  a  pleasant 
companion,  A  lamp  cannot,  indeed,  talk  to  us,  or  even  listen  to  our 
voices,  but  its  cheerful  light  close  by  us,  belonging  to  us,  and  going  on 
continually  with  us,  takes  away  our  feeling  of  loneliness,  and  we  feel  that 
the  common  saying  is  quite  true  that  "  a  light  is  pleasant  company." 
This  is  much  more  true  of  the  Word  of  God.  Life  has  not  only  its  sunny 
days,  but  its  long  dark  nights  in  which  we  must  go  on  just  the  same  in 
the  way  that  is  set  before  us.  But  even  in  the  dark  nights  of  temptation, 
pain,  disappointment,  sickness,  or  bereavement,  we  need  not  travel  alone, 
for  this  lamp  may  be  ever  at  our  sides,  cheeiing  us  with  its  radiance.  The 
sun  is  altogether  too  brilliant  and  great  a  light  to  be  thought  of  as  a  com- 
panion ;  the  moon  and  the  stars,  on  those  nights  on  which  they  are  to  be 
seen,  are  so  far  away  and  so  cold-looking  that  we  may  feel  very  lonely, 
notwithstanding  their  shining ;  but  the  lamp  we  carry  in  our  hand  is  so 
near  to  us,  and  sheds  such  a  warm,  glowing  light  all  about  us  that  makes 
us  feel  that  we  are  not  quite  alone.  Just  before  Dr.  Moffat  left  South 
Africa  to  return  to  England,  a  poor  woman,  who  had  walked  fifteen  miles 
through  the  bush,  came  to  the  mission  station  at  Kuruman.  wishing  to  buy 
a  New  Testament.  Mr.  Moffat,  in  relating  the  story  at  a  missionary 
meeting,  said  :  "I  said  to  her,  *  My  good  woman,  there  is  not  a  copy  to  be 


26  The  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 


had.'  'What,'  she  said,  'am  I  to  return  empty'?  '  I  fear  you  will,'  I 
replied.  'Oh,'  she  said,  *I  borrowed  a  copy  once,  but  the  owner  has 
come  and  taken  it  away,  and  now  I  sit  with  my  family  sorrowful  because 
we  have  no  book  to  talk  to  us.  We  are  far  from  anyone  else  ;  we  are 
living  at  a  cattle  outpost,  and  we  have  no  one  to  teach  us  but  the  Book. 
Oh,'  she  continued,  '  go  and  seek  a  book.  Oh,  father  !  oh,  mother  ! 
oh,  my  elder  brother  !  do  go  and  seek  a  book  for  me.  Surely  there  is 
one  to  be  found  ;  don't  let  me  go  away  empty.'  "  Mr.  Moffat  says  :  "  I 
felt  for  her,  and  I  began  to  feel  my  eyes  a  little  watery,  and  I  said  :  '  Wait 
a  little,  and  I  will  see  what  I  can  do.'  I  sought  here  and  there,  and  at  last 
I  found  a  copy.  Oh  !  that  you  could  have  seen  how  her  eyes  brightened, 
and  how  she  elapsed  my  hands  and  kissed  them  over  and  over  again. 
'  Oh  !  I  knew  you  had  a  heart,'  she  said,  '  I  knew  you  had  a  heart ' ! 
and  away  she  went  with  her  book  rejoicing."  That  poor  African  woman 
on  a  lonely  cattle  station  was  filled  to  over  flowing  with  joy  that  now  she 
possessed,  not  a  borrowed  lamp,  but  a  precious  light  that  was  all  her  own. 
There  is  no  real  loneliness  in  the  presence  of  the  light  of  the  Divine  Word. 

Then,  again,  the  Word  of  God,  like  a  lighted  lantern,  is  a  protection 
against  danger.  Persons  who  travel  lonely  and  narrow  lanes  on  those 
nights  when  it  is  quite  dark,  sometimes  meet  passing  vehicles,  and  if  they 
have  no  light  with  them,  are  in  danger  of  being  run  over,  but  a  light  shows 
where  they  are,  and  ensures  their  safety.  A  blind  man  who  was  sit- 
ting in  the  street,  begging,  with  a  lamp  beside  him,  was  once  asked,  "  Why 
do  you  have  this  lamp  with  you,  seeing  that  you  are  blind  ?  "  He  replied, 
"  To  keep  people  from  falling  over  me."  His  light  was  his  safety.  It  is 
thus  with  the  Word  of  God.  The  shining  light  of  the  truth  we  love  will 
often  preserve  us  from  the  more  accidental  spiritual  dangers  and  tempta- 
tions of  life.  It  will  save  us  also  in  deliberately  planned  attacks  of  our 
spiritual  enemies  upon  us.  A  light  burning  in  a  room  has  saved  many  a 
house  from  the  attacks  of  burglars.  A  thief  would  not  choose  to  try  to 
rob  a  man  who  carried  a  lighted  lamp  in  his  hand,  or  to  break  open  the 
lock  of  a  house  with  the  master's  lantern  shining  full  upon  him. 

When  Christ  was  passing  through  His  dark  night  of  Satan's  temptation 
in  the  wilderness,  He  thrice  flashed  the  brilliant  light  of  the  Divine  Word 
in  the  enemy's  face,  and  the  Saviour's  "  It  is  written,"  "  It  is  written,"  "  It 
is  written,"  drove  him  vanquished  from  the  field.  In  this  way,  we,  too, 
may  find  in  the  Word  of  God  our  protection  and  safety. 

But  the  third  and  principal  value  of  a  lamp  is  that  it  shows  us  the  way, 
and  it  is  in  this  respect  especially  that  the  truth  of  God  is  most  precious 
to  us. 

One  dark  night  not  long  ago  I  was  returning  home  from  the  country, 
when  my  way  led  me  first  through  the  unlighted  village  streets,  then  by  a 
little  gate  into  a  narrow  path  that  ran  through  twenty-four  fields,  connected 
with  each  other  by  little  gates  or  stiles,  and  then  along  a  narrow  lane  with 
high,  bushy  hedgerows  on  either  hand,  to  the  town  itself.  My  lantern 
showed  me  first,  the  entrance  to  the  path,  then  the  path  itself,  with  its 
park-Uke  fields,  its  thick,  bordering  woods,  where,  as  I  advanced,  the  great 
trees,  one  by  one  flashed  up  into  the  light,  and  the  quaint  stiles,  and  little 
swinging  gates,  overhung  with  autumn-tinted  foliage  revealed  themselves 
one  by  one  to  my  view,  till  the  last  stile  brought  me  into  the  sheltered  lane, 
and  then  the  path  ended  at  the  lighted  streets  of  the  town.  It  is  in  this 
pleasant  way  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  show  us,   first,  the  entrance  to  the 


My  Lamp.  27 


path  of  life,  then  the  path  itself,  and,  at  length,  the  end  of  the  way,  where 
the  lamp  is  no  longer  needed,  and  we  are  at  home. 
It  shows  us  the  entrance  to  the  way. 

When  the  war  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  in  which  France  and  England 
took  so  large  a  share,  was  raging  in  the  Crimea  in  the  year  1854,  a  man, 
employed  by  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  to  distribute  the  Scrip- 
tures, was  at  the  port  of  Toulon,  in  France,  supplying  the  soldiers  who 
were  going  out  to  the  war  with  portions  of  the  Word  of  God.  One  young 
man  to  whom  he  offered  a  New  Testament  acccepted  it,  and  then,  as  he 
thrust  it  into  his  pocket,  said,  with  a  laugh,  "  It  will  do  to  light  my  pipe 
with,"  Years  passed  away,  and  the  Bible-man,  or  colporteur,  was  engaged 
in  selling  the  Scriptures  in  a  distant  French  village ;  "  Come  in  !  come  in  !  " 
said  an  old  woman,  at  whose  door  he  had  knocked  and  told  his  errand. 
*'  We  have  already  a  New  Testament,  but  I  wish  for  a  Bible."  And  then 
she  told  how  the  New  Testament  had  belonged  to  her  son,  who  had  been  a 
soldier,  how  that  he  had  come  home  wounded  from  the  war,  and  had  been 
a  long  time  ill,  and  had  at  length  died.  "  Oh,  sir  !  "  said  the  woman,  "  this 
little  book  was  the  means  of  his  salvation  ;  he  read  nothing  else :  and  oh, 
sir !  he  was  so  happy."  She  then  handed  the  book  to  the  colporteur  to 
look  at :  a  few  of  the  leaves  had  been  torn  out  at  the  beginning  of  the 
precious  little  volume,  but  on  the  inside  of  the  cover  the  young  man  had 
written  with  his  own  hand  these  words  :  "  Received  at  Toulon  (adding  the 
date).     Despised,  neglected,  read,  believed,  and  found  salvation." 

By  this  wonderful  lamp  alone  the  scoffing  soldier  found  the  entrance  to 
the  way  that  at  length  had  led  him  to  heaven. 

Then  again,  it  shows  us  the  way  itself,  as  we  travel  on  step  by  step 
through  the  lonely  darkness.  If  an  enemy  has  placed  a  rough  stone  in  our 
way  to  make  us  stumble,  the  lamp  shows  us  the  obstruction,  and  we  can 
both  avoid  it  and  remove  it.  If  the  way  is  very  narrow,  and  a  deep  ditch 
is  on  either  side  of  it,  the  lamp  will  show  us  all  this  and  help  us  to  keep  the 
path.  If  the  sprmg  flowers  and  the  yellowing  autumn  leaves  border  the 
way  that  is  set  before  us,  our  friendly  companion  will  light  up  their  beauty 
for  us,  and  thus  speed  us  on  our  way.  And  if,  at  some  meeting  of  the 
ways,  we  might  in  the  darkness  have  turned  in  the  wrong  direction,  this 
lamp  will  show  us  the  true  path,  whispering  kindly  to  us  :  "  This  is  the 
way,  walk  ye  in  it ;  when  ye  turn  to  the  right  hand  or  when  ye  turn  to  the 
left  "  (Isaiah  xxx.  21). 

Then,  lastly,  the  Word  of  God  will  show  us  the  end  of  the  way.  Once, 
many  years  ago,  on  a  very  dark  night  in  winter,  when  I  was  driving  home 
from  the  country,  and  the  horse  had  more  than  once  wandered,  I  called  at 
a  house-door  to  inquire  the  way.  The  stranger  not  only  directed  me,  but 
pressed  upon  me  a  lighted  lantern.  "It  is  very  dark,"  he  said,  "  and  I 
have  twice  been  in  the  ditch  to-night  myself,  for  want  of  a  light."  I 
accepted  his  kindness,  but,  alas  !  long  before  I  reached  home  the  light 
went  out  and  left  me  again  in  the  gloom.  But  the  Word  of  God  is  a  lamp 
that  will  light  us  all  the  way  to  heaven,  where  we  shall  need  it  no  more. 
Sometimes  in  the  American  backwoods  a  lighted  torch  of  pitch-pine  is 
carried  by  wayfarers  instead  of  a  lantern.  One  night  a  gentleman  who  had 
been  holding  service  among  some  working  people  at  some  distance  from 
his  home,  was  about  to  return  by  a  narrow  path  through  the  woods,  when 
his  host  offered  him  a  torch  of  pitch-pine  to  light  him  through  the  dark- 
ness.    He  objected,  saying,  "  It  is  too  small ;  it  does  not  weigh  more  than 


28  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

half  a  pound."  "  It  will  light  you  home,"  answered  his  host.  He  still 
objected  "  Perhaps  the  wind  will  blow  it  out."  "  It  will  light  you  home," 
answered  the  other.  "  But  if  it  should  rain?"  the  stranger  still  objected, 
"  It  will  light  you  home,"  once  more  replied  the  host.  And  so  it  did, 
making  the  traveller  glad  with  its  presence  till  he  came  to  his  own  door, 
where  its  work  was  ended. 
Even  so — 

"  This  lamp  through  all  the  night 
Of  life  shall  guide  our  way. 
Till  we  behold  the  clear  light 
Of  an  eternal  day." 

A    PULPIT    PRAYER. 

By  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Dale,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  wilt  Thou  reveal  to  us  by  the  power  of 
Thy  Spirit  the  mystery  and  the  blessedness  of  this  hour  ?  Is  it  true  that 
we,  children  of  the  dust,  may  speak  to  Thee,  the  Eternal  ?  The  wonder 
and  the  glory  of  it  transcend  our  thought,  too  often  transcend  our  faith. 
How  great  Thou  art  we  knov/  not.  To  what  greatness  Thou  hast  destined 
us  we  know  not.  We  decline  and  turn  aside  from  the  heights  to  which 
Thou  dost  call  us.  Our  hearts  falter ;  have  pity  upon  us  we  entreat  Thee. 
Thou  knowest  all  the  limitations  of  our  present  life  and  of  our  present 
powers.  Come  near  to  us,  and  make  us  all  sure  of  that  about  which  per- 
haps some  of  us  doubt.  We  give  thanks  to  Thee,  O  God,  for  voices  that 
descend  to  us  from  vanished  saints,  and  voices  of  men  of  like  passions  as 
ourselves,  whose  burdens  were  as  heavy  as  ours,  and  about  whom  the  thick 
darkness  often  gathered ;  who  were  weary  and  faint  often  as  we  are,  but 
who  tell  us  that  they  found  God  and  that  God  found  them.  Thy  compas- 
sions fail  not,  Thy  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  Still  Thou  dost  kindle  the 
glorious  sun,  and  still  the  stars,  night  after  night,  listen  to  Thy  voice. 
And  art  Thou  not  as  near  to  us  in  these  last  days  as  Thou  wast  in  days 
long  gone  by  when  saintly  souls  triumphed  in  the  knowledge  of  their 
restoration  to  God  ?  And  we  give  Thee  thanks  for  the  voices  of  living 
men  and  living  women  who  have  seen  Thy  face,  who  in  the  great  hours  of 
life  have  discovered  that  they  were  children  of  the  Eternal.  We  give  Thee 
thanks  for  sacred  memories  which  some  of  us  rejoice  to  cherish.  When 
the  heavens  divide,  when  the  glory  in  which  Thou  dwellest  breaks  through, 
how  great  a  thing  it  was  to  discover  that  we  all  were  unforgotten  by  Him 
in  whose  hand  our  breath  is,  and  whose  are  all  our  ways.  We  feel,  too, 
that  we  have  discovered  that  during  years  when  faith  was  greatly  agitated, 
and  when  our  vision  of  things  eternal  and  divine  was  very  dim,  when  we 
doubted  whether  or  not  we  were  dear  to  the  heart  of  God,  Thou  hadst  not 
forsaken  us,  and  in  wonderful  ways  Thou  didst  lead  some  of  us  into  paths 
which  brought  great  and  blessed  surprise.  We  found,  when  we  had  no 
hope  of  finding  Thee,  blessings  far  surpassing  all  our  hopes  came  from 
Thy  gracious  hand,  even  unsought.  And  we  give  Thee  thanks,  too,  not 
merely  when  the  heavens  are  glowing  with  Thine  eternal  splendour,  when 
we  hear  for  ourselves  Thy  voice,  but  on  common  days,  when  we  are 
environed  by  common  temptation.  We  have  learned  Thy  life  has  sus- 
tained us  in  conflict  with  temptation  and  in  the  discharge  of  duties  which 
were  beyond  the  measure  of  our  own  force,  and  so  not  merely  when  we 


A   Pulpit  Prayer.  29 


are  lifted  up  to  the  heights  and  abiding  with  God  are  we  near  to  Thee 
Thou  dost  descend  from  Thy  heights  and  Thou  dost  abide  with  us,  caring 
for  us  in  wonderful  and  mysterious  ways.  We  bless  Thee  ^nd  praise 
Thee,  O  God,  with  hearts  full  of  exultation  and  unmeasured  hope  for  the 
grace  which  Thou  hast  revealed  to  us,  for  our  discovery  of  the  reality 
of  the  redemption  Thou  hast  achieved  for  us  in  Christ,  and  we  bless  Thee 
and  praise  Thee  too  for  the  grace  which  we  know  dwells  in  Thy  heart  for 
Thy  lost  children  who  have  not  found  Thee  yet,  for  all  the  pity  and  all  the 
yearning  love  Thou  hast  for  them,  and  for  what  Thou  hast  done  for  them 
though  they  know  it  not. 

We  entreat  Thee,  O  God,  to  grant  while  we  are  here  in  Thy  house,  those 
of  us  for  whom  it  is  the  glory  of  life  to  know  Thee,  and  who  seek 
Him  Thou  hast  sent,  may  come  to  a  deeper  and  fuller  knowledge  of 
Thee,  and  that  brothers  and  sisters  of  ours,  to  whom  this  great  gladness 
has  not  yet  come,  may  see  at  last  the  dawn  of  an  unhoped  for  glory,  and 
may  they  give  true  and  grateful  answer  to  whatever  word  of  Thine  shall 
find  its  way  to  their  hearts.  Hear  us,  we  pray  Thee,  on  behalf  of  any 
among  us  who  have  not  endeavoured  to  live  the  better  life,  have  come  to 
despair  of  it.  We  know  that  Thou  dost  not  despair  of  them.  May  they 
measure  Thy  strength  and  not  their  own  against  all  the  perils  and  against 
all  the  d'fficulties  from  which  they  have  turned  aside,  and  grant,  O  God,  that, 
however  faint  and  however  discouraged  any  of  us  may  be,  we  may  turn 
aside  from  our  own  human  weakness  and  rejoice  Thou  hast  chosen  us  in 
Christ  to  share  Thine  own  eternal  and  victorious  life,  and  that  all  things 
are  possible  to  those  who  dwell  in  Christ  and  in  whom  Christ  dwells. 
Suffer  us  not,  we  pray  Thee,  to  thwart  and  defeat  Thy  merciful  thoughts 
and  purposes  in  relation  to  us.  Suffer  us  not  to  be  despondent  of  the 
heavenly  vision,  and  to  count  ourselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life.  We  beseech 
Thee  to  let  Thy  grace  rest  upon  all  Christian  people  in  this  great  city— 
throughout  this  land.  We  desire  to  give  Thee  thanks  again  and  again  for 
the  great  marvels  Thou  hast  wrought  in  this  nation.  We  give  Thee  thanks 
for  the  courage,  for  the  strength,  for  the  boundless  faith  in  God  which 
Thou  hast  given  to  those  who  have  led  the  life  of  the  people  of  this 
country  in  days  gone  by.  For  the  great  inheritance  which  has  descended 
to  their  children,  the  memory  of  all  Thou  didst  achieve  for  their  fathers, 
we  bless  Thee  and  give  Thee  praise.  Now  grant  that  in  this  generation 
they  may  accomplish  for  the  generations  that  are  to  come  as  much  as  has 
ever  been  accomplished  in  days  gone  by  by  those  in  whom  Thou  hast 
revealed  the  exceeding  greatness  of  Thy  power.  We  entreat  Thee,  O 
God,  to  let  Thy  benediction  rest  upon  the  University,  and  as  that  has 
been  a  fountain  of  light  and  life  from  age  to  age  in  this  land,  let  the  springs 
flow  as  freely  as  ever.  Grant,  O  God,  that  those  who  are  preparing  for 
the  manifold  forms  of  service  there  may  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
all  provinces  of  truth,  the  lower  and  the  diviner  alike,  that  they  may 
accomplish  great  things  for  their  time,  and  that  in  all  forms  of  active 
service  they  may  prove  worthy  children  of  the  fathers  who  have  gone  before 
them.  Now,  O  God,  according  to  Thy  knowledge  of  us,  and  according 
to  Thy  great  love  for  us,  let  Thy  blessing  rest  upon  us  all.  Absolve  us, 
we  entreat  Thee;  from  all  our  sins,  through  Him  who  is  the  propitiation  for 
the  sin  of  the  world.  Give  us  courage  to  accept  Thy  peace.  May  .ve 
receive  the  power  of  that  eternal  life  which  Thou  hast  given  us  in  Hi. n. 
Hear  us  through  Chr'st.     Amen. 


30  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

MY    BROTHER'S    KEEPER. 

Outline  of  a  Sermoti 

By  the  Rev.  H.  V.  Taylor. 

"  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  " — Gen.  iv.  9. 

Why  put  the  question  in  this  form  ?  Too  late,  Cain  realised  he  was 
natural  guardian  of  the  house  which  he  had  robbed  of  its  guest.  Abel  was 
a  trust.  Cain's  insolent  question  acknowledged,  while  it  sought  to  repu- 
diate the  bond.  Three  things  involved  in  this  acknowledgment— (i)  a 
relationship  j  (2)  a  result;  and  (3)  a  responsibility. 

I.  French  Communists'  invented  term  for  pecuHar  oneness  of  mankind 
— Solidarity,  a  being  all  in  one  boat,  "  members  one  of  another,"  so  that 
individual  misery  affects  the  whole.  Solidarity,  a  golden  chain  uniting 
men.  Some  of  its  links : — {a)  Human  limitations  :  (i)  Movement 
restricted.  World  looks  very  large  until  we  peer  into  space.  Telescope 
shows  us  we  are  prisoners  on  a  speck  in  universe.  (2)  Vision  continually 
baffled,  even  when  aided  by  science.  Nature  tenacious  of  her  secrets. 
Most  powerful  telescope  fail  to  tell  if  our  next-door  neighbour  in  planetary 
system  is  inhabited.  (3)  Language  fetters  communion.  Noblest  language 
for  communicating  thought  said,  by  Grimm,  to  be  English.  Yet  how  much 
of  our  deepest  experiences  we  must  leave  untold!  There  are  "thoughts 
too  deep  for  tears  "  (Wordsworth),  "  Thoughts  that  break  through  language 
and  escape  "  (Browning).  He  must  be  a  shallow  or  material  thinker  who 
has  expressed  all  he  ever  thought,  {b)  Conditions  of  life  beyond  our  con- 
trol. Impossible  to  decide  into  what  climate,  nationality,  or  family  we 
shall  be  born.  Yet  how  great  differences  produced  thereby.  Tyranny  of 
environment  felt  by  all,  savage  or  civilised,  {c)  Dependence  on  history. 
World,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  largely  what  the  past  has  made  it. 
Each  new  recruit  called  to  fall  into  his  place ;  to  utilise  forces  of  the  past, 
serve  institutions  already  founded,  and  obey  laws  with  making  of  which  he 
had  nothing  to  do.  {d)  Life  of  Christ.  Unites  all  by  being  the  representa- 
tive hfe.  Jesus  lived  through  all  phases  and  experiences  of  life.  As  the 
Carpenter,  He  began  at  the  bottom  of  the  social  ladder,  touched  lowest  of 
the  low.  We  enter  no  new  experience  without  discovering  that  He  has 
been  there  before. 

II.  Solidarity  of  whole  involves  inter-dependence  of  members. — Nature 
deals  with  mankind  as  one,  and  defies  the  individual  to  live  self-centred. 
Let  him  play  the  hermit,  and  seek  the  desert.  Next  wind  may  bring  dis- 
ease from  habitations  of  his  fellows.  One  sick  may  affect  whole  community. 
Unsanitary  state  of  city  on  banks  of  Ganges  has  brought  plague  to  decimate 
Europe.  Northern  and  Southern  States  go  to  war,  cotton  industry  of 
Lancashire  is  paralysed.  Story  of  Christian  heroism  raises  spiritual 
circulation  of  mankind. 

III.  Inter-dependence  brings  mutual  responsibility. — Men  are  one  family, 
each  the  keeper  of  the  other.  This  ideal  harmony  only  to  be  realised  by 
obedience  to  law  of  true  brotherhood — self-sacrifice.  Fellowship  compels 
self-sacrifice.  Through  self-sacrifice  we  enter  into  a  life  large  as  humanity  ; 
we  share  in  Chri.st's  life  and  victory  (Westcott,  "  Victory  of  the  Cross,"  ii.). 
Sphere  of  this  responsibility  threefold  :  (i)  Political.  Generally  acknow- 
ledged here :  the  basis  of  all  constitutional  government.  A  case  of 
♦yranny   in    India   causes   indignation   through   all   Britain.     (2)    Social. 


Empty  Nets  and  Sinking  Boats.  31 

Theoretically  acknowledged.  Social  customs  the  outgrowth  of  convenience 
of  whole  community.  Strongest  argument  for  temperance  here.  (3) 
Religious.  Theoretically  acknowledged.  Can  we  say  practically  while 
those  called  Christians  refuse  to  labour  for  others'  spiritual  welfare  ?  A 
thirsty  man  calls  for  water.  You  give  it.  You  believe  in  water  ;  you  do 
not  believe  that  you  believe  in  it.  If  you  believe  in  the  Water  of  Life,  will 
you  not  give  it  to  others  ?  Here,  as  in  society,  thou  art  thy  brother's 
keeper. 


EMPTY  NETS  AND  SINKING  BOATS. 

Sermon  Outline. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Vinson  Stephens. 

Luke  v.  i — 11. 

The  miraculous  draught  of  fishes  was  not  a  kind  of  benefit  perfomiance  to  Peter 
for  the  ready  loan  of  his  boat.  Its  final  end  was  to  make  fishers  of  the  mute 
creatures  of  the  sea  successful  fishers  of  men.  And  what  is  essential  to  make 
successful  fishers  of  men  is  herein  indelibly  impressed  upon  the  minds  of  Peter, 
James,  and  John  at  the  very  outset  of  their  Apostleship,  namely,  empty  nets  in 
Christ's  absence  :  sinking  boats  in  His  presence.  There  is  as  much  of  the 
Divine  in  the  drought  as  in  the  draught  of  fishes.  The  empty  nets  were  full  of 
Divine  purpose.  And  that  purpose  was  to  teach  that  even  skilled  fishermen, 
with  the  best  means,  in  the  most  favourable  place,  and  at  the  most  opportune 
season,  without  Christ  can  do  nothing.  We  may  have  learned,  eloquent,  expe- 
rienced preachers,  well  organised  institutions,  splendid  spheres  of  labour,  and 
be  most  strenuous  in  our  efforts,  still,  if  it  is  all  human  skill  and  art,  we  shall 
have  nothing  to  show  at  the  end  save  empty  nets.  But  to  teach  them  their 
helplessness  was  insufficient.  They  must  be  taught  also  that,  acting  under 
Christ's  instructions,  the  empty  nets  can  be  filled  even  to  breaking.  And  that 
was  the  evidential  value  of  the  draught  of  fishes.  To  make  this  truth  beauti- 
fully impressive,  at  His  command,  the  same  boats  are  launched  again,  the  same 
men  engaged,  the  samejnets  used,  and  the  same  sea  dragged  ;  but  this  time,  in- 
stead of  empty  nets,  they  had  sinking  boats.  The  old  means  only  wanted  His 
blessing.  When  Peter  brings  his  empty  nets  to  the  shore,  Mrs.  Peter  should 
not  be  sent  to  cast  them  again,  for  she  can  never  manage  them  more  skilfully, 
and  besides  she  is  wanted  to  nurse  her  afflicted  mother,  who  lies  at  home  sick 
of  a  great  fever.  What  should  be  done  is  to  send  him  back  again  in  the 
company  of  Jesus.  Novelty  must  be  banished  from  the  pulpit.  The  Master's 
blessing  upon  the  old  means  and  method  we  alone  require.  The  net  at  Jesus' 
word  was  let  down  to  catch  the  fishers,  and  they  were  caught.  For  "  they  for- 
S9ok  all  and  followed  Him."  What  for  ?  To  establish  a  kingdom  which  is  to 
overturn  the  religions  of  the  world.  Will  they  do  it  ?  No,  a  thousand  times 
no,  if  they  rely  upon  their  power,  say  the  empty  nets.  But  will  they  do  it  any- 
how ?  Yes,  a  thousand  times  yes,  says  the  great  multitude  of  fishes  ;  Yes,  says 
the  filled  and  breaking  net  ;  Yes,  say  the  sinking  boats  ;  Yes,  say  the  three 
thousand  souls  saved  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  and  the  five  thousand  saved  few 
days  later  send  back  the  echo.  Millions  of  Christians  from'all  parts  of  the  wide 
world  say.  Yes.  The  drought  and  the  draught  of  fishes  have  prepared  them  for 
their  mighty  task.  One  has  completely  removed  every  human  prop  upon  which 
they  might  be  tempted  to  rest,  the  other  has  revealed  the  Divine  columns 
ordained  to  uphold  them  in  the  dark  nights  of  disappointment.  The  empty 
nets  have  shown  them  their  miserable  poverty  and  utter  incompetence  to 
achieve  the  mighty  work,  but  the  full  nets  made  manifest  the  unsearchable 
riches  and  the  infinite  resources  which  were  at  their  disposal  at  their  Lord  and 
Master's  word. 


32  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  May  25  :  LuKE  x.  i — 16.  Golden  Text:  Luke  x.  ii. 
Harvest  Labourers. 
Jesus  has  a  great  many  labourers,  but  in  our  lesson  to-day  we  are  told  that 
He  wants  more.  He  says,  "  The  labourers  zxefew :  pray  ye  therefore  the 
Lord  of  the  harvest  that  He  would  send  forth  labourers  into  His  harvest." 
Yes,  though  He  has  many  servants,  old  and  young,  black  and  white,  yet 
the  harvest  is  so  great  that  they  are  all  too  few  for  the  task  of  ingathering. 
Thousands  more  must  give  themselves  to  the  great  work.  It  is  not  merely 
more  7nissionaries  that  Jesus  wants  and  that  the  world  needs  :  it  is  "  every 
Christian  a  missionary."  Every  Christian  who  leaves  our  shores  for  any  other 
part  of  the  world  is  required  and  expected  by  Jesus  to  be  His  nnssionary.  If 
we  are  Christ's  and  keep  close  to  Him  we  shall  see  the  world  with  Christ's, 
eyes,  and  then  we  shall  have  a  deep  and  true  sympathy  for  missionary 
work.  If  you  wish  to  make  a  clock  go  quicker  you  do  not  move  on  the  hands 
with  your  finger.  That  would  be  vain  and  foolish,  and  likely  to  spoil  the 
works.  No  ;  something  in  the  inside  has  to  be  done — the  tension  of  the 
sprmg  must  be  increased.  So  if  we  wish  to  quicken  our  sympathies  for 
missionary  work  we  must  get  the  heart  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Christ. 

I.  The  urgent  need.  Perhaps  you  have  seen  a  missionary  map  all 
marked  off"  into  squares,  each  square  representing  one  million  souls.  The 
Christians  are  in  white  squares — a  little  tiny  piece  of  white  at  the  top,  and 
then  the  map  darkens  down  into  the  blackness  of  heathenism.  This 
diagram  shows  how  great  the  harvest  still  is,  and  one's  heart  sinks  at  the 
sight  of  that  blackness.  Do  you  think  that  that  was  what  Jesus  Christ 
meant  should  be  the  world's  condition  nineteen  hundred  years  after  His 
death  ?  Think  of  the  need  of  the  Jews.  They  are  to  be  found  in  every 
land,  and  many  of  them  are  very  clever,  and  some  of  them  are  the  richest 
men  in  the  world.  But  they  do  not  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus.  Without 
Christ  they  are  ready  to  perish.  Think  of  dark  Africa  and  China's  mil- 
lions, and  we  shall  say  :  "The  harvest  truly  is  great."  II.  Help  wanted. 
How  can  we  help.  We  can  pray.  The  late  Dr.  A.  Somerville  used  to 
say,  "  I  recommend  the  use  of  a  prayer-book  which  I  have  found  of  much 
service.  It  can  be  had  from  Messrs.  Keith  Johnston — I  mean  a  pocket- 
altas,  which  should  be  spread  out  like  Hezekiah's  letter  before  the  Lord, 
and  be  gone  over  carefully  from  day  to  day,  and  from  year  to  year,  so  that 
every  kingdom  and  island  should  be  remembered  in  prayer."  In  this  way 
we  can  help  the  ingathering  of  the  harvest  by  prayer.  A  missionary  says 
that,  not  seldom  during  hours  of  exhaustion  and  illness,  far  away  in 
heathen  solitudes,  he  could  only  pray,  "  Lord,  hear  my  praying  friends  in 
England  ;"  and  the  thought  of  these  prayers  brought  strength  and  comfort. 
How  much,  then,  can  we  do  by  prayer  ?  We  can  help  on  the  great 
Harvest  Home  by  giving  of  our  money,  but  best  of  all  by  giving  ourselves. 
He  gives  by  far  the  largest  contribution  who  gives  himself  or  herself.  Gold 
and  silver  are  nothing  in  comparison.  What  have  we  to  do  for  Him  Who 
so  loved  us  that  He  sent  His  Son  to  save  us?  "  Freely  ye  have  received, 
freely  give." 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


JDDER  &  Stoughton,  27,  Patcmoster-row,  London,  and  printed  by  Unwin  Bfothkr^ 
the  Gresham  Press.  71A,  Liidgate  Hill,  K.C. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  107,  Vol.  III.]  MAY  23,  1890  One  Penny. 


"THE  WILL  OF  YOUR  FATHER." 

A  Seniwii  by 

The  Rev.  J.  G.  Greenhough,  M.A. 

Preached  in  Sfockwcll  Baptist  Chirch  on  Sunday  evening,  April  27,  1890. 

Even  so,  it  is  not  the  will  of  your  Fatlier  which  is  in  heaven  that  one  of 
these  little  ones  should  perish." — St.  Matthew  xviii.  14. 

It  comes  at  the  close  of  the  parable  of  the  lost  sheep.  This  parable  is 
given  to  us  in  two  connections.  It  is  given  by  St.  Luke  as  our  Lord's 
answer  to  the  Pharisees  when  they  murmured  because  He  received  sinners 
and  ate  with  them.  And  it  is  given  here  by  St.  Matthew  in  the  train  of 
thought  which  was  suggested  to  the  Saviour  by  the  sight  of  a  little  child. 
And  it  was  spoken  in  defence  of  children. 

Now  there  seems  at  first  sight  little  or  nothing  in  common  between  an 
innocent,  guileless  child  and  a  man  so  notorious  for  his  evil  ways  that  he 
is  called  by  common  consent  a  sinner.  And  yet  in  one  respect  they  stand 
upon  the  same  ground,  at  least,  they  did  in  the  days  of  our  Lord.  They 
were  alike  despised,  slighted,  pushed  aside  as  things  of  naught.  You 
cannot  have  read  the  Gospel  stories  without  learning  this  much  at  least  that 
children  in  those  days  were  held  in  very  small  consideration.  Children  of  the 
poor  especially  were  regarded  as  vexatious,  useless  encumbrances.  I  think 
we  hear  that  word  occasionally  now.  We  see  advertisements  offering  situations 
to  people  "  without  encumbrance,"  I  think  that  is  the  phrase.  But  it  was 
ver>-  much  more  so  in  the  days  of  the  Son  of  Man.  In  those  days  there 
was  none  of  that  kindly  consideration  for  children,  no  anxiety  to  deliver 
them  from  sufferhig,  to  fill  their  young  lives  with  joy,  which  forms  one  of 
the  most  pleasant  features  of  our  own  times.     They  were  things  of  naught. 

And  in  the  same  way  men  who  had  once  lapsed  into  the  class  catied 
sinriers  had  no  chance  whatever  of  recovering  themselves  and  getting  into 
society  again.  Religion  excommunicated  them,  morality  passed  them  by 
with  cold  disdain,  respectability  shrank  from  them  with  a  gesture  of  disgust. 
They  were  regarded  as  a  sort  of  degraded  order  of  beings  for  whom  Heaven 
had  no  solicitude,  for  whom  men  need  have  no  pity,  whom  all  the  most 
respectable  must  scrupulously  avoid — they  were  dirt. 

Thus  you  see  the  child  and  the  sinner  appealed  to  the  Saviour's 
sympathies  with  almost  equal  force  and  drew  from  Him  this  precious 
announcement— that  the  Heavenly  Father  cared  as  much  for  the  least 
and  most  ignorant  of  His  children  as  He  did  for  the  wisest  and  most 
venerable  Rabbi,  as  much  for  the  most  unworthy  outcast,  as  He  did  for  the 


34  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


most  scrupulous  Pharisee  of  the  synagogue.  As  a  shepherd  is  anxious 
about  his  one  sheep,  though  the  ninety  and  nine  were  safe  in  the  fold,  so 
He  Who  is  more  than  a  shepherd,  who  is  a  Father,  follows  with  pitiful  eyes 
the  throbbing  heart  and  tearful  struggling  life  of  every  member  of  His 
family,  whether  it  be  a  baby  abandoned  by  a  cruel  mother,  or  a  sinner 
whom  all  the  world  disowns.  Every  soul  of  man  is  infinitely  precious  in 
the  eyes  of  the  I'ather. 

Now  that— if  I  read  the  Gospels  in  any  right  way— that  was  the  great 
revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  concerning  man.  Sometimes  it  is  expressed  in 
language  familiar  to  pastoral  life,  that  all  men  everywhere  are  the  property 
of  one  great  good  Shepherd.  And  sometimes  it  is  expressed  in  words 
which  appeal  to  domestic  relationships,  that  all  men  everywhere  are  the 
anxious  charge  of  a  careful  and  loving  Father.  That  in  all  the  sayings  of 
]esus  this  thought  is  uppermost,  that  every  single  soul  is  dear  to  the  heart 
of  God  ;  that  He  cannot  see  anyone  left  out  in  the  darkness  without  pain  ; 
that  every  lost  soul  is  a  burden  to  Him,  and  every  neglected  one  an  object 
of  peculiar  pity  and  concern.  "  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  in  heaven 
that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish." 

Now  let  me  say,  first,  this  is  a  great  truth,  and  a  truth  hard  to  receive, 
hard  to  believe,  almost  impossible  to  believe,  unless  we  believe  Jesus.  It  is 
just  one  of  those  truths  which  we  have  to  take  His  word  for,  His  unsupported 
word.  For  He  gave  no  reasons  for  it,  except  His  own  grand  authoritative 
•  Verily  I  say  unto  you."  And  if  we  do  not  think  that  His  oft-repeated 
•issertions  of  it  are  enough,  we  cannot  find  any  evidence  of  it  sufficient  to 
convince  us  elsewhere.  You  know  that  wherever  men  reject  Christ  they 
put  away  this  truth  with  almost  scorn.  It  is  absurd,  they  say,  to  think 
that  God  cares  for  every  one  of  us.  Nature  is  so  careful  of  the  whole,  so 
careless  of  the  single  life.  Nature  thrusts  the  weak  to  the  wall,  that  it  may 
strengthen  the  race.  ^Modern  progress  is  one  huge  Juggernaut  car  which 
marches  over  the  helpless  and  the  fallen  that  it  may  reach  its  larger  ends.  So 
they  say,  and  apart  from  Jesus  Christ  there  is  very  much  to  bear  out  these 
words.-  Do  we  not  see  everywhere  apparent  waste  of  life,  and  energy,  and 
moral  power?  A  large  portion  of  the  children  born  into  the  world  die  of 
sheer  neglect  before  they  have  reached  the  years  in  which  they  know  good 
from  evil.  A  very  large  proportion  in  this  huge  city,  a  still  larger  propor- 
tion in  the  great  world  of  darkness  beyond  the  seas,  are  the  victims  of  the 
passion,  folly,  and  cruelty,  which  do  not  care  how  they  come  or  how  soon 
they  go.  And  a  st'll  larger  proportion  perhaps  of  those  who  survive  this 
early  neglect  grow  up  physically  and  morally  stunted,  their  mental  faculties 
untrained,  their  notions  of  right  and  wrong  miserably  confused  and 
darkened,  their  spiritual  life  unexercised.  Millions  of  them  there  are  who 
go  through  life  almost  absolutely  in  the  dark,  shut  up  behind  dense  walls 
of  ignorance  as  black  as  i)rison  walls,  hideously  precocious,  full  of  wise 
wickedness  from  their  earliest  days,  and  so  handicapped  both  hy  their  moral 
inheritance  and  their  evil  surroundings  that  they  seem  predestined  to  be 
beaten  in  the  race,  and  to  have  no  chance  whatever  of  escaping  perdition. 
It  seems  indeed  as  if,  in  the  natural  order  of  things,  looking  away  from 
the  revelation  of  Christ,  as  if  the  way  of  salvation  had  been  made  pur- 
posely hard  for  those  who  have  once  set  out  on  the  downward  track  and 
gone  far  wrong  in  it ;  as  if  God  or  nature  had  weighted  them  with  heavy 
chains,  making  the  climb  ujjward  heavy  and  dragging  and   burdensome, 


The  Will  of  Your  Fallu 


and  well  nigh  impossible.  You  know  the  more  a  man  sins,  the  less  power 
he  has  to  do  right,  the  lower  his  moral  fall.  Nature  helps  the  good  to 
continue  good.  It  seems  to  hang  a  millstone  round  the  neck  of  the  evil, 
and  to  hold  them  down  in  the  place  to  which  they  have  fallen. 

These  things,  then,  and  a  great  many  other  things,  seem  to  give  an 
apparent  denial  to  the  thought  that  Cod  holds  every  single  life  dear,  that 
His  love  goes  after  every  lost  one  as  the  shepherd  goes  after  his  wandering 
sheep,  and  that  He  does  not  willingly  let  the  least  perish.  These  things 
taken  by  themselves  point  rather  to  the  conclusion  that  a  favoured  few 
here  and  there  are  singled  out  for  a  lavish  love  and  for  special  Providence, 
while  the  rest  are  left  to  run  wild  like  city  vagrants,  and  to  fall  out  at  last, 
when  their  poor  lives  are  spent,  utterly  unregarded  and  forgotten. 

And  then,  again,  do  not  you  yourselves  sometimes  find  it  difficult  to 
believe  that  God  cares  for  you,  and  loves  infinitely  each  one  of  you  ?  that 
He  interests  Himself  singly  and  individually  in  each  one  of  you,  and  can- 
not bear  to  see  you  in  pain  or  in  moral  danger  without  a  sort  of  aching  of 
heart  ?  It  is  very  difficult  sometimes  to  believe  that  He  feels  towards 
each  one  of  us  the  same  sort  of  feeling  which  a  mother  has  towards  each 
child.  We  are  such  tiny  drops  in  the  ocean  of  life,  such  infinitesimal 
units  in  the  countless  myriads  of  souls.  We  never  walk  though  the  crowds 
of  this  city  without  feeling  we  are  of  such  small  importance  m  the  world, 
so  easily  dispensed  with  when  we  have  played  our  little  part,  so  soon  for- 
gotten, except  by  the  one  or  two  dear  ones  that  are  bound  to  us  by  peculiar 
ties  of  kinship  and  affection.  There  are  always  so  many  ready  to  take  the 
place  that  we  leave  vacant,  and  to  march  heedlessly  on  withont  a  thought 
of  those  whom  they  leave  behind.  And,  moreover,  we  seem  to  depend 
so  much  upon  ourselves,  each  one  in  the  crowd  jostling  and  fighting  his 
way  as  if  he  had  nothing  but  his  own  wits  and  strength  to  save  him  from 
being  crushed  to  the  wall.  There  are  so  few  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
a  Providence  that  has  its  arms  around  us,  of  a  love  that  watches  over  and 
aids  our  movements,  and  we  are  so  much  at  the  mercy  of  changes,  and 
accidents,  and  things  over  which  we  have  no  control,  it  is  not  surprising  if 
sometimes,  with  all  our  faith,  we  feel  a  sort  of  faltering  helplessness,  a 
trembling  distrust,  a  conscious  unbelief,  as  if  it  were  a  presumption  to 
think  that  we  are  of  so  much  consequence  in  God's  eyes,  as  if  the  preser- 
vation of  our  single  life  and  its  salvation  could  not  be  of  very  great  conse- 
quence to  Him.  And  so,  my  brethren,  it  is  not  only  what  we  call  the 
outcasts  and  the  heathen  and  the  neglected  ones  of  the  race,  but  we  also, 
the  more  privileged  and  the  better  cared-for,  that  need  to  be  assured  by 
some  strong  word  of  authority  mightier  than  nature,  mightier  than  all 
experience,  mightier  than  the  force  of  our  own  trembling  hearts,  that  God 
cherishes  each  human  life,  and  that  it  is  not  the  will  of  our  Father  in 
heaven  that  one  of  His  little  ones  should  perish. 

Now,  this  is  what  the  Saviour  teaches  us  from  first  to  last.  It  was  the 
truth  which  He  gave  forth  with  all  His  authority,  which  He  would 
never  permit  to  be  challenged,  which  He  talked  about  as  if  it  were  rank 
atheism  to  call  it  in  question,  as  if  it  were  implied  in  every  thought  of  God, 
and  as  if  thewords  "Heavenly  Father"  would  be  a  mockery  if  thatwere  not 
true.  "  Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a  farthing?  and  not  one  of  them  i> 
forgotten."  It  ran  through  all  His  teaching  ;  it  was  the  key-note  of  all 
His  parables;  it  was  the  truth  underlying  all  His  miracles,  that  each  one 


36  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

vas  an  infinite  care  to  God  ;  that  the  lonely  and  forgotten  unit,  lost  sight  of 
in  the  tramp  and  rush  of  the  passing  multitude,  the  one  with  all  its  pas- 
sions, woes,  guilts,  md  repentances,  was  an  object  which  enlisted  Heaven's 
tenderest  interest  and  His  own  unfathomable  love.  His  ministry  was  in- 
tended throughout  to  be  a  dem.^nstration  of  that.  Oh,  you  remember  how, 
when  the  multitude  of  sick  and  maimed  and  weary  people  gathered  about  His 
feet,  instead  of  healing  them  by  one  word  and  in  the  mass,  He  went  about 
with  infmite  tenderness  and  laid  His  hand  on  everyone— everyone.  That 
ministry  of  His  was  just  a  picture  of  Heaven's  soUcitude— that  ministry 
which  grasped  the  whole  of  humanity  in  its  saving  thought,  and  had  room 
for  one  little  child  in  its  arms— that  ministry  which  grieved  for  the 
miseries  of  the  whole  race,  and  had  tears  for  the  solitary  widow  and  im- 
measurable pity  for  the  individual  leper— which  looked  on  the  whole  world 
with  the  conipassion  of  God,  while  it  nursed  the  single  wounded  and 
bruised  outcast  with  the  tenderness  of  a  mother. 

That  it  was  which  makes  the  Lord  Jesus  so  infinitely  dear  to  us.  He- 
reveals  God's  deepest  heart  to  us  in  His  own  tender  defence  of  the  units, 
in  His  tearful  pleading  for  the  lost,  and  lonely,  and  forgotten  ones.  We 
feel  that  all  this  is  a  message  to  us  as  well  as  to  the  heathen,  a  beam  of 
light  coming  down  from  tiod's  face  upon  our  faces,  and  lighting  them  up 
with  an  inf.nite  hope.  For  we  are  all  of  infinite  value  to  ourselves.  Each 
soul  among  us  is  a  very  world  full  of  thought,  and  hope,  and  passions,  and 
fears  ;  each  life  among  us  one  of  romance  and  tragedy  intermingled. 
Everyone  of  us,  no  matter  of  what  moral  weight  and  character — be  we  the 
vulgarest  of  the  race,  or  the  most  refined  and  cultured — is  of  unspeakable 
consc(|uence  to  ourselves,  and  we  v/ant  to  be  assured  that  we  are  as  much 
in  the  sight  of  God  as  we  are  in  our  own  sight.  It  is  one  of  the  things 
for  which  we  come  together  to  worship,  to  be  assured  again  of  this.  We 
do  not  come  altogether  for  that :  we  come  to  think  of  God  in  His  larger 
relationship,  as  the  Ruler  of  the  universe  and  of  all  nations,  and  the  Head 
of  His  Ghurch,  and  the  Saviour  and  Father  of  all  men.  But  if  our 
religion  only  brought  God  nearer  to  us  in  those  larger  relationships,  it 
would  be  somewhat  cold  and  frigid,  without  pathos  and  tenderness.  No, 
it  is  the  longing  to  hide  our  own  particular  weariness,  and  weakness,  and 
cares  under  the  great  rock  of  His  love.  That  is  what  makes  religion  so 
sweet  to  us,  and  therefore  do  we  fling  ourselves  on  the  Christ  of  God, 
whose  word  alone  assures  us  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood,  of  One  to  whom 
wc  can  tell  all  the  secrets  to  which  other  ears  are  deaf,  who  follows  us  with 
unwearying  watchfulness,  and  who  willeth  not  that  any  one  of  us  should 
perish. 

You.  my  dear  brethren— all  of  you— you  at  least  can  have  little  doubt 
that  the  great  l-'ather  has  tenderly  willed  your  salvation.  Whatever  we  may 
say  of  the  great  multitudes  who  have  had  little  or  no  knowledge  of  His 
truth  granted  to  them,  with  you,  at  least,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
liie  great  .Shepherd  has  patiently  and  tenderly  sought  to  bring  home  His 
sheep.  I  heard  a  poor  collier  say  the  other  day — I  met  him  in  the  railway 
train— he  said  :  "  What  have  I  to  care  for  God  ?  He  has  never  done  any- 
thing for  me.  I  was  sent  to  the  coal-pit  when  I  was  seven  years  old. 
Nobody  ever  taught  me  about  God,  and  I  knew  nothing  but  hardship,  and 
labour,  and  pain.  Why  should  I  care  for  Plim?"  And  I  could  not  help 
feeling  that  there  was  some  reason  in  the  words  on  those  lips.     But  such 


The  Will  of  Your  Father:'  37 


■wcrds  on  your  lips  would  be  blasphemy.  You  cannot  say,  "  What  is  it  to 
<jod  whether  I  go  in  the  wrong  way  or  walk  in  the  way  of  salvation  ?  What 
cares  He  whether  my  life  has  its  face  turned  towards  Him  or  •goes  down 
into  the  darkness  ?  "  Not  one  of  us  can  honestly  believe  that  the  good 
Father  is  indifferent  to  what  becomes  of  us,  because  of  this,  a  thousand 
voices  join  with  the  words  of  Christ  in  seeking  to  assure  and  convince  us 
that  our  salvation  is  eagerly  sought  and  desired  by  the  great  Shepherd  of 
souls.  Have  we  not  been  beset,  behind  and  before,  by  His  influences  all 
our  lives  ?  Have  we  not  been  told  since  the  days  of  childhood  of  a  Christ 
who  loved  us  with  an  everlasting  love,  and  who,  on  a  certain  green  hill  far 
away,  died  in  agony  such  as  no  other  has  ever  known,  that  He  might  win 
our  love  and  redeem  us  unto  Himself?  Have  we  not  been  visited  every 
diiy  of  our  lives  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  warning  and  of  promise?  We  have 
never  done  wrong  without  a  twinge  of  conscience,  never  done  right  without 
some  sense  of  the  Divine  approval.  A  thousand  agencies  have  been  at 
work  in  our  lives,  to  life  our  thoughts  upward  and  to  keep  our  path  straight. 
We  sometimes  talk  about  the  difficulty  of  living  the  Christian  life,  about 
the  greatness  of  its  temptations,  its  hardships,  about  all  that  defeats  and 
cripples  our  poor  endeavours.  But,  my  brethren,  far  more  be  the  things 
for  us  than  the  things  against  us.  Think  of  all  the  noble  examples  that 
have  been  set  before  you,  of  all  the  memories  of  love  and  purity  which 
stimulate  you,  of  all  the  great  and  noble  thoughts  which  have  been  con- 
veyed to  you  by  teachers,  pastors,  parents,  and  books ;  think  how  nature 
•even,  in  all  its  quiet  grandeur,  continually  exhorts  us  to  shun  immoral 
excitement  and  cleave  to  that  which  is  beautiful  and  true  ;  think  how  all 
the  relationships  of  life,  husbmd  and  wife,  brother  and  sister,  parent  and 
child,  hedge  us  off  from  the  seductions  of  the  v/orld,  and  stimulate  us 
to  the  religious  and  the  pure  life ;  think  how  the  very  sorrows  of  life  drive 
us  to  trust  in  the  Eternal  Lover  ;  and  think  how  the  sad  funeral  procession 
daily  reminds  us  of  earthly  vanities,  and  renews  our  aspirations  after  things 
unseen. 

Oh,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  all-loving  Father  has  cared  for  you 
and  left  nothing  untried  that  rnight  win  you  from  the  ways  of  sin,  and  keep 
you  clinging  for  safety  to  the  Saviour's  feet. 

And  if  any  of  you  perish,  if  any  of  you  perish,  as  it  may  be,  alas  !  it 
may  be,  notwithstanding  all  this  tender  love  and  fatherly  solicitude— for 
Ood  cannot  compel  a  man  to  be  saved,  He  can  only  give  him  all  loving 
help  towards  that  end — if  any  of  you  fall  into  sin  and  go  down  impenitent 
into  the  darkness,  it  will  grieve  Him,  but  you  cannot  lay  it  to  His 
charge.  You  know  your  lives  at  least  are  an  everlasting  proof  that  it  is 
■  not  the  will  of  your  Father  that  one  of  His  little  ones  should  perish. 

And  even  when  we  look  oat  upon  those  who  are  far  av/ay  off  in  the 
darkness,  the  most  benighted  and  the  most  forlorn  of  the  human  race, 
there  are  not  wanting  altogether  proofs  that  God  has  not  been  so  forgetful 
of  them  as  the  first  indications  go  to  show.  There  is  not  a  nation  or 
tribe  anywhere  in  the  world  which  was  not  at  some  time  or  other  visited 
with  gleams  of  light,  instructed  to  believe  in  a  grand  supernatural  and  a 
..good  providence,  and  taught  some  of  the  ways  of  human  brotherhood  and 
pure  morality.  It  was  God's  will  that  this  should  be  done  ;  it  was  God's 
will  that  sages  and  prophets  should  appear  among  them,  enlightening  for 
them   some  ways  of  truth ;  but  it  was  not  God's  will  that  they  should  lose 


38  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

this  light  as  they  have  done  ;  that  they  should  be  degraded  as  they  have 
been  ;  that  they  should  have  reduced  their  religion  to  utterly  foul  immoral 
superstitions  as  they  have  done;  that  they  should  convert  the  purest  truths 
into  immorality.  That  was  man's  doing.  It  was  not  the  will  of  the 
Heavenly  Father. 

A  thousand  things  are  put  down  to  God's  will  which  are  man's  wicked 
doings  .  and  it  is  blasphemy  to  call  it  God's  will  when  men  pollute  and 
defile  and  destroy  the  sweetest  of  His  gifts.  It  is  not  God's  will  that 
children  should  be  neglected— allowed  to  die.  Has  He  not  planted  in  the 
human  heart  the  very  instincts  of  fatherhood  and  motherhood  which  should 
have  prevented  all  that  ?  It  is  not  God's  will  that  sinners  should  be  cast 
out,  left  alone,  forsaken  ;  it  is  man"s  hard,  selfish,  cruel  nature  that  does 
that.  It  is  not  God's  will  that  a  wealthy  and  cultured  society  should  hve 
in  luxury  and  splendour,  careless  of  the  squalor  and  misery  that  reek  in 
crowded  dens  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  their  mansions.  That  is 
man'F  selfishness  and  not  God's  ordering.  The  voice  of  the  Eternal  is 
always  reminding  us  that  we  are  our  brothers' keepers,  and  that  what  we  do 
to  the  least  of  these  we  are  doing  unto  Him. 

And,  above  all  thing.'',  it  is  not  God's  will  that  a  few  elect  people  should 
constitute  His  Church  and  regale  themselves  with  His  love  and  promises 
every  Sabbath  day,  while  sheep  outside  are  perishing,  unloved,  untaught, 
and  unsought.  His  word  to  each  disciple  is,  "  If  thou  lovest  Me,  feed -My 
sheep;  as  I  have  sought  thee,  go  thou  and  seek  them.''  Many,  many 
are  i)erishing  ;  but  the  Father  is  always  charging  us  not  to  let  them  perish. 
It  is  the  selfishness  of  man,  the  heedlessness  of  the  rich,  the  brutality  of 
the  strong,  the  very  indift'erence  of  the  Church  which  Cain-like  recognises 
no  obligations  of  brotherhood — these  are  making  men  perish  ;  these  are 
the  things  which  are  defeating  God's  purpose.  But  over  and  above  all 
this  comes  the  \Vord  of  Jesus  which  assures  us  that  God  wishes  to  save 
all,  which  bids  the  Church  be  alive  to  its  sacred  commission,  and  requires 
all  men  to  wliom  much  has  been  given  to  share  in  the  Redeemer's 
an.xiety. 

Oh,"  my  brethren,  remember  why  all  that  care  of  which  I  spoke  has  been 
bestowed  on  you.  Remember  what  is  the  meaning  of  your  election,  as 
you  call  it,  ot  the  truth  and  light  and  grace  entrusted  to  you,  and  which 
have  made  you  inheritors  of  all  the  premises.  Not  for  jourself  alone  ^^ere 
these  gifts  tbestowed.  God  uses  us  as  we  with  torches  do,  not  light 
them  for  ourselves.  God  begins  by  being  exclusive  that  He  may  finally 
include  all.  The  sunlight  illumines  the  mountain  tops  before  it  reaches 
the  vales  below.  He  fills  the  Church  with  His  glory  that  all  nations  may 
come  and  walk  in  it.  God  hath  shined  into  our  hearts  to  give  the  light  of 
the  knowle.Jge  of  the  glory  of  God  to  men.  Every  saved  soul  is  a  living 
witness  of  God's  desire  to  save  others ;  a  living  proof  that  it  is  not  His  will 
that  any  one  of  His  children  should  perish. 

Prayer  i;eiore  Sermon. 

O  Tiiou  roost  merciful  Gcd,  our  Father  in  Jesus  Christ,  Who  art  greater 
ihrn  all  our  thoughts,  we  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  taught  us  to 
behcve  that  u  little  child  often  understands  Thee  better  than  the  wise  and 
piudcnt,  and  that  those  who  have  most  of  the  child's  spirit  will  come  nearest 


"  The  Will  of  Your  Father.'''  39 

to  Thee  in  Thy  kingdom.  We  beseech  Thee  to  give  us  to-night  a  child's 
faith,  a  child's  simplicity  of  purpose,  some  of  a  child's  purity,  a  child's 
joyous  sense  of  a  father's  love  and  a  father's  pity,  that  we  may  worship 
Thee  as  we  ought,  and,  as  we  worship  Thee,  rejoice. 

1/et  our  first  word  in  Thy  presence  be  one  of  praise  for  Thy  great  mercy 
to  us,  for  all  the  gifts  of  Thine  which  come  each  day,  morning  and  evening 
ever  fresh  and  new  ;  for  the  joy  of  human  love,  the  care  of  parents,  the 
society  of  friends,  the  faces  of  little  children,  the  pure  delights  of  home  ;  for 
strength  and  help  given  to  us  each  day  for  each  day's  duties  :  for  the  means 
of  grace  and  for  the  hope  of  glory.  Especially  do  we  thank  Thee  now  as 
at  all  times  for  the  grace  conferred  upon  us  in  Jesus  Christ  Thy  Son,  that 
Thou  hast  delivered  us  from  the  power  of  darkness  and  translated  us  into 
His  kingdom,  through  Whom  we  have  redemption  by  His  blood,  even  the 
forgiveness  of  sins.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  memory  of  Him  Who 
sojourned  among  men  that  He  might  bring  heaven  down  to  earth  and 
make  poor  human  nature  the  partaker  of  the  Divine  life.  We  bless  Thee 
for  the  memory  of  those  Sabbath  evenings  long  time  ago  when  He  gathered 
the  multitude  about  His  feet  and  went  among  them  touching  their  every 
soreness,  wound,  fainting  heart,  disease  and  want,  and  giving  healing 
to  each  and  all.  Oh,  may  that  scene  repeat  itself  in  the  experience  of 
those  who  bow  before  Thee  now.  Help  us  to  bring  to  Thee  our  needs, 
our  cares,  our  burdens,  our  sicknesses  and  sorrows,  our  sins  and  guilts,  and 
feel  that  the  touch  of  Jesus  Christ  the  Divine  one  removes  and  heals  them 
and  gives  us  perfect  deliverance. 

We  beseech  Thee  our  heavenly  Father  to  grant  Thy  benediction  to 
every  one  before  Thee,  that  sort  of  blessing  which  in  Thine  infinite 
wisdom  Thou  seest  is  most  needed.  Let  the  aged  and  the  weary  find  rest 
in  Thine  eternal  love.  Let  young  men  and  maidens  see  Thee  m  all  Thy 
beauty,  and  make  vows  of  service  to  Thee.  Let  those  who  are  bowed 
down  with  the  many  burdens  and  cares  of  daily  life  have  underneath  and 
around  about  them  the  Everlasting  Arms.  Let  the  little  children  hear  the 
voice  of  Jesus,  and  feel  His  arms  compassing  them  about  as  children  did 
in  the  days  long  ago.  May  those  who  are  in  doubt  and  fear,  perplexed 
about  religious  life  and  its  temptations  and  difficulties  have  all  needed 
strength  given  to  persevere  and  to  hope. 

If  any  have  come  to  Thee  after  a  day  of  labour  spent  in  the  name 
of  Jesus,  perhaps  with  hearts  a  little  faint  and  discouraged,  do  Thou 
restore  their  hopes,  deepening  their  faith  and  making  them  once  more 
assured  of  Thy  good  promises.  Let  those  who  have  hesitated  to  confess 
themselves  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  have  their  last  lingering  reluctance 
removed,  and  joyfully  acknowledge  at  last  they  are  truly  and  wholly 
His.  Let  all  Thy  people  who  acknowledge  Thy  name,  and  call  themselves 
Thy  holy  and  elect  people,  be  stimulated  to  more  constant  endeavour  in 
Thy  service,  and  be  filled  with  the  pitying  solicitudes  of  Jesus  Christ 
concerning  the  world  which  lieth  in  wickedness. 

We  beseech  Thee  to  have  mercy  upon  this  great  city,  with  its  multi- 
tudes of  people  who  fear  Thee  not,  who  have  no  joy  in  Thy  promises,  no 
part  in  Thy  service,  and  no  share  in  our  immortal  hopes.  Make  the 
churches  of  this  great  city  more  active  and  earnest  in  every  saving  work, 
and  show  Tny  people,  who  sometimes  are  almost  in  despair  as  to  means 
and  methods  and  agencies,  some  surer  and  more  effective  way  of  saving 


40  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

all  this  darkness,  and  bringing  it  into  the  light  of  Christ,  and  making  this 
city  a  city  of  the  great  King. 

Have  mercy  upon  the  outlying  world  of  sin,  the  world  far  away,  which 
has  never  heard  of  the  cross  of  Jesus  and  of  the  Father's  pitying  love. 
Sustain  the  hands  and  the  hearts  of  those  who  have  gone  out  into  this 
darkness  with  the  lamp  of  life  in  their  hands.  When  they  think  themselves 
forgotten  of  those  who  have  sent  them  forth,  help  them  ever  to  be 
assured  that  they  are  environed  at  all  times,  and  give  Thy  people  at  home 
a  profounder  sympathy  with  this  work  and  its  agents  abroad.  Deepen  and 
purify  our  missionary  zeal,  sanctify  our  every  saving  purpose,  and  make 
all  Thy  people  burdened  with  responsibility  which  the  trust  that  Thou  hast 
commuted  to  them  imposes. 

Be  present  at  all  the  meetings  which  shall  be  held  for  the  furtherance 
of  missionary  work.  Let  all  who  assemble  there  be  enriched  with  the 
sense  of  Thy  presence,  and  lightened  with  the  light  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  consecrate  afresh  to  the  great  work  whereto  Thou  has  sent  Thy 
churches  forth. 

Hear  us  as  we  pray  that  Thy  work  may  ever  abound  within  this  sanctuary, 
that  Thy  servant  who  leads  this  people  in  holy  thoughts  and  holy  efforts, 
and  seeks  to  save  the  unconverted,  may  be  upheld  by  Thee  in  all  his 
public  and  private  endeavours,  made  himself  an  example  of  all  righteous- 
ness, unity,  sanctity,  and  self-forgetfulness,  and  be  blessed  abundantly  in  his 
appeals  to  the  people.  Be  pleased  to  hear  us  as  we  ask  that  all  troubled, 
anxious,  sorrowing  spirits  may  know  the  way  to  find  peace  and  balm  in 
Thy  consolations  and  love ;  that  every  house  of  sorrow  be  visited  to-night 
with  some  tokens  of  Thy  pity  and  good  comfort ;  that  all  who  have  been 
bereaved  may  find  in  Thee  the  everlasting  Friend.  Let  Thy  Fatherhood 
be  manifested  everywliere  to  each  sorrowmg  child,  and  in  Thy  pity  and 
Thy  grace  bless  us  and  keep  us  above  and  beyond  all  our  asking  :  and 
forgive  our  many  sins  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour.     Amen. 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  THE  WORD. 

Notes  of  a  Sermon 
By  the  Rev.  Professor  Dods,  D.D. 
Preached  in  (2uecns  Cross  Free  Cki^rc/i,  Aberdeen. 
St.  John  i.  i  — 14. 

In  this  brief  introduction  to  his  Gospel,  John  summarised  its  contents 
ami  save  an  abstract  of  the  history  he  was  about  to  relate  in  detail.  That 
the  l.tcrnal  Word,  m  whom  was  the  life  of  all  things,  became  flesh  and  was 
inan./cstcd  among  men;  that  some  ignored,  while  others  recognised 
JI.M.-this  was  what  John  desired  to  exhibit  in  his  Gospel,  and  this  was 
wha  he  summarily  staled  in  that  compact  and  pregnant  introductory  passage. 
le  LneHy  described  a  Being,  Whom  he  named  "  the  Word  ":  he  explained 
the  (onnection  of  this  Being  with  God  and  with  created  things;  he  told 
hou  He  cameto  the  world  and  dwelt  among  men,  and  remarked  upon 
n(.  reception  He  met  with.  The  Gospel  unfolded  what  was  summed  up  in 
tMcse  propositions,  and  narrated  in  detail  the  history  of  the  manifestation 


The  Incarnation  of  the  Word. 


of  the  Incarnate  ^Vord  to  men  and  of  their  reception  or  rejection  of  His 
Person.     John  introduced  us  to  a  being  whom  he  spoke  of  as  "  the  Word-"' 
He  used  the  term  without  apology,  as  if  it  were  already  familiar   to  his 
readers,  and  yet  he  added  a  brief  explanation  of  it,  as  if  possibly  they 
might  attach  to  it  ideas  incompatible  with  his  own.     He  used  it  without 
apology,  because  the  Jewish  teachers  had  already  given    it  circulation. 
They  were  accustomed,  when  they  paraphrased   the  Old  Testament   in 
order   to   render   it  more   intelligible   to   the   people,    to   substitute   the 
expression   "Word   of  Jehovah"   for  the  name  of  God,  whenever   the 
Scriptures  represented  God  as  appearing  and  acting  in  the  world.     Long 
before  John  wrote,  the  title  "Word"  was  used  to  designate  the  Divme 
Being  through  Whom  the   unseen  God  acted  upon  the  world  and  mani- 
fested Himself  to  men.     The  Word  of  God  was  to  a  Jewish  mind  God 
revealing   Himself.     But   even    beyond   Jewish    circles   of  thought   the 
expression  would  easily  be  understood.     At  all  times  thoughtful  men  had 
keenly  felt  the  difficulty  of  aiming  at  any  certain  and  definite  knowledge 
of  God.     The  most  rudimentary  definition  of  God,  by  declaring  Him  to 
be  a  spirit,  at  once  and  for  ever  dissipated  the  hope  that  we  could  ever 
see   Him  with   the  bodily  eye.     This  depressed   and  disturbed  the  soul. 
Other    objects    which  invited  our  thought  and  feeling  we  had   an  easy 
communion  with.     It  was  indeed  the  unseen  and  the  intangible  spirit  of 
our  friends  which  we  chiefly    valued  and  not  the  outward   appearance. 
But  as  we  only  reached  and  knew  and  held  fellowship  with  our  friends 
through  the  bodily  features  with  which  they  were  familiar  and  the  words 
that  struck  upon  their  ear  and  the  actions  they  performed,  so   did  they 
long  for  some  such  familiar  and  convincing  knowledge  of  God.      They 
put  oui  their  hand,  but  they  could  not  touch  Him.      Nowhere  in  this 
world   could  they   see  Him  more  than   they  sav/   Him   here   and   now. 
If  they  passed  to   other  worlds  there  too  He  was  concealed  from  their 
sight,  inhabiting  no  body,  occupying   no  place.     Job  was  not  alone  in  his 
painful  and  baffling  search  after  God.      Many  said  with  him:  "Behold, 
I  go  forward,  but  He  is  not  there,  and   backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive 
Him  ;  on  the  left  hand,  where  He  doth  work,  but  I  cannot  behold  Him  ; 
He  hideth  Himself  on  the  right  hand  that  I  cannot  see  Him."     In  various 
ways  men  had  sought  to  alleviate  the  ditSculty  of  mentally   approaching 
an  infinite,   invisible,  incomprehensible  God.      One  theory    which  was 
frequently  advanced  by  philosophers  was  not  altogether  incompatible  with 
the  ideas  suggested  by  John  in  his  prologue.     This  theory  was  accustomed, 
though  Vv'ith  no  great  definitness,  to  bridge  the  abyss  between  the  eternal, 
invisible  God  and  His  material  works,  by  interposing   some  middle  being 
or  beings  who  might  mediate  between  the  unknown  and  the  known.     This 
link  between  God  and  the  creature  which  seemed  to  make  God  and  His 
relation  to  material  things  more  intelligible  was  sometimes  spoken  of  as 
the  Word  or  Wisdom  of  God,  the  logos.     This  seemed  an  appropriate 
name  by  which  to  designate  that  through  which  God  made  Himself  known, 
and  by  which  He  came  into  relations  with  things  and  persons  not  Himself. 
Very  vague  indeed  was  the  conception  formed  even  of  this  intermediary 
Being.    But  of  this  teim,  "  the  Word,"  and  of  the  ideas  that  centered  in  it, 
John  took  advantage  to  proclaim  the  eternal  and  divine  nature  of  Chiist. 
As  Paul  took  advantage  of  the  altar  to  the  unknown  (iod,  and  declared  to 
the  Athenians    Him  whom  they  ignorantly  worshipped,  so  did  John   fill 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


with  definite  and  important  meanin<?  the  word  which  Hebrew  and  Greek 
thinkers  had  alike  vaguely  used.  The  title  itself  was  full  of  significance. 
The  word  of  a  man  was  that  by  which  he  uttered  himself,  by  which  he  put 
himself  in  communication  with  other  persons  and  dealt  with  them  ;  his 
word  was  his  character  in  expression.  Similarly  the  Word  of  God  was 
God's  power,  intelligence,  and  will  in  expression  ;  not  dominant  in  potential 
only,  but  in  active  exercise.  God's  AVord  was  His  will,  going  forth  with 
creative  energy  and  communicating  life  from  God,  the  source  of  life  and 
being.  "  ^\■ilhout  Him  was  not  any  thing  made  which  was  made."  He  was 
prior  to  all  created  things,  and  Himself  with  God  and  God.  He  was  God 
coming  into  relation  with  other  things,  revealing  Himself,  manifesting 
Himself,  communicating  Himself  The  world  was  not  itself  God;  things 
created  were  not  God,  but  the  intelligence  and  will  that  brought  them  into 
being,  and  that  pervaded  and  guided  them,  these  were  God.  And  between 
the  works  they  saw,  and  the  God  who  was  past  finding  out,  there  was  the 
A\'ord,  one  who  from  eternity  had  been  with  God.  the  medium  of  the  first 
utterance  of  God's  mind,  and  the  first  forth-putting  of  His  power  as  close 
to  the  inmost  nature  of  (iod  and  as  truly  uttering  that  nature  as  our  word  was 
close  to  and  uttered  our  thought,  capable  of  being  used  by  no  one  besides,  but 
by  ourselves  only.  It  was  apparent  then  why  John  chose  this  title  to 
designate  Christ's  pre-existent  life.  No  other  title  brought  out  so  clearly 
the  identification  of  Christ  with  God,  and  the  function  of  Christ  to  reveal 
God.  But  perhaps  the  chief  reason  why  John  chose  this  title  was  that 
they  might  know  that  the  same  being  who  manifested  God  in  creation 
revealed  Him  now  in  humanity.  He  wished  to  bring  the  incarnation  into 
line  with  creation,  and  to  show  them  that  this  greatest  manifestation  of 
(iod  was  not  an  abrupt  departure  from  previous  methods,  but  was  the 
culminating  expression  of  methods  and  principles  which  had  from  eternity 
and  throughout  governed  God's  activity.  Jesus  Christ,  who  revealed  the 
Father  in  human  personality,  was  the  same  who  had  always  been  expressing 
the  I'ather's  will  and  giving  it  effect  in  the  creation  and  government  of 
all  things.  All  that  God  had  ever  done  external  to  Himself  was  to  be 
found  -in  the  universe,  partly  visible  and  known  to  us.  In  man,  creation  at 
last  became  intelligent,  selfconscious,  endowed  with  will.  In  man, 
creation  met  and  understood  its  Creator.  Man  was  the  last  and  fullest 
expression  of  God's  thought,  in  whom  he  was  first  found  a  creature  in  whom 
He,  the  personal  God,  could  reveal  Himself,  in  whom  the  highest  persona), 
(jualities  could  be  distinctly  seen.  The  great  incident  in  the  history  of 
th-;  "Word  of  God  "  to  which  John  here  directed  our  attention  was  that 
•'  He  became  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us."  That  Being  whose  pre-existence 
and  divinity  John  had  been  insisting  upon  became  man,  not  ceasing  to  be 
what  He  was  before,  but  taking  into  connection  with  Himself  that  which 
He  had  not  before.  He  was  still  the  Creator  of  all,  the  One  Who  stood  as 
the  source  of  all  life,  but  now  He  possessed  a  human  nature  as  well,  and  in 
this  human  nature  He  personally  lived.  What  we  had  in  Christ  was 
God  furnishing  Himself  with  a  human  nature  in  and  through  which  He  as 
truly  lived  and  worked  as  in  and  through  His  divine  nature.  This  was 
what  gave  efficacy  to  all  that  He  did  for  us,  that  it  was  divine  action.  It 
was  thus  that  Christ  was  the  revealer  of  God,  manifesting  and  declaring 
God  to  us,  not  only  by  what  He  said,  but  far  more  by  what  He  is  and  does. 
It    might  assist   us  to   clear  our   thoughts  about  the    Incarnation   if  we 


The  Incarnation  of  the  Word.  43 


considered  what  it  was  that  differentiated  Christ  from  the  best  of  men. 
It  was  quite  conceivable  that  God  should  so  sway  a  man's  will  and  purify 
his  character  that  from  his  first  day  to  his  last  he  should  do  nothing  but 
good.  It  was  quite  conceivable  that  a  man  should  throughout  his  whole 
life  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  God,  and  should  thoroughly  discharge  his 
whole  duty.  In  such  a  case  we  should  no  doubt  see  a  revelation  of  (iod's 
character,  and  we  should  understand  more  fully  than  before  what  God 
meant  man  to  be.  An  ideal  man  might  have  been  created  ;  God's  ideal  of 
man  might  have  been  realised,  and  still  we  should  have  had  no  Incarna- 
tion. Through  Christ's  life  on  earth  all  of  (iod  that  could  be  revealed 
through  human  nature  was  revealed.  The  character  of  God  was  revealed  ; 
and  it  was  His  character  more  than  anything  else  about  Him  we 
reeded  to  know.  The  lessons  of  the  Incarnation  were  obvious. 
First,  from  it  we  were  to  take  our  ideal  of  God.  In  the  Incarnation  we 
saw  what  God  had  actually  done.  This  God,  Whom  we  had  often  shunned, 
and  felt  to  be  in  our  way,  and  an  obstacle  whom  we  had  suspected  of  tyranny, 
had  through  compassion  and  sympathy  with  us  broken  through  all 
impossibilities,  and  contrived  to  lake  the  sinner's  place.  All  this  He  did, 
not  for  the  sake  of  showing  us  how  much  better  a  thing  the  divine  nature 
is  than  the  human,  but  because  His  nature  impelled  Him  to  do  it,  because 
He  could  not  bear  to  be  solitary  in  His  blessedness,  to  know  in  Himself 
the  joy  of  holiness  and  love,  while  His  creatures  were  missing  this  joy  and 
making  themselves  incapable  of  all  good.  Our  first  thought  of  God  then  must 
ever  be  that  which  the  Incarnation  suggested,  that  the  God  with  whom  alone, 
and  in  all  things,  we  had  to  do  was  not  one  who  was  alienated  from  us  or  who 
had  no  sympathy  with  us,  but  that  He  was  one  who  sacrificed  Himself  for  us, 
who  made  all  things  but  justice  and  right  bend  to  serve  us,  who  forgave 
our  misapprehensions,  our  coldness,  our  unspeakable  folly,  and  made 
common  cause  with  us  in  all  that  concerned  our  welfare.  Look  at  the  God 
we  had  in  Christ ;  our  judge  becoming  our  atoning  victim,  our  God  becom- 
ing our  father,  the  infinite  one  coming  with  all  His  helpfulness  into  the 
most  intimate  relations  with  us,  and  say  whether  this  was  not  a  God  to 
whom  we  could  trust  ourselves  and  whom  we  could  love  and  serve.  If 
this  were  the  real  nature  of  God,  if  we  might  always  expect  such  faithful- 
ness and  help  from  God,  if  to  be  God  were  to  be  all  this,  as  full  of  love  in 
the  future  as  He  had  shown  Himself  in  the  past,  then  might  not  existence 
yet  be  that  perfect  joy  our  instincts  craved,  and  toward  which  we  were 
slowly  and  doubtfully  finding  our  way  through  all  the  darkness  and  strains 
and  shocks  that  were  needed  to  sift  what  was  spiritual  in  us  from  what  was 
unworthy.  The  second  lesson  the  Incarnation  taught  regarded  our  own 
duty.  Look  steadily  at  the  Incarnation,  at  the  love  which  made  Christ 
take  our  place  and  identify  Himself  with  us,  consider  the  new  breath  of 
life  that  this  one  act  had  breathed  into  human  life,  ennobling  the  world  and 
showing  us  how  deep  and  lovely  were  the  possibilities  that  lay  in  human 
nature,  and  new  thoughts  of  our  own  conduct  would  lay  hold  of  our  mind. 
As  Christ's  love  became  incarnate,  not  spending  itself  in  any  one  great 
display  apart  from  the  needs  of  men,  but  manifesting  itself  in  all  the  routine 
and  incident  of  a  human  life,  so  must  our  love  derived  from  Him  be 
incarnated,  not  spent  in  one  display,  but  animating  our  whole  life  in  the 
flesh  and  finding  expression  for  itself  in  all  that  our  earthly  condition 
brought    us  into  contact  with.     Our  chance  of  doing  good  in  the  world 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


depended  upon  this.  We  must  learn  to  bear  one  another's  burdens,  and  the 
Incarnation  showed  us  that  we  could  do  so  only  so  far  as  we  identified 
ourselves  with  others  and  lived  for  them.  This  was  the  guide  to  help  we 
could  give.  If  anything  could  reclaim  the  lowest  class  in  our  population, 
it  was  by  men  of  godly  life  living  among  them — not  living  among  them  in 
■comforts  unattainable  by  them,  but  living  in  all  points  as  they  lived,  save 
that  they  lived  without  sin.  The  poor  were  not  the  only  class  that  needed  help; 
it  was  our  dependence  on  money  as  the  medium  of  charity  that  had 
begotten  that  feeling.  It  was  easy  to  give  money,  and  so  we  discharged 
our  obligation,  and  felt  as  if  we  had  done  all.  It  was  not  money  that  even 
the  poorest  had  the  most  need  of;  and  it  was  not  money  at  all  but  sympathy 
which  all  classes  needed— that  true  sympathy  which  gave  us  insight  into 
their  condition  and  prompted  us  to  bear  their  burdens  whatever  these  were. 
There  were  many  men  on  earth  who  were  hindrances  to  better  men,  who 
could  not  manage  their  own  affairs  or  play  their  own  part,  but  were 
continually  entangled  and  in  difficulties.  They  were  a  drag  on  society, 
requiring  the  help  of  more  serviceable  men,  and  preventing  such  men  from 
enjoying  the  fruit  of  their  own  labour.  There  were  again  men  who  were  not 
of  our  kind,  men  whose  tastes  were  not  ours.  Then  there  were  men  who 
seemed  j^ursued  by  misfortune,  and  men  who  by  their  own  sin  kept  themselves 
continually  in  the  mire.  There  were,  in  short,  various  classes  of  persons 
with  whom  we  were  day  by  day  tempted  to  have  no  more  to  do  whatever ; 
we  were  exasperated  by  the  discomfort  they  occasioned  us,  the  anxiety  and 
vexation  and  expenditure  of  time,  feeling,  and  labour  constantly  renewed  so 
long  as  v.'c  were  in  connection  with  them.  Why  should  we  be  held  down 
by  unworthy  people,  why  should  we  have  the  ease  and  joy  taken  out  of  our 
life  by  the  ceaseless  demands  made  upon  us  by  wicked,  careless,  incapable, 
ungrateful  people  ?  Why  must  we  still  be  patient,  still  postponing  our  own 
interest  to  theirs  ?  Simply  because  this  was  the  method  by  which  the 
salvation  of  the  world  went  on,  and  because  -ve  felt  that  the  love  we 
depended  upon  and  believed  in  as  the  salvation  of  the  world,  we  must 
ourselves  endeavour  to  show.  Recognising  how  Christ  had  humbled 
Himself  to  bear  the  burden  of  shame  and  misery  we  had  laid  upon  Him, 
wc  could  not  refuse  to  bear  one  another's  burdens,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of 
Christ. 


THE  FIVE  GREAT  POWERS  OF  LIFE. 

A  Sermon  io  Children. 

Bv  THE  Rev.  J.  C.  Carrick. 

•  "  .And  when  the  Lord  saw  her  He  had  compassion  on  her,  and  said  unto  her, 
Weep  not."— St.  Luki:  vii.  13. 

On  one  of  the  slopes  of  Mount  Hermon  stands  a  little  village  at  this 
moment  as  I  speak.  It  is  just  like  a  hundred  of  the  other  hamlets  of  the 
Holy  Land,  and  reposes  on  a  steep  hillside,  with  its  white  walls,  square 
roofs,  and  palm  and  olive  groves.  But  it  has  a  wonderful  interest  for  us 
to-day,  for  there  Christ  brought  a  young  man  back  from  the  dead.  Christ 
m  His  life-l!uK' raised  three  different  people  from  the  dead,  and  each  of 
them  was  in  a  different  state  of  decay  from  the  other.  Jairus'  little 
daughter  was  newly  dead;  the  widow  of  Nain's  only  son  was  on  his  way 


The  Five  Great  Powers  of  Life.  45 


to  the  grave  ;  Lazarus  had  been  buried  three  days  and  was  corrupt.  And 
yet  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  in  whose  hands  are  the  keys 
of  death  and  the  unseen,  raised  them  all,  to  show  that  He  had  really  power 
over  death  in  all  its  different  stages.  And  then,  you  remember,  how  He 
Himself  rose  from  the  dead,  and  the  stone  was  rolled  away  from  the' 
sepulchre  for  ever  ;  so  that  we  who  love  Jesus  can  now  very  well  exclaim, 
"  O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?     O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory"  ? 

Nain,  then,  is  the  name  of  that  sweet  little  village  of  Galilee,  and  the 
name  signifies  "The  lovely  " — a  sweet  green  hillside,  and  far  beyond  the 
snowy  crown  of  Mount  Hermon. 

A  poor  widow  had  an  only  son  there,  a  young  man,  and  he  took  ill  and 
died.  The  whole  village  mourned  with  her,  and  accompanied  her, 
according  to  the  Eastern  custom,  men  and  women,  to  the  grave,  and  they 
were  just  on  their  way,  and  the  funeral  procession  was  going  down  tlie  hill 
to  the  little  God's  acre,  where  the  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet  slept,  to 
lay  the  young  dust  alongside  of  his  father's  ashes  (for  he  had  died  some 
time  before),  when  Jesus  met  the  mourners  and  stopped  them.  He  felt 
very  sorry  indeed  for  the  poor  widow's  tears,  because  he  was  \t:  only 
son.  "  And  when  the  Lord  saw  her  He  had  compassion  on  her,  and  said 
under  her,  Weep  not."  And  He  touched  the  bier  on  which  the  dead 
boy  was  lying,  and  he  rose  up  living,  and  Jesus  delivered  him  back  again 
to  his  mother,  who  received  him  with  a  joy  too  deep  now  for  tears. 

Now,  my  dear  children,  in  this  beautiful  story  which  deserves  to  be 
written  in  letters  of  gold,  what  I  am  going  to  call  "  The  Five  Great  Powers 
of  Life  ''  were  all  brought  into  action,  and  I  am  going,  God  helping  me, 
to  say  a  word  on  each  of  them.  These  five  great  powers  are  : — The  power 
(i)  of  death,  (2)  of  love.  (3)  of  tears,  (4)  of  prayer,  and  (5)  of  Christ. 

L  The  Pozuer  of  Death. — This  poor  woman  had  been  robbed  by  death 
tirst  of  her  husband,  and  now  her  only  son  was  ruthlessly  carried  off. 
Her  heart  was  completely  emptied.  All  that  was  left  of  life's  beautiful 
dream  was  a  handful  of  dust  in  a  coffin  hid — a  coffin  under  the  daisies. 
Though  Nain  was  called  "The  Lovely,''  yet  its  loveliness  was  no  charn> 
against  the  king  of  terrors."  Beauty  will  not  scare  him  from  his  awful 
work.  "Ah,"  cried  John  Knox  to  the  fair  Court  ladies,  "you  are  very 
beautiful  and  very  happy  ;  but  fie  on  that  knave  Death  who  will  yet  have 
you  all."  Her  son  was  only  a  boy,  yet  his  youth  was  no  charm  against 
death.  You  perhaps  are  thinking  as  I  speak,  "Oh,  I'm  young,  and  there 
are  plenty  of  happy  days  in  store  for  me  ;  all  will  be  bright  and  happy." 
Ah,  but  if  you  look  at  the  graves  in  the  churchyard,  you  will  find  many 
shorter  and  smaller  than  you  are.    It  is  appointed  unto  all  men  once  to  die. 

In  the  beautiful  old  Abbey  of  Melrose,  in  Scotland,  there  is  an  inscrip- 
tion on  a  grave — several  hundred  years  old — which  tells  us  what  a  power 
death  has  over  us  dust  and  ashes  : — 

"  Earth  goeth  on  the  earth 
Glistering  like  gold  ; 
Earth  goeth  to  the  earth 

Sooner  than  it  wold  (  =  would) ; 
Earth  buildeth  on  the  earth 

Castles  and  towers  : 
Earth  says  to  the  earth, 
'  All  shall  be  ours  ! '" 

II.  The  PoTvcr  of  Love. — The  poor  widow  of  Nain  wept  bitterly  because 


46  The  Brithh  Weekly  Pulpit. 

she  loved  her  son  deeply.  He  had  all  her  heart.  There  was  but  one  life 
divided  between  them,  and  under  the  daisy-starred  grave  to  which  they 
were  hasting  all  her  hopes  were  to  be  buried. 

What  will  love  not  do?  It  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world.  It  is  the 
greatest  thing  even  in  God,  for  God  is  love. 

One  day  a  London  clergyman  was  standing  on  the  pavement  of  a 
crowded  street.  The  carriages  were  rolling  past,  and  he  saw  a  little  ragged 
girl  carrying  her  brother,  a  little  younger  than  herself,  across  the  muddy 
causeway.  And  she  struggled  hard  to  bring  him  over,  and  at  last  suc- 
ceeded. And  the  clergyman,  whose  kind  eyes  had  been  watching  her, 
said  to  her,  "  Isn't  he  heavy  to  carry,  my  dear?  "  "  Oh,  no,  sir,"  was  her 
answer:  ''  lus  my  brothtr.'"  Light  is  the  burden  that  love  lays  on.  If 
we  really  love  people,  we'll  do  everything  and  anything  for  them. 

III.  The  Power  of  Teixrs. — Jesus  saw  the  widow  weeping,  and  He  had 
compassion  on  her,  and  said,  "Weep  not."  We  all  know  something  of 
the  power  of  tears.  Perhaps  at  school  you  see  that  sometimes,  when  a 
boy  who  has  not  learned  his  lesson,  begins  to  cry,  and  makes  the  master 
sorry  for  him,  so  that  he  lets  him  off.  And  when  you  see  your  father  or 
your  mother  crying,  how  very  sorry  you  feel  for  them.  You  put  your  arms 
round  their  necks  and  say,  "  Mother,  dear,  what  can  I  do  for  you  ?  Don't 
cry.'  Try,  my  dear  children,  and  never  give  your  parents  sorrow.  Re- 
member that  if  they  weep,  it  is  not  for  nothing.  Old  eyes  do  not  shed 
tears  easily.  Let  their  tears  move  you  ;  and  if  you  have  been  doing 
wrong,  just  go  up  to  them  at  once,  and  say,  "  I  am  sorry  for  what  I  have 
done,  and,  God  helping  me,  I  will  do  it  no  more."  A  mother,  who  once 
lost  her  dear  son,  put  on  his  tombstone  nothing  but  his  name,  and  this 
touching  sentence  :  "  He  never  caused  his  mother  a  tear  !  " 

Do  you  know  that  God  once  wept  for  you  ?  In  the  garden  of  Geth- 
semane  the  Son  of  God  shed  tears  all  night,  because  of  your  sins  and 
mine.  jesus  died  literally  of  a  brokc7i  heart,  and  when  the  soldiers 
pierced  His  side  the  tears  came  streaming  out  with  the  blood.  And  do  you 
know  that  when  you  or  I  do  wrong  there  are  tears  even  in  heaven  because 
of  it  ?  There  is  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  and  all  the 
bells  of  glory  are  set  ringing  when  the  prodigal  son  cornes  home.  But  i|f 
he  stays  away  in  the  far-off  country,  and  forgets  his  Father  and  his  Father's 
hearth,  that  hearth  is  wet  with  bitter  tear-drops.  God  says  in  the  Old 
Testament :  "  But,  if  ye  will  be  disobedient,  Mine  eye  shall  run  down  with 
tears."  "Jesus  wept."  Look  up  to-day,  dear  children,  at  the  tear-stained 
face  of  the  Man  of  sorrows,  who  was  acquainted  with  grief,  and  dry  His 
tears  by  doing  His  will  and  loving  Himself. 

IV.  The  Po'ver  of  J'rayer. — ^Liny  were  the  prayers  which  that  poor 
woman  raised  during  these  few  sorrowful  days  of  sickness  and  death,  that 
( ;od  would  spare  her  boy  to  her.  And  God  at  last  answered  her,  and 
restored  her  son  to  her  bosom.  Do  you  know  this,  that  prayer  is  one  of 
the  greatest  powers  of  life?  Prayer  moves  the  Hand  that  moves  the  uni- 
verse :  you  have  only  to  pwll  the  rope,  and  heavens  great  bell  rings.  When 
you  arc  in  a  difficulty  look  up  and  cry,  "  God  help  me."  The  Father  will 
not  shut  His  ears  to  His  little  child's  cry.  "Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given 
unto  you;  seek,  and  ye  shall  fmd;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you." 
Kvcn  a  little  child's  tap  at  the  door  of  heaven  is  heard,  and  the  doors  of 
1-aradisc  unroll,  and  tlie  ev(^rla5ting  gates  lift  up  their  heads. 


The  Five  Great  Powers  of  Life.  47 


You  have  all  heard  of  the  "  Cunard"  line  of  deep-sea  steamers,  sailing 
to  America  and  other  places.  Well,  it  is  one  of  the  most  gigantic  and 
successful  business  enterprises  in  the  world  ;  and  do  you  know  how  it  all 
began.  Samuel  Cunard  was  a  poor  boy,  and  when  he  got  on,  and  married, 
and  started  a  few  ships,  Mrs.  Cunard  spent  the  whole  of  each  day,  when  a 
steamer  sailed,  in  prayer  to  God  for  its  safety  and  for  the  success  of  the 
line.  Her  prayer  has  been  abundantly  answered.  And  if  you  pray 
earnestly — as  if  you  really  meant  it — like  the  importunate  widow  who 
would  take  no  refusal  from  Christ,  God  will  answer  you  too.  "  JVh'.itson'cr 
■ye  ask  in  faith,  believing,  ye  shall  receive." 

V.  T/ic  Poiaer  of  Christ. — This  is  the  greatest  of  all  the  powers  of  life. 
"  All  power,"  said  Jesus,  after  His  resurrection  from  the  dead,  "  is  giveii 
unto  Me  in  heaven  and  on  earth."  Most  of  these  powers  avail  only  for 
•earth  ;  but  the  power  of  Jesus  extends  over  both  worlds — the  seen  and  the 
unseen.  He  showed  that  power  by  raising  the  dead  boy  and  by  causing 
the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy. 

Do  you,  my  dear  children,  know  anything  of  the  power  of  Christ?  He 
is  strong  to  save,  "  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God 
by  Him."  Only  He  could  atone  for  our  sins  and  unlock  heaven's  gate. 
Give  yourself  into  His  kind  keeping  just  now,  and  He  will  raise  you  out  of 
the  grave  of  sin,  which  is  a  far  worse  grave  than  the  grave  of  death.  Trust 
.all  to  Him,  and  He  will  carry  you  through  life  with  all  its  toils  and  moils, 
its  changes  and  chances,  its  ups  and  downs,  past  death  and  into  eternity,  in 
perfect  security  and  happiness,  for  "  He  gathereth  the  lambs  with  His  arm 
and  carrieth  them  in  His  bosom."     "  Without  Me,  ye  can  do  nothing." 

A  good  lady  who  a  few  years  ago  lost  her  two  babes  by  death,  sang  thus 
about  them  and  about  Jesus,  in  whose  keeping  they  are  safe  ;  for  what  we 
•call  death  is  only  when  one  of  Christ's  sheep  wanders  over  the  brow  of  the 
hill  and  is  lost  to  our  view,  though  Jesus  is  still  watching  over  it  on  the 
sunshiny  side  of  the  hill,  as  He  did  when  it  wandered  on  the  shadoivy 
side  :— 

"  Two  buds  plucked  from  the  tree. 
Two  birdies  flown  from  the  nest  : 
Two  little  darlings  snatched 

From  a  fond  mother's  lireast  : 
Two  little  snow-white  lambs 

Gone  from  the  sheltering  fold  : 
Two  little  narrow  graves 

Down  in  the  churchyard  cold  ! 

Two  little  drooping  flowers 

Growing  in  purer  air, — 
Blooming  fragrant  and  bright 

In  the  kind  (hardener's  care  : 
Two  little  tender  birds 

Flown  far  from  fear  and  harm  : 
Two  little  snow-white  lambs 

On  the  good  Shepherd's  arm. 

Two  little  angels  more 

Singing  with  voices  sweet, 
Flinging  their  crowns  of  gold 

Down  at  the  Saviour's  feet : 
Free  from  all  earthly  care, 

Pure  from  all  earthly  stain  : 
<)  who  could  wish  them  back 

In  this  drear  world  again  ?  " 


4S  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


"Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  Me,  and  forbid  them  not :  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  "  And  none  shall  pluck  them  out  of 
my  Father's  hand." 

SERMOXETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 

INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Jj:sso!i  /or  June  i  :  St.  Luke  x.  25—37. 

The  Good  Samaritan. 

The  ten  commandments  of  God  had  been  gathered  up  by  our  Lord  Jesus 

into  two.  and  these  two  commandments  are,  "  Love  God  your  Father  in 

heaven,"    "Love  everybody  on  earth."     They  are  very  short  and  very 

simple.     Now,  to-day's  lesson  is  a  little  story  which  Jesus  told  to  explain 

to   us  the  second  of  tliese  commandments.     It  does  not  say  anything, 

about  the  first,  though  the  first  was  the  more  important.     It  was  about  the 

second  of  these  that  this  learned  Jewish  lawyer  raised  a  question,  and  it 

was,  "  Who  am  I  to  consider  my  neighbour  ?  " 

It  was  often  our  Lord's  custom  to  answer  questions  by  telling  a  parable 
or  story.  Jesus  did  not  make  His  lessons  as  dry  as  possible,  but  as  plea- 
sant and  interesting  as  possible.  This  tale  might  have  been  true,  but  this 
we  do  not  know.  There  is  only  one  road  between  the  great  town  of  Jeru- 
salem and  the  very  important  town  of  Jericho  (as  it  was  then).  There  was 
a  great  deal  of  traffic  and  coming  and  going  between  these  two  towns, 
because  there  was  no  other  road.  There  is  no  village  nor  houses  now  on 
the  road,  and  probably  there  never  was.  But  there  is  the  ruin  of  an  inn 
about  the  middle  of  the  road,  built  doubtless  for  the  accommodation  of 
passengers.  Well,  this  road  goes  down  an  uncommonly  rugged  descent 
into  a  glen,  and  brigands  and  thieves  of  all  sorts  could  find  pillage  and 
safety  in  this  sort  of  place.  Thus  it  was  a  most  likely  place  for  the  scene 
of  such  a  story  as  this. 

Vou  see  the  reason  why  these  clergymen — these  Levites — passed  the 
poor  man.  They  were  afraid  of  their  own  limbs  and  property.  They  knew 
that  the  brigands  who  had  attacked  this  poor  fellow  could  not  be  far  off, 
and  so  they  got  off  as  fast  as  possible.  Now,  the  lesson  which  our  Lord 
wishes  us  to  draw  from  this  story  is  that  we  ought  not  to  shut  out  from  our 
compassion  and  sympathy  and  kindness  any  needy  person.  When  we  find 
anyone  in  need,  then  we  ought  to  hear  a  call  from  God  to  act  a  kindly ;, 
brotherly  part  towards  that  person,  no  matter  who  he  is. 

At  that  time  people  only  cared  for  people  of  their  own  race  and  of  their 
own  religion.  They  thought  if  they  showed  them  kindness  they  had  done 
all  that  could  be  expected  of  them.  The  Jews  disliked  the  Samaritans 
very  much,  and  the  wonderful  thing  about  this  story  was  that  a  Samaritan 
should  show  such  kindness  to  a  poor  Jew. 

The  lesson  is  that  we  are  not  to  say  of  anyone,  "  He  is  not  of  us,"  but 
if  he  is  in  trouble  he  has  a  claim  on  us.     His  sorrow  is  the  claim. 

Men  are  all  brolliers,  that  is  what  Jesus  tells  us.  All  have  the  same 
Father,  the  same  Saviour.  Jesus  is  our  good  Samaritan,  who  came  from 
licavcn  to  feed  us,  and  save  us,  and  bring  us  back  to  God,  and  make  us  fit 
for  heaven. 


These  .Scrmonettcs  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  io8,  Vol.    II.]  MAY  30,  1890  One  Penny. 


THE     LIVING     CHRIST. 

A  Sermon  by 
The  Rev.  C.  A.   Berry, 

Preached  in  Westminster  Chapel^  on  Sunday  Evening,  May  18,  1890. 

"  Fear  not;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last  and  the  living  One  ;  and  1  became 
dead,  and  behold,  I  am  alive  for  evermore,  and  I  have  the  keys  of  death  and 
of  Hades.''— Rev.  i.  17,  18. 

This  sublime  Apocalypse  is  the  climax  of  Revelation.  It  carries  us 
forward  from  narrative  to  prophecy,  from  facts  to  truths,  from  present 
conditions  to  permanent  issues.  It  crowns  the  story  of  redemptive 
agencies  with  a  vision  of  redemptive  achievements.  It  is  a  book  of  com- 
pletions, of  finishing  touches,  of  final  results.  It  takes  up  the  broken 
threads  of  history  and  weaves  them  into  the  fabric  of  eternity.  It  turns 
our  gaze  on  what  has  been  and  is  around  us,  to  what  is  and  shall  be 
before  us.  Above  all,  it  advances  our  thought  from  the  Christ  of  history 
to  the  Christ  of  eternity.  It  translates  for  us  the  Man  of  Sorrows  into  the 
crowned  and  conquering  Lord  of  a  supreme  spiritual  empire.  There 
is  much  in  this  book  that  is  enigmatic,  a  magnificence  of  martial  imagery 
to  which  we  have  no  satisfactory  key,  vast  hieroglyphic  prophecies  whose 
rosetta-stone  has  not  yet  been  seen.  But  in  its  broad  purpose  the  book  is 
sufficiently  lucid  and  luminous.  Leaving  out  of  account  the  mere  acci- 
dental time-order  in  which  the  books  were  written,  and  estimating  them 
accordingto  their  spiritual  results  and  relations,  it  may  be  said  that  what  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  to  the  Gospel  by  Luke,  the  Apocalypse  is  to  the 
Gospel  of  John.  With  this  difference,  that  while  Luke's  supplement  con- 
tinues the  story  of  Christ's  work  within  the  Church  militant  on  earth, 
John's  supplement  lifts  us  up  to  a  vision  of  the  enthroned  Redeemer, 
unveils  the  glory  and  the  supremacy  of  our  risen  Lord,  reveals  to  us  the 
continuous  enthusiasm  and  the  certain  triumph  of  redeeming  grace,  and 
carries  us  forward  to  its  climax,  the  mastery  of  that  omnipotent  love 
which  has  achieved  dominion  over  all  worlds  and  principalities  and 
powers.  Without  such  a  book  as  the  Book  of  Revelation  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  would  have  lacked  its  crowning  assurance,  and  the  history  of 
Christ  its  adequate  interpretation.  What  is  going  on  in  the  invisible 
above  is  essential  to  the  understanding  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  visible 
around.  Only  as  we  get  a  glimpse  of  the  years  can  we  understand  the 
methods  of  grace.  The  vision  of  Christ  in  His  glory  alone  completes  and 
justifies  the  history  of  Christ  in  His  humiliation.     This  waybook  of  our 


50  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

faith  could  not  stop  with  the  record  of  a  Christ  crucified,  nor  yet  with 
the  record  of  an  ascending  Christ.  The  evangelical  narratives,  complete 
as  narratives,  surely  needed  some  supplement  which  should  link  their 
central  figure  to  every  land  and  age,  which  should  reveal  where  Christ  now 
is,  and  what  the  character  of  His  redeeming  supremacy. 

It  is  true,  indeed,  that  the  Church  received  memorable  and  significan 
answers  to  these  necessities  that  Pentecostal  Day,  when  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  swept  men  into  the  vigour  of  a  superhuman  life,  in  that  fiery  baptism 
which  transfused  the  weakness  of  earthly  souls  into  the  contagious  might 
of  conquering  spirits,  which  translated  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  into  the 
leaders  and  teachers  of  a  new  humanity.  In  that  fiery  baptism  we  have 
historic  evidence  of  our  Master's  word  that  He  would  continue  to  be  with 
and  in  the  men  who  worked  for  Him.  But  something  more  than  that 
historic  Pentecost  was  needed  to  support  the  coming  ages  in  confidence 
and  faith  and  service.  That  Pentecostal  baptism,  it  is  true,  repeats  itself 
upon  every  soul  which  seeks  to  win  the  higher  life,  and  adds  its  witness 
to  every  newborn  heart  of  the  living  presence  and  power  of  its  Lord.  But 
times  come  in  this  world  of  tangible  and  persistent  evil  when  what  we 
inwardly  feel  is  crushed  by  what  we  outwardly  see,  when  the  testimony  of 
the  spirit  within  us  is  rudely  bruised  by  collision  with  inflexible  facts  around 
us.  It  does  not  follow  on  that  account  that  the  spiritual  sense  of  Christ's 
indwelling  presence  is  not  after  all  the  surest  and  the  best  foundation  for 
our  hope  in  Him,  but  it  does  follow  that  what  we  inwardly  feel  needs  to  have 
some  correspondence  and  attestation  in  what  we  inwardly  see,  and  that  our 
sense  of  Christ's  gracious  indwelling  power  requires  to  be  justified  by  some 
vision  of  His  living  supremacy.  In  a  word,  the  Apocalypse,  the  Book  of 
Revelation,  is  essential  as  the  verifier  of  experience. 

For  deep  and  clear  as  may  be  our  inward  experience  of  Christ,  we  cannot 
ciuite  escape  the  tyranny  of  our  eyes.  We  see  too  much  and  too  little. 
Too  much,  because  too  little.  With  an  awful  precision  we  see  the  rava- 
ages  of  sin,  the  desolating  frenzy  of  passion,  the  wild,  blind  conflict  of 
eccentric  .life,  the  hungry  eagerness  of  graves  which  close  over  hopes 
unrealised,  over  lives  whose  record  is  weariness  and  whose  end  is  vanity. 
The  sight  is  sometimes  overwhelming,  and  the  heart  cries  out  in  pain. 
Ay,  but  with  all  our  seeing  we  see  too  little.  Like  Elisha's  servant  on 
the  hill  of  Dothan,  we  see  only  just  enough  to  blind  us  to  sights  more 
blessed  and  reassuring.  Sin  and  strife  and  death  are  assuredly  here,  and 
here  they  must  remain  while  man's  freedom  is  crowned  with  evil  and  the 
j)roccsses  of  discipline  are  as  yet  unfulfilled.  But  with  our  unbaptized 
vision  we  do  not  see  the  large  arena  on  which  God  is  working  out  His 
gracious  purposes,  we  do  not  know  how  these  vast  and  appalling  forces  of 
sin  are  in  the  grij)  and  under  the  dominance  of  a  triumphant  Redeemer, 
We  do  not  see  where  and  how  and  to  what  decree  the  conquering  grace 
of  Christ  cleaves  its  way  to  the  very  heart  of  the  conflict,  and  robs  the 
devil  of  his  spoil  in  the  very  hour  of  his  seeming  victory.  It  requires  the 
Apocalypse  to  show  us  the  wide  empire  and  mastership  of  Christ.  Only 
by  msight  can  eyesight  be  regulated  and  guided,  and  in  the  goodness  of 
His  grace  V.od  has  given  us  that  better  sight.  He  has  torn  aside  the  veil, 
and  has  shown  us  that  above  and  around  this  death-smitten  world  stretches 
a  kingdom  strong  and  bright  and  peaceful,  whose  King  is  Master  of  all 
worlds  and  powers ;  in  whose  hands  are  the  keys  of  death  and  of  Hades  ; 


The  Livins:  Christ. 


51 


round  whose  throne  gather  the  blessed  ones  who  sing  the  dual  and  eternal 
song,  "Worthy  is  the  lamb  that  was  slain,"  "hallelujah,  for  the  Lord  God 
omnipotent  reigneth." 

This  text  of  mine  is  Christ's  new  introduction  of  Himself  to  the  Church 
militant,  an  introduction  of  Himself  from  above  to  His  disciples  left  below. 
It  is  the  revelation  of  Himself  in  His  lordship,  clothed  with  the  authority 
and  resource  of  spiritual  empire.  On  His  head  are  many  crowns,  in  His 
hands  are  the  keys  of  mastery,  to  His  service  yields  all  God's  powers. 
But  I  want  you  to  note  that  right  in  the  centre  of  this  shining  vision 
the  old  familiar  Christ  of  the  Gospels  is  made  clearly  discernible.  Not 
only  does  He  introduce  Himself  as  the  living  one  with  the  keys,  but  as  the 
one  who  became  dead,  the  one  therefore  who  lived  and  moved  within 
the  range  of  men's  observation.  Christ  was  not  content  to  show  Himself 
in  His  glory,  endowed  with  the  splendour  of  Divine  power.  He  was  care- 
ful to  claim  His  place  on  the  field  of  history,  to  reaffirm  His  identity  as 
the  Son  of  Man,  to  revive  the  facts  of  His  incarnate  life,  and  to  link  what 
He  is  in  heaven  to  what  He  was  on  earth.  The  human  brow  is  visible 
through  the  Divine  halo.  The  hand  that  grasps  the  sceptre  bears  the  nail- 
marks  of  the  tragedy.  His  eyes — albeit  that  John  saw  them  as  flaming 
fires — recall  the  tear-drops  which  fell  at  Bethany  and  over  Jerusalem. 
And  it  is  the  Christ  Himself  that  throws  into  promise  these  lineaments  of 
His  humanity.  He  permits  us  to  look  at  His  crown,  but  while  as  yet  we 
turn  to  look  at  it  He  lifts  before  us  the  vision  of  His  cross,  He  unveils  for 
us  the  splendours  of  His  throne,  ay,  and  He  bids  us  to  look  at  the  steps 
which  led  up  to  it,  and  at  the  inscriptions  which  they  bear,  and  the 
heavenly  writing  spells  Bethlehem,  Nazareth,  Gethsemane,  Calvary,  Olivet. 

Now,  the  fact  that  our  Lord,  at  the  very  moment  of  His  triumphant 
revelation,  should  bring  into  prominence  the  historic  aspects  of  His  life, 
so  that  we  cannot  see  His  glory  apart  from  His  humiliation,  is  surely 
fraught  with  meanings  both  tender  and  instructive.  It  gives  fresh  affirma- 
tion to  the  kinship  between  God  and  man,  it  lifts  human  life  out  of  the 
contracted  sphere  of  nature  and  sets  it  in  the  light  of  eternity.  It  asserts 
lowliness  and  loftiness  in  new  and  striking  relations,  it  identifies  fidelity  with 
felicity  and  service  with  satisfaction.  It  sheds  down  upon  us  the  light  of 
promise  and  encouragement  amid  our  doubts  and  struggles. 

But  it  is  not  upon  any  one  of  these  suggestions  that  I  want  to  fix  your 
thought  to-night.  Our  interest  just  now  centres  upon  this  self-revelation 
of  Christ,  upon  the  emphasis  with  which  He  declares  the  two  aspects  of 
His  Christhood.  He  is  still  the  Christ  of  history  who  died,  even  though 
He  sits  enthroned  as  the  Christ  of  eternity  who  lives.  He  is  the  Christ  of 
eternity  who  lives  while  yet  He  cherishes  His  life  as  the  Christ  of  history 
when  He  served  and  sacrificed.  And  to  me  there  seems  great  significance 
in  this  twofold  Christhood.  It  re-emphasises  the  historic  basis  of  our 
rehgion,  even  while  it  carries  our  thought  upward  to  its  spiritual  character- 
istic. It  points  us  back  over  the  groundwork  of  our  faith  to  the  life,  the 
teachings,  the  death,  and  the  resurrection  of  the  Incarnate  Son,  even  while 
it  lifts  our  hearts  over  the  crown  of  their  religious  life  to  the  Christ  who  is 
glorified  and  triumphant. 

Now,  my  friends,  that  is  a  point  of  very  great  importance,  which  indicates 
and  guards  us  against  two  opposite  dangers  which  in  turn  imperil  the  life 
of  Christian  faith — the  danger,  on  the  one  hand,  of  a  dreamy  spiritualism 


52  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


detached  from  all  dependence  upon  the  historic  aspects  of  revelation,  and 
the  danger,  on  the  other  hand,  of  resting  too  much  and  too  long  on  the 
mere  narrative  of  the  Gospel,  and  failing  to  grasp  the  living,  spiritual 
relationship  which  Christ  fulfils  with  His  church.  This  text,  I  say,  recalls 
us  to  the  record  of  the  gracious  life  of  Him  that  liveth  and  was  dead.  It 
reminds  us  that  every  spiritual  truth  and  hope  in  the  Gospel  finds  its  root 
in  some  revealing  fact,  that  our  relations  with  God  and  with  eternity  are 
determined,  first  of  all,  by  a  life  that  was  visibly  lived,  by  a  death  which 
was  visibly  died  in  our  midst  and  in  our  behalf.  Why  should  Christ  intro- 
duce the  reference  to  His  death  in  such  a  place,  at  such  a  moment,  in 
such  a  connection,  if  it  were  not  to  emphasise  again  from  above  the  vital 
relation  between  the  death  He  died  and  the  life  which  each  of  us  may  live 
in  Him  ?  I  am  not  here  to  discuss  theories  to-day.  I  have  no  more 
disposition  than  fitness  for  such  a  task,  even  if  this  were  the  time  and  place. 
But  there  is  to  me  a  solemnity  about  this  reference  to  His  death  while  He 
sat  on  the  throne  of  life  which  intensifies  the  significance  of  the  Cross  and 
of  its  place  in  God's  ministry  of  redemption,  for  I  am  reminded  by  that 
circumstance  of  another  circumstance  in  history— the  night  in  which  He 
was  betrayed,  when,  with  pathos,  matchless  love,  and  tenderness,  He  called 
the  men  He  loved  and  trusted  into  an  upper  room  apart,'  and  there  did 
constitute  that  simple  unsacramentarian  supper,  that  festival,  that  eucharist 
of  thanksgiving  which  henceforth  was  to  be  maintained  in  memory  of  His 
death,  the  only  ceremony  Christ  committed  to  His  church — simple  beauti- 
ful, and  pathetic,  but  the  only  one  is  the  one  that  commemorated  the 
death  He  died  for  men.  And  I  hear  Him  from  above,  from  the  realms  of 
life  and  victory,  reminding  His  own  that  He  was  the  One  who  became 
dead.  And  that  death  of  His  passed  from  the  mere  region  of  martyr- 
heroism  into  a  significant  and  solemn  ministry  of  reconcihation. 

My  brethren,  there  lies  the  foundation  of  our  new  life  in  Christ. 
There  is  the  starting  point  of  our  discipleship  and  of  our  new  life  in  Him. 
There, -at  the  foot  of  the  Cross  where  he  died  for  men,  the  Cross  which  is 
the  only  power  that  can  teach  us  penitence,  the  only  place  to  which  we 
can  repair  for  the  renewal  of  our  humility,  the  stirring  of  our  gratitude  and 
our  hope,  the  Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  apart  from  any  theory  of  it, 
taken  as  a  central  fact  in  the  unfolding  of  God  in  history,  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  the  historic  verity  we  call  the  Cross  of  Christ,  has  been  the  great 
compelling  force  and  inspiration  in  the  life  of  the  Church,  in  the  mis- 
sionary enthusiasm  of  consecration.  And  to  the  Cross  we  must  go  to 
learn  penitence,  to  find  God,  to  sound  the  depth  and  to  scale  the  height 
of  (iod's  infinite  compassion.  Out  faith  begins  in  fact  and  in  history,  and 
the  summing  up  of  it  in  history  is  the  death  He  died. 

But  there  are  other  reasons  why  we  should  get  us  back  into  history  for 
ilie  renewal  and  increase  of  our  faith.  The  historic  Christ,  who  lived, 
spake,  worked,  died,  and  rose  again  in  our  midst,  is  our  ultimate  ground 
of  verification  for  the  great  spiritual  truths  and  hopes  which  inspire  and 
quicken  us  to-day.  We  are  asked  to  believe  that  it  is  possible  for  us  to 
be  just  and  to  believe  in  lofty  and  generous  thoughts  of  God  and  man 
wlii(  h  to-day  happily  fill  the  Church— we  are  told  we  can  believe  these 
apart  from  history;  we  can  accept  them  as  sentiments  kindled  in  us  by  the 
direct  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  There  is  a  truth  in  the  assertion, 
but  only  a  half  truth.      I'or  in  the  last  analysis  of  things  my  faith  in  these 


The  Living  Christ.  53 


high  truths  about  God  and  about  maa  run  back  for  verification  to  the  hfe 
God  lived  amongst  us,  and  the  sacrifice  which  He  wrought  in  our  behalf. 
I  have  a  body  as  well  as  a  brain,  a  brain  as  well  as  a  heart,  and  a  religion 
which  is  going  to  command  my  whole  nature  must  appeal  to  mc  by  its 
evidences  and  inspirations  along  every  channel  of  my  nature.  Men  tell 
me  that  God  is  love.  They  speak  the  words  sometimes  very  glibly,  and 
they  ask  me  to  believe  that  God  is  love.  My  friends,  there  are  many 
grounds  to-day  for  doubt  and  difficulty  and  scepticism — many  apparent 
grounds ;  but  there  is  no  ground  of  scepticism  that  masters  me,  and  for 
an  hour  now  and  again  so  masters  me  as  to  command  me  ;  no  ground  of 
scepticism  equal  to  the  assertion  that  God  is  love.  I  cannot  believe  it. 
You  can,  you  talk  so  glibly.  I  cannot  believe  it ;  it  makes  a  sceptic  of 
me.  Why  should  He  love  man  ?  How  can  He  love  man  ?  Look  at  the 
gods  that  have  come  to  be  developed  from  man's  own  consciousness. 
They  are  the  reflection  of  man's  thought  of  God — very  strong,  and  very 
passionate,  and  very  cruel.  How  can  He  love  me?  My  heart  longs  to 
believe  it ;  but  there  is  something  in  me,  born  out  of  my  sin,  which  makes 
me  doubt,  and  turns  me  to  scepticism.  I  cannot  believe  it  until  God 
proves  it  up  to  the  hilt,  and  proves  it  by  an  appeal  to  all  the  considera- 
tions, and  all  the  instincts,  and  all  the  lines  of  evidence  that  can  reach  me 
down  here  in  the  darkness.  I  cannot  believe  it  till  God  comes  Himself, 
and  is  manifest  in  the  flesh,  not  needing  an  argument  to  prove  His 
divinity,  but  living  out  and  shining  out  His  divinity  in  Christ  Jesus.  And 
when  I  meet  Him  there,  in  history,  living  my  life,  bearing  my  burdens, 
and  for  my  sake  dying  the  death,  I  say — that  is  godlike,  that  is  divine.  He 
who  could  ever  think  the  thought  of  an  incarnation,  not  to  say  who  could 
fulfil  it,  shall  be  my  God ;  and  I  believe  Him  when  He  says — I  am  love, 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  your  infirmities,  and  ready  and  mighty  to  save. 
Yes,  the  historic  Christ  is  the  ultimate  ground  of  faith  that  God  loves 
man. 

So,  too,  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  that  great  Gospel  of  glad  tidings 
to  breaking  hearts.  Oh,  what  joy  comes  to  the  heart  that  believes  it,  oh 
what  darkness  and  despair  to  the  mind  that  loses  grip  of  it,  or  even  sight 
of  it.  I  stand  here  or  kneel  in  the  chamber  where  lie  the  cold,  stiff" remains 
of  what  had  been  my  life,  my  love,  in  this  world  my  all.  I  speak,  and  there 
is  no  response.  Bitter  tears  flow,  the  calm,  cold  stillness  is  unmoved.  I 
go  out  under  the  noontide  sky  and  it  shines  as  if  in  mockery  of  my  pain, 
and  I  go  out  at  silent  night  and  the  stars  look  down  with  a  cold  and  distant 
benignity,  careless  that  my  heart  is  breaking.  I  get  me  back  and  I  look 
at  the  cold  and  stiff"  Thing,  and  I  say,  if  a  man  die,  shall  he  live  again  ? 
And  the  Thing  answers,  No.  And  my  brain,  under  the  tyranny  of  the  Thin^, 
echoes,  "  No."  How  shall  I  know,  when  you  come  in  and  tell  me  that  i..^n 
shall  rise  and  live  again,  how  shall  I  believe  you,  what  evidence  have  you 
got  ?  You  have  argued  it  from  your  nature ;  but,  perhaps  you  are  mistaken, 
how  shall  I  believe  so  as  to  find  joy  in  my  faith  unless  I  can  go  and  stand 
by  the  tomb  where  Christ  was  and  was  not,  where  He  had  been,  but 
where  no  power  of  death  or  hell  could  hold  Him  ?  Until  you  take  me,  in 
my  doubt  and  fear,  along  with  Thomas  to  put  my  hand  in  the  nail  print, 
and  in  His  side  that  was  pierced.  Then,  with  doubting  Thomas,  I  too  forget 
even  the  shame  of  my  doubt  in  the  glow  and  gladness  of  my  finding  my 
Lord  and  my  God.     And  the  Tiling  I  put  away  from  me,  and  the  soul  I 


54  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


loved  I  commune  with  still,  having  a  nearer  and  dearer  friendship  than' 
when  the  flesh  separated  us. 

Yes,  my  friends,  the  historic  Christ  is,  after  all,  the  foundation  basis  of 
our  beliefs  and  hopes,  and  this  text  calls  us  back  to  think  of  Him  so  and 
to  renew  our  faith  upon  that  soHd  foundation. 

But— but  the  text  tells  us  we  must  not  stop  there,  that  the  Christ  of 
history  is  only  the  beginning,  that  the  Cross  of  Christ  is  only  the  finger- 
post that  Christ  is  yonder  and  lives,  that  Christ  is  here  inside  and  lives, 
and  that  the  faith  of  Christ  bids  us  turn  from  distant  history  when  we 
have  built  upon  it  to  find  Christ  here  and  now,  a  living  presence  in  our 
own  hearts  and  in  the  world.  The  grand  and  fatal  blunder  of  evangelical 
theology  is  that  it  stops  with  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  stops  before  Christ. 
It  forgets  that  He  rose  again  and  lives,  it  forgets  that  while  by  His  death 
we  are  reconciled  to  God,  it  is  by  His  life  that  we  are  saved.  It  forgets, 
or  is  only  beginning  now  adequately  to  remember,  that  while  our  great 
structure  of  faith  rests  upon  solid  foundations  on  the  earth,  it  builds  and 
caps  its  towers  away  up  in  the  heavens.  It  will  not  do  for  you  and  me  to 
stand  on  the  slopes  of  Olivet  gazing  up  at  the  departing  Christ,  or  our 
conception  of  Christ,  and  of  His  Gospel,  and  our  character, 
experience,  and  hope  will  suffer  disastrous  impoverishment.  The  men 
of  Galilee  had  all  the  facts  of  Christ's  life,  and  after  the  resur- 
rection they  had  some  appreciation  of  their  meaning  and  scope.  But 
they  had  no  adequate  Gospel,  they  had  no  large  and  compelling  Christian 
life  until  the  Christ  of  eternity  revealed  Himself  unto  them. 

Although  Christ's  last  words  to  His  disciples  were,  "All  power  is  given 
unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  go  ye  out  and  preach,"  He  immediately 
checked  Himself  and  said,  "  Not  yet,  not  yet,  tarry  ye  in  Jerusalem  until 
ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high."  And  that  power  was  the  vision 
of  Christ,  that  Pentecostal  baptism  of  the  risen  Lord,  that  personal 
experience  of  Christ's  return  and  indwelling. 

Nay,  my  friends,  our  religious  life  and  faith  are  not  complete,  our  reli- 
gious experience  is  far  from  vigorous  until  we  grasp  the  other  side  of  that 
vision  which  shines  in  the  text,  which  shows  that  Christ  lives  in  His 
disciples  to-day,  speaks  with  them,  walks  wdth  them,  works  with  them, 
until  we  realise  that  He  is  the  living  Lord,  exercising  a  gracious  authority 
over  His  own.  In  a  discourse  of  very  great  power  delivered  a  year  or 
two  ago  before  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society,  a  discourse  as  profound 
in  its  exposition  as  it  was  searching  in  its  appeals,  Dr.  Dale  called  atten- 
tion to  the  higher  aspects  of  Christian  belief  and  experience,  and  seriously 
affirmed  that  much  of  our  modern  knowledge  of  Christ  is  a  knowledge  of 
Him  after  the  flesh,  a  Christ  who  was  and  is  not,  a  Christ  outside,  not 
inside  and  alive.  Dr.  Dale  would  be  the  first  to  admit  that  his  caution  is 
capable  of  over  emphasis.  But  we  also  surely  must  agree  with  him  that 
there  is  that  danger,  to  think  of  Christ  as  a  reminiscence  of  the  past,  and 
lose  grasp  of  Him  as  a  living  and  redemptive  power.  There  are  two 
senses  in  the  New  Testament  in  which  men  are  said  to  know  Christ,  and 
they  may  be  set  forth  by  illustrations  of  each  drawn  from  the  narrative. 
Nicodenius  said,  "  Master,  we  know — we  know  that  Thou  art  come  from 
God  ;  we  know  because — ":  there  was  logical  observation,  logical  conclu- 
sion, an  irresistible  process  of  reasoning  leading  to  an  irresistible  result. 
"  AVc  know  that  Thou  art  a  Master,  because—":  that  was  his  knowledge  of 


The  Living  Christ.  55 


Christ,  and  it  came  to  nought.  Paul  said,  "  I  know  Whom  I  have  believed," 
not  I  know  in  whom  I  have  believed ;  still  less,  I  know  in  what  I  have 
believed.  "  I  know,"  says  he,  "  Whom  I  have  believed."  Beforetime  it  had 
been  his  one  ambition  to  know  Him,  and  the  power  of  His  resurrection.  Even 
when  historically  and  academically  he  knew  Him  perfectly,  his  prayer  still 
was,  "  Oh  that  I  may  know  Him  in  the  power  of  His  resurrection."  That 
brings  us  to  the  second  and  higher  aspects  of  Christian  knowledge, 
knowledge  internal  and  spiritual,  of  a  living  and  reigning  Christ. 

What  is  your  knowledge  of  Christ,  my  friend?  Is  it  of  a  Christ  historic 
and  academic,  or  a  Christ  whom  you  have  taken  into  the  most  sacred  secrecy 
of  fellowship,  and  made  yours,  so  that  you  can  say,  "I  live,  yet  not  T, 
Christ  liveth  in  me."  That  is  Christian  life,  that  is  Christian  knowledge, 
that  has  in  it  all  the  potencies  of  Christian  power  and  fulfilment.  Every- 
body knows  Christ  historically,  at  least  in  this  land,  and  very  little  comes 
of  it  except  criticism  and  compliment.  The  man  who  can  compliment 
Christ  is  a  long  way  off  Him.  The  man  who  gets  nearest  to  Him  would 
dry  up  at  the  roots  of  his  tongue  if  he  tried  to  speak  a  compliment.  Love 
must  then  be  master.  Have  you  got  so  near  to  Christ  ?  Let  Him  come 
so  near  to  you  that  you  cannot  compliment  Him,  that  you  can  only  say, 
I  love  Thee,  I  trust  Thee,  my  Lord,  my  God,  take  me,  use  me,  use  me 
in  life,  use  me  in  death,  but  so  use  me  that  Thy  grace  may  be  perfected  in 
me,  and  through  me  Thy  kingdom  may  be  hastened.     Amen. 

Prayer  before  Sermon. 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  without  whose  inspiration  our  minds  are 
barren  and  our  hearts  are  cold,  grant  us  the  overshadowing  of  Thy  Holy 
Spirit,  and  lift  us  into  the  realisation  and  into  the  enjoyment  of  this  place 
and  of  this  service.  We  are  come  together  to  worship  Thee,  and  by  our 
worship  to  get  nearer  to  Thee  in  exaltation  of  thought  and  of  sentiment. 
We  would  climb  for  an  hour  to  heights  of  the  soul,  above  the  mists,  above 
the  smoke  and  noise  of  this  world  of  life  about  us,  we  would  get  to  the 
heights  where  sight  is  translated  into  insight,  and  where  the  things  unseen 
become  the  things  most  real  and  most  precious.  Let  no  dark  thought  of 
evil  come  between  us  and  Thee.  Let  no  unworthy  thought  or  unchaste 
desire  point  us  down  to  the  earth  and  the  earthly.  Let  no  vague  and  vain 
consciousness  of  the  things  around  us  come  as  a  thick  veil  between  our 
spirits  and  Thine.  Help  us  to  come  to  Thee  with  all  the  powers  of  brain 
and  heart,  and  flesh,  and  spirit,  and  will  blended  and  harmonised 
in  beautiful  submission,  that  we  may  hold  fellowship  with  Thee  and 
Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  and  catch  the  light  that  shines  from  above, 
and  feel  the  thrill  of  that  endless  life  which  Thou  hast  revealed  to 
us  in  Thy  Son. 

We  give  Thee  thanks  to-night  for  Thy  Gospel  to  men,  Thy  message  of 
glad  tidings  to  the  people  Thou  hast  made.  We  joyfully  believe  that 
Thou  hast  made  the  world,  not  to  wreck  it  but  to  save  and  sanctify  it ; 
that  Thou  hast  made  man,  not  to  make  him  and  destroy,  but  to  discipline 
and  to  save  and  to  grow.  We  read  Thy  Word  with  great  delight  when  it 
speaks  of  Thee  as  entering  into  our  life  and  bearing  our  burdens  and  carry- 
ing our  sins.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  made  if  clear  to  us  that  Thou 
art  not  a  God  afar  off,  but  living  down  here  in  the  very  centre  of  our  life  and 


56  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


strife,  sharing  with  us  the  joys  and  tears  of  our  time  and  discipline.  We 
bless  Thee  especially  for  the  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  to  men,  for  the  revelation 
He  has  given  of  Thee  to  us.  For  the  revelation  He  has  given  of  us  to 
ourselves  we  bless  Thee,  for  His  life  in  the  matchlessness  of  its  beauty 
and  grace,  for  that  childhood  which  has  sanctified  childhood  in  every  land 
and  age,  for  that  youth  of  obedient  sonship  in  the  household  that  has 
thrown  the  sanctity  of  a  new  meaning  about  the  duties  of  home  and  the 
holiness  of  a  new  spirit  about  the  loves  of  the  fireside,  for  His 
days  of  busy  working  by  which  we  have  learned  all  the  compassion  and 
tenderness  of  our  God,  and  for  the  days  of  more  wondrous  speaking 
by  which  we  have  been  instructed  in  the  mystery  of  the  Divine  grace  and 
purpose.  We  bless  Thee  for  that  life  which  was  the  pattern  and  measure  of 
life  for  all  of  us,  and  we  bless  Thee  for  His  death  and  for  all  the  mystery  of 
love  unspeakable  which  gathers  about  the  cross  of  Calvary.  Help  us  to 
gather  there,  in  the  place  where  the  thick  darkness  was,  in  the  place  where 
the  light  now  is  and  ever  more  shall  be,  the  light  of  that  love  which 
was  stronger  than  sin,  and  of  that  grace  which  was  mightier  that  death. 
Give  us  grace  to  bend  before  that  cross  till  the  spirit  of  the  Crucified  pass 
into  us,  and  it  become  to  us  not  a  thing  of  the  past,  but  a  living  symbol  of 
the  sacrifice,  the  measure  of  our  death  with  Christ  and  the  measure  of  our 
resurrection  with  Him. 

But  we  bless  Thee,  O  God,  that  we  are  not  called  to  rest  in  the  cross  ot 
Christ,  that  Thou  dost  lead  our  thought  from  the  cross  to  the  crown, 
from  the  death  to  the  life,  from  the  Saviour  Who  was  a  sacrifice  to  the 
Saviour  Who  is  a  King.  We  bless  Thee  for  the  assurance  that  He  is  not 
dead,  that  He  is  risen,  that  He  lives  for  evermore,  the  Divine  Kinsman, 
touched  with  the  feeling  of  our  infirmity,  and  clothed  with  all  power  to 
love  and  to  heal.  Oh,  let  the  matchlessness  of  that  thought  get  hold  of  us 
to-night,  that  our  Brother,  who  wore  and  who  wears  our  flesh,  who  has 
entered  into  our  temptations  and  known  the  bitterness  and  hardship  of  our 
lot,  is  a  Brother  with  all  power,  who  has  the  keys  and  the  will  to  use  them, 
and  the  compassion  to  use  them  tenderly.  We  bless  Thee  for  the  vision 
of  the  risen,  triumphant  Christ,  and  for  the  assurance  we  gather  from  the 
vision  of  Him  on  His  throne  that  all  nations  and  tribes  and  peoples  and 
tongues  are  within  the  scope  and  sweep  of  His  gracious  purpose,  and  that 
yet  there  shall  rise  from  all  the  nations  and  kindreds  of  the  earth  the  song, 
"  Hallelujah  !  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth." 

In  the  faith  of  that  Gospel  are  we  gath2red  here  to-night.  Hear  us  as 
vve  pray  for  the  enjoyment  of  all  its  blessings.  Grant  us  the  forgiveness  of 
sins  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  Him  who  died  that  sin  might  be 
destroyed.  Grant  us  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  promised  to  all  who  look 
for  Him  after  the  Master's  ascension.  Give  to  us  that  peace  which  was 
L^ranted  of  old  to  the  disciples,  which  stilled  their  unrest  and  put  to  silence 
their  doubts  and  griefs  and  fears.  Speak  to  us,  O  Christ,  Thou  living 
Presence,  as  Thou  didst  speak  to  them  ;  but  speak  in  words  of  bigger 
meaning  and  deeper  peace.  Still  our  hearts,  we  pray  Thee ;  fill  us  with 
the  calm  which  leads  to  strength,  and  with  the  strength  which  breaks  forth 
into  service. 

If  there  be  any  in  this  house  to-night  without  the  personal  indwelling  of 
the  Spirit,  indifferent  and  worldly,  with  brain  and  heart  barred  against  the 
commg  in  of  Christ,  O  Christ,  reveal^Thyself  in  grace  and  tenderness,  that 


Chorazin  and  Bethsaida.  57 

the  doors  be  unbarred,  and  the  long-imprisoned  soul  step  out  to  meet  and 
greet  Thee,  and  to  bid  Thee  welcome  into  residence. 

If  there  be  those  who  have  been  Thine  and  have  loved  Thee,  whose 
love  has  cooled,  amid  the  chills  of  earth  and  amid  the  doubts  and  trials 
of  life,  kindle  afresh  a  brighter  flame  of  pious  and  devoted  aftection.  Do 
Thou  more  than  restore  the  first  and  lost  love,  make  them  to  have  new 
power  and  peace  in  the  heart. 

If  there  be  any  in  this  house  who  have  loved  and  are  loving  Thee, 
whose  lives  are  consecrated,  with  time  and  talent  and  goods  to  the  service 
of  men  for  Thy  sake,  God  bless  them,  feed  them,  refresh  them  with  water 
from  the  river  of  life,  make  them  glad  with  the  wine  of  Thy  pleasure,  put 
a  song  in  their  hearts  to-night  which  shall  inspire  them  to  more  and  better 
service  in  days  to  come,  and  grant  that  they  who  give  may  get  more  than 
they  give,  and  that  the  paradox  of  the  Master  may  be  learned  by  us  His 
followers,  how  by  dying  to  live,  how  by  squandering  to  increase,  how  by 
spending  to  multiply. 

Breathe  Thy  Spirit  now  upon  us,  O  Christ,  we  beseech  Thee,  take  us  into 
the  innermost  sanctuary  of  Thy  thought  and  fellowship  to-night,  and  when 
we  go  hence  may  be  it  carrying  with  us  a  song  in  the  heart. 

We  beseech  Thee  to  hear  the  prayers  in  which  we  have  joined  this  day. 
Bless  the  thoughts  commended  unto  this  congregation  in  the  earlier  service 
of  the  day  respecting  Thy  work  amongst  the  nations  across  the  sea  by  Thy 
servants  whose  lives  are  given  to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  and  the  teach- 
ing of  men.  Bless,  we  pray  Thee,  all  efforts  to  spread  the  knowledge  which 
brings  freedom,  freedom  which  leads  to  full  emancipation.  Send  out  Thy 
light  and  truth  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  let  that  kingdom  come  of 
which  we  all  sing  and  pray,  when  He  shall  reign  whose  right  it  is  from  the 
river  unto  the  ends  of  the  earth.     We  ask  it  in  His  name.     Amen. 


CHORAZIN  AND  BETHSAIDA. 

A  Sermon 
By  the  Rev.  Francis  Wayland. 

Pj-eached  m  the  Chapel  of  Brown  Unzve?-si/y,  U.S.A. 

"  Woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin  !  woe  unto  thee,  Bethsaida !  for  if  the  mighty 
works  had  been  done  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  which  have  been  done  in  you,  they 
had  a  great  while  ago  repented,  sitting  in  sackcloth  and  ashes.  But  it  shall 
be  more  tolerable  for  Tyre  and  Sidon  at  the  judgment,  than  for  you.  And 
thou,  Capernaum,  which  art  exalted  to  heaven,  shalt  be  thrust  down  to  hell." 
—St.  Luke  x.  13—15. 

"And  thou,  Capernaum,  which  art  exalted  unto  heaven,  shall  be  brought 
down  to  hell  :  for  if  the  mighty  works,  which  have  been  done  in  thee,  had  been 
done  in  Sodom,  it  would  have  remained  until  this  day.  But  I  say  unto  you, 
that  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the  land  of  Sodom  in  the  day  of  judgment, 
than  for  thee."— St.  Matthew  xi.  23,  24. 

There  is  a  wide  distinction  everywhere  made,  .but  not  so  universally 
expressed,  between  the  wrong  of  an  act  and  the  guilt  of  the  actor.  When 
two  men  perform  the  same  act,  we  do  not  look  upon  them  as  by  necessity 
equally  deserving  of  punishment.  A  father  and  a  child  may  be  both 
detected  in  a  robbery.  The  act  is  the  same  in  both.  So  far  as  this  alone 
is  concerned,  we  can  make  no  distinction  between  them.     And  yet,  every 


5$  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

man  who  hears  of  such  a  case,  will  at  once  make  a  distinction.  He  will 
say  the  parent  had  more  knowledge  ;  he  was  more  perfectly  instructed  in 
the  natiue  of  his  duty  ;  he  knew  the  consequences  of  his  action ;  he  acted 
in  opposition  to  clearer  hght  and  stronger  and  more  emphatic  motives. 
The  child  was  too  young  to  appreciate  the  consequences  of  his  action. 
He  had  never  enjoyed  any  opportunities  for  moral  cultivation  ;  but  his 
conscience,  on  the  contrary,  had  been  stupefied  by  witnessing  from  infancy 
nothing  but  deeds  of  dishonesty.  He  has  not  yet  become  hardened  in 
guilt,  and  he  may  by  proper  cultivation  be  reclaimed  and  become  a 
virtuous  citizen.  We  should  all  be  painfully  surprised  if  both  of  these 
persons  were  adjudged  to  the  same  punishment. 

All  this  is  the  dictate  of  the  common  sense  of  humanity.  It  teaches  us 
that  we  can  never  decide  upon  the  actual  guilt,  or  even  virtue,  of  a  human 
being  by  simply  reciting  what  he  has  done.  We  must  go  farther  than  this, 
and  ask  under  what  spiritual  conditions  his  acts  have  been  performed.  We 
inquire  what  have  been  his  opportunities  of  knowing  his  duty  ?  What  have 
been  his  advantages  for  moral  cultivation  ?  What  obstacles  had  he  over- 
come in  arriving  at  his  present  attainments  in  virtue  ?  What  moral  motives 
has  he  resisted  in  perpetrating  the  crimes  of  which  he  is  guilty  ?  It  is- 
obvious  that  without  a  due  consideration  of  all  these  particulars,  we  can 
form  no  correct  opinion  of  his  desert,  either  of  reward  or  punishment. 

An  Indian  on  our  Western  plains  has  lost  a  brother  in  battle  with  a 
neighbouring  tribe.  There  was  no  unfairness  in  the  fight;  it  was  death 
according  to  the  acknowledged  laws  of  barbarian  warfare.  But  the  deed 
must  be  avenged.  He  follows  upon  the  track  of  his  enemy  by  day  and  by 
night.  He  Hes  in  ambush  on  the  outskirts  of  his  village,  until  at  last  he 
gluts  his  revenge  in  the  blood  of  his  foe,  and  returns  in  triumph  to  his 
home,  bearing  aloft  the  gory  scalp,  the  hideous  trophy  of  his  accursed 
prowess.  The  deed  is  detestable.  We  hate  it  with  a  perfect  hatred.  Yet 
that  man  might  come  among  us,  and  as  his  stately  form  attracts  the  atten- 
tion of  every  beholder,  we  rather  pity  than  abhor  him.  We  think  what 
might  have  been  made  of  such  a  nature,  if  it  had  been  in  youth  subjected 
to  better  influences,  and  imbued  with  the  principles  of  the  Gospel.  But 
suppose  that  a  similar  deed  had  been  done  among  us,  under  the  full  light 
of  Christian  civilisation.  Suppose  a  man,  well  known  and  honorably  con- 
nected, who  from  his  youth  had  been  taught  the  precepts  of  Jesus,  had,  for 
lust  of  gold  or  to  gratify  revenge,  allured  an  acquaintance  to  some  secluded 
spot,  and  brutally  slain  and  mangled  him.  At  the  perpetration  of  such  a 
crime,  society  stands  aghast,  and  the  murderer  is  consigned  by  the  voice  of 
universal  humanity  to  ignominious  death.  Yet,  if  we  look  at  these  two  acts 
themselves,  we  can  discover  scarcely  a  shade  of  difterence  between  them. 
The  only  difference  arises  from  the  character  of  the  actors.  The  one  had 
never  enjoyed  any  opportunity  for  obtaining  a  knowledge  of  his  duty  ;  the 
other  had,  from  his  infancy,  been  blessed  with  all  the  means  of  moral 
culture  springing  from  advanced  and  intelligent  Christian  civilisation. 

You  all  perceive,  then,  that  we  estimate  guilt  and  desert  of  punishment, 
not  by  the  magnitude  of  the  crime  committed,  but  by  comparing  the  crime 
with  the  means  of  moral  cultivation  enjoyed  by  him  who  commits  it. 
Hence,  of  two  men  committing  the  same  act,  the  one  may  be  deserving  of 
more  condign  punishment  than  the  other  ;  nay,  more,  the  one  may  have 
been  guilty  of  fewer  overt  acts,  in  themselves  culpable,  and  yet  may  be 


Chorazin  and  Bethsaida.  59 

deserving  of  more  condign  punishment  than  he  who  had  more  frequently 
violated  moral  law. 

And  herein  we  see  that  the  principle  of  judgment  which  I  have 
attempted  to  illustrate  must  decide  our  moral  character  in  our  relations 
to  eternity  as  well  as  to  time.  We  are  thus  taught  that  in  deciding  upon 
our  desert  of  reward  and  punishment  at  the  bar  of  God,  we  are  bound  to 
inquire,  not  only  what  have  we  done,  and  what  have  we  not  done,  but 
what  are  the  circumstances  under  which  we  have  acted  ?  What  is  the 
degree  of  light  which  we  have  enjoyed,  and  to  which  we  have  willingly 
blinded  ourselves  ?  What  have  been  the  monitions  of  conscience  which 
we  have  resisted  and  at  last  suppressed?  And  what  have  been  the 
teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  which  we  have  been  insensible  and  dis- 
obedient ?  These  are  the  questions  which  it  becomes  us  to  ask,  if  we 
would  form  a  correct  estimate  of  our  character  as  it  will  appear  in  the 
light  of  God's  countenance,  when  we  and  all  men  stand  at  His  bar  in 
judgment. 

All  this  seems  very  reasonable,  and  it  is  surprising  that  it  is  not  more 
frequently  adopted  as  the  rule  of  our  judgments  in  matters  of  religion.  We 
always  apply  this  principle  in  forming  our  opinion  respecting  the  dealings 
of  man  with  man ;  but  we  rarely  make  use  of  it  in  forming  our  opinions 
respecting  our  dealings  with  God.  Hence  it  is,  that  this  doctrine  is  so 
frequently  inculcated  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  specially  in  the  New 
Testament.  Thus  says  the  Apostle  Paul,  "  They  that  have  sinned  without 
law  shall  perish  without  law,  they  that  have  sinned  under  the  law  shall  be 
judged  by  the  law."  Our  Saviour  says,  "  He  that  knew  his  lord's  will, 
and  prepared  not  himself,  neither  did  according  to  his  will,  shall  be  beaten 
with  many  stripes  ;  but  he  that  knew  not,  and  did  commit  sins  worthy  of 
stripes,  shall  be  beaten  with  few  stripes ;  for  unto  whomsoever  much  is 
given  of  him  shall  be  much  required."  In  the  text,  a  practical  illustration 
of  this  rule  of  moral  judgment  is  given.  Capernaum,  like  most  ot  the 
cities  of  that  period,  was  doubtless  a  wicked  place  ;  but  we  have  not,  that 
I  know  of,  any  reason  to  suppose  that  its  overt  acts  were  vicious  by  way  of 
eminence.  It  had,  however,  enjoyed  more  than  most  other  cities  in  Judea 
the  personal  teachings  of  the  blessed  Saviour.  Sodom  is  always  held  up 
in  the  Bible  as  a  city  of  notorious  depravity,  of  most  odious  and  detestable 
vices.  It  had,  so  far  as  we  know,  enjoyed  the  teachings  of  no  other  person 
than  Lot.  It  was,  however,  so  depraved  that  it  was  destroyed  by  fire  from 
heaven. 

If,  now,  these  two  cities  had  existed  at  the  same  time,  and  one  of  us  had 
walked  through  their  streets,  how  great  to  us  would  have  seemed  the  contrast 
between  them.  In  Sodom,  by  day  and  by  night,  he  would  have  heard  the 
roar  of  revelry  and  the  shout  of  blasphemy.  Vice  in  its  most  disgusting 
forms  would  have  been  seen  exhibiting  itself  without  either  disguise  or  con- 
cealment. Robbery  or  murder  would  have  been  so  common  as  scarcely  to 
attract  attention.  Escaping  from  the  sight  of  such  infamous  pollution  we 
should  have  expected  that  the  judgments  of  God  would  sweep  from  the 
earth  a  city  that  had  become  so  emphatically  a  disgrace  to  our  common 
nature. 

Suppose  that  leaving  so  horrid  a  locality,  we  pursued  our  journey  north- 
ward along  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  and  by  the  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
until  we  arrived  at  Capernaum.     How  different  the  spectacle.     On  every 


6o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

side  we  should  see  in  great  numbers  the  ministers  of-  the  sanctuary.  The 
Priests  and  the  Levites  in  their  sacred  robes  would  meet  us  at  every  turn. 
The  scribes  and  the  doctors  of  the  law  would  be  heard  at  the  corners  of 
the  streets,  explaining  the  precepts  of  Moses,  while  the  people  with  profound 
reverence  were  bowing  before  them,  or  else  following  them  with  the  cry  of 
"  Rabbi,  Rabbi."  The  synagogues  on  the  seventh  day  are  filled  with 
worshippers  chanting  the  songs  of  David,  or  reciting  the  precepts  of  the 
Law  given  on  Mount  Sinai.  Here  would  be  seen  the  burly  priest,  with 
professional  gravity  receiving  from  the  poor  gardener  his  little  tithe  of  mint, 
anise  and  cumin ;  or,  then,  you  might  hear  them  praying  vociferously  in 
the  house  of  the  widow.  Every  citizen  wears  on  his  head  a  staring 
phylactery,  and  the  fringes  on  the  garments  of  each  are  broad  and  con- 
spicuous. As  we  looked  upon  all  these  things  we  should  surely  say,  "The 
temples  of  the  Lord,  the  temples  of  the  Lord,  are  these."  Many  a  thought 
would  spring  up  within  us  touching  the  value  of  religious  instruction  and 
the  effect  produced  upon  man,  even  in  this  life,  by  the  teachings  of  a  true 
religion.  We  might  almost  be  inclined  to  ask  whether  amidst  so  much 
apparent  piety  there  could  be  any  vice,  whether  all  were  not  equally  dead 
to  the  world  and  alive  only  to  the  realities  of  religion.  Were  we  to  preach 
to  them  we  should  probably  address  them  as  very  generally  if  not  universally 
pious ;  for  to  preach  to  them  of  the  terrors  of  the  last  day,  and  the  danger 
of  eternal  condemnation  would  seem  superfluous  if  not  insulting. 

Such  is  the  judgment  of  man.  How  different  the  judgment  of  God. 
He  who  uttered  the  words  of  the  text  had  long  abode  in  Capernaum,  and 
had  seen  all  of  which  we  have  spoken  and  very  much  more.  He  saw 
right  through  all  this  system  of  external  observance.  He  knew  exactly 
what  each  man  did,  and  He  knew  what  each  left  undone.  He  knew 
perfectly  the  degree  of  light  which  had  shone  upon  every  man's  conscience. 
He  had  gone  through  their  streets  teaching  and  working  miracles,  until 
every  one  knew  His  person  and  understood  His  doctrines,  and  the  offer  of 
eternal  life  which  He  came  to  make  known  to  them.  He  knew  when  and 
how  and  where  each  of  them  had  rejected  it.  He  saw  that  all  this 
])lenitude  of  religious  observances  was  poured  out  from  hearts  utterly 
appos&d  to  the  government  and  law  of  that  God  whom  they  seemed  so 
devotedly  to  serve.  And  he  also  equally  well  knew  the  crimes  of  Sodom 
since  He  Himself  had  come  down  to  execute  judgment  upon  that  city  so 
justly  doomed  to  destruction.  He  also  knew  the  moral  darkness  which 
brooded  over  the  souls  of  these  sinners.  He  knew  perfectly  how  strongly 
they  resisted  the  teachings  of  conscience,  and  how  deaf  an  ear  they  turned 
to  the  remonstrances,  very  imperfect  though  they  were,  of  the  Patriarch 
I>ot.  AVith  all  these  facts  full  in  his  view,  he  utters  the  sentence  of  the 
text:  "And  thou,  Capernaum,  which  art  exalted  to  heaven,  shall  be 
brought  down  to  hell ;  for,  if  the  mighty  works  that  have  been  done  in 
thee  had  been  done  fn  Sodom,  it  would  have  remained  until  this  day. 
But,  I  say  unto  you  that  it  shall  be  more  tolerable  for  the  land  of 
Sodom  in  the  day  of  judgment  then  for  thee."  Thus  our  Lord  em- 
phatically declares  that  at  the  Day  of  Judgment  the  quiet,  respectable, 
church-going  cit»/ens  of  Capernaum  would  sink  under  a  more  awful  con- 
demnation than  that  which  befell  the  cities  of  the  plain,  who  for  their 
mfamous  vices  were  swept  away  from  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  are  now 
suftermg  the  vengeance  of  eternal  fire. 


Chorazin  and  Bethsaida.  6i 


Nor  is  the  reason  of  this  judgment  difficult  to  discover.  The  essential 
element  of  our  guiltiness  lies  in  our  temper  of  heart  to  God.  Our  sins 
against  man  are  many,  and  ever  deserving  of  punishment.  But  in  the 
sight  of  God,  their  desert  of  punishment  depends  most  of  all  on  this,  that 
they  are  transgressors  of  His  law  and  manifestations  of  our  rebellion  against 
Him.  "Against  Thee,  Thee  only  have  I  sinned."  The  more  clearly  He 
reveals  Himself  to  us,  the  more  perfect  the  exhibition  of  His  law,  and  the 
more  resplendent  the  manifestation  of  His  perfections  to  us,  the  more 
decisive  must  be  our  rejection  of  His  authority,  if  we  disobey  Him.  If 
He  has  taken  pains  to  remove  every  obstacle  to  our  return,  if  He,  putting 
aside  the  claims  of  stern  justice,  has  condescended  to  seek  after  us,  and  in 
infinite  mercy  to  offer  to  us  reconciliation,  if  He  has  opened  wide  the  door 
of  escape  from  the  consequences  of  sin,  and  has  opened  as  wide  the  door 
of  eternal  life,  and,  then,  we  still  hold  out  in  sullen  intractable  rebellion, 
we  commit  the  greatest  crime  that  can  be  committed  by  a  creature,  and  we 
sink  under  the  most  solemn  condemnation  that  can  be  uttered  by  the 
Judge  of  the  whole  earth. 

By  these  principles  we  estimate  the  comparative  condition  of  these  two 
cities.  The  inhabitants  of  the  one,  though  wallowing  in  vice,  had  but 
very  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  character  of  God  or  of  the  students  of 
His  laws.  They  were,  therefore,  not  hardened  in  guilt  by  the  rejection  of 
any  special  manifestation  of  moral  light.  Had  God  revealed  Himself  to 
them  as  a  Saviour  they  would  even  have  repented,  like  Nineveh,  in  sack- 
cloth and  ashes,  and  have  embraced  the  offer  of  salvation.  To  the  others 
all  this  was  made  known.  The  Son  of  God  had  taught  them  the  will  of 
His  Father.  He  had  revealed  to  them  the  consequences  of  sin.  He  had 
called  upon  them  to  take  His  yoke  upon  them.  He  had  offered  to  them 
pardon  and  eternal  life  through  the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  But  they 
deliberately  rejected  every  offer  of  salvation.  They  deliberately  preferred 
the  gratification  of  their  own  passions  to  the  love  of  God  and  to  all  that 
God  could  bestow.  Knowing  what  they  did,  and  why  they  did  it,  they 
made  their  choice,  and  it  found  them  in  eternal  opposition  to  God.  They, 
therefore,  were  numbered  with  the  more  incorrigible  offenders,  and  for 
them  was  reserved  a  doom  to  which  the  doom  of  Sodom  would  be 
comparatively  a  blessing. 

We  are  passing  through  our  probation  as  were  the  citizens  of  Capernaum. 
We  must  stand  at  the  bar  of  judgment  just  as  really  as  they,  and  must  be 
subjected  to  the  same  rule  of  decision.  If  we,  like  them,  are  exalted  to 
heaven  ;  if  God  has  given  us  great  moral  illumination  ;  if  we  act  in  view 
of  His  revealed  perfections,  our  condemnation,  if  we  are  lost,  must  be  as 
awfully  signal.  If  it  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  than  for  Capernaum, 
what  place  must  be  reserved  for  us  if  we  reject  the  offer  of  salvation  made 
through  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God  ? 

We,  ourselves,  week  after  week,  attend  the  services  of  the  sanctuary. 
We  are  guilty  of  no  gross  vice,  and  stand  aloof  from  the  exhibition  of  it 
in  others.  We  believe  that  the  Bible  is  true,  and  that  it  contains  the  only 
revelation  of  the  way  in  which  we  may  be  saved.  We  go  further.  We 
look  abroad,  and  our  sympathies  are  awakened  by  the  condition  of  the 
heathen.  It  shocks  us  to  hear  of  rational  beings  bowing  down  to  obscene 
carvings  of  wood  and  of  stone  ;  of  mothers  casting  their  first-born  into 
the  jaws  of  alligators  ;  of  children  putting  to  death  their  parents  ;  of  men 


62  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


like  ourselves  slaying  and  devouring  each  other  with  more  than  brutal 
ferocity.  We  bless  God  that  we  live  in  a  land  of  intellectual  light  and 
moral  cultivation.  We  think  w-iih  complacency  (and  it  is  a  just  com- 
placency) of  the  scliools  and  colleges  of  America,  of  the  pulpit  that  week 
by  week  dispenses  to  us  its  portion  of  instruction ;  of  the  Bibles  that  are 
scattered  broadcast  over  our  land;  of  the  piety,  prayers,  and  sufferings  of 
the  pilgrims,  through  whom  there  has  descended  to  us  so  rich  an  inheri- 
tance of  blessings.  We  cannot  bear  to  enjoy  so  rich  a  variety  of  blessings 
without  desiring  to  extend  them  to  our  fellow-men.  We  unite  with  others 
in  sending  to  those  benighted  men  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  which  we 
believe  to  be  the  only  cure  for  all  their  evils. 

Again,  as  we  pass  along  our  streets,  we  see  many  an  object  whose  con- 
dition cannot  but  move  to  pity  the  soul  of  the  philanthropist.  The 
drunkard,  ragged  and  bloated,  falls  helpless  on  the  side- walk,  and  is  carried 
oft"  to  sober  himself  in  the  watch-house.  The  brothel  is  crowded  with 
immortal  souls  who  are  abandoned  of  hope,  both  in  this  life  and  in  the 
life  to  come,  whose  feet  already  take  fast  hold  on  hell.  Our  jails  and 
penitentiaries,  though  year  after  year  enlarged,  are  still  filled  with  men, 
and  even  with  boys,  who  have  cast  off  all  fear  both  of  God  and  of  man, 
and  whose  chosen  vocation  it  is  to  prey  upon  property  and  life.  Of  them 
it  may  with  emphasis  be  said,  destruction  and  misery  are  in  their  paths, 
and  the  way  of  peace  have  they  not  known.  We  pity  these  also.  We  see 
that  an  effort  should  be  made  to  prevent  men  from  falling  into  such  courses, 
or  to  reclaim  them  after  they  have  fallen.  We  thank  God  that  we  are  not 
such  men.  We  bless  the  care  of  our  parents,  who  in  childhood  taught  us 
our  duty,  and  who,  by  their  example,  led  us  to  the  practice  of  virtue. 

Now,  all  this  also  is  well.  It  is  right  that  such  scenes  should  thus  impress 
us.  It  were  well  if  they  impressed  us  not  only  to  feel,  but  to  act  for  the 
good  of  those  that  are  perishing.  But  this  is  not  now  the  question  before 
us.  If  both  they  and  we  continue  in  our  present  state,  and  thus  enter 
upon  the  rewards  of  eternity,  will  they  or  we  encounter  the  more  awful 
condemnation  ?  iMany  of  these  miserable  men  and  women  from  infancy 
have  heard  the  name  of  God  spoken  only  in  oaths.  Many  of  them  were 
taught  by  their  parents  to  lie  and  steal  as  acts  of  commendable  skill.  Many 
of  them  have  known  the  efficacy  of  law  in  no  other  manner  than  as  it 
inflicted  on  them  its  punishments.  Scarcely  one  of  them  has  ever  heard 
intelligently,  except  in  a  prison,  the  story  of  our  atoning  Saviour,  or  a 
sanctifying  Spirit.  None  of  them  have  ever  been  taught  to  keep  the 
Sabbath.  What  moral  impulses  have  they  resisted  ?  What  God  have  they 
defied  ?  What  Saviour  have  they  rejected  ?  What  Holy  Spirit  have  they 
resisted  ?  A  deep  of  moral  darkness  has  overspread  them  from  infancy, 
even  in  the  midst  of  a  Christian  career. 

But  how  has  it  been  with  you  ?  A  pious  mother  taught  you  to  pray  ere 
yet  you  could  render  yourself  intelligible  to  any  ear  but  hers.  You  have 
read  the  Word  of  God  from  early  childhood.  It  has  been  explained  to 
you  by  parents,  and  friends,  and  teachers,  ever  since  you  can  remember. 
Vou  know  the  story  of  the  Cross,  and  have  heard  how  "  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believeth  on 
Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  But,  more  than  this, 
you  have  been  at  various  times  convicted  of  sin.  The  Holy  Spirit  has 
visited  you,  and  has  set  all  these  truths  vividly  before  your  soul.     The 


Sanctified  with  the  Blood  of  Christ.  63 

voice  has  sounded  in  your  ears,  "  Unless  a  man  be  born  again  he  cannot 
see  the  kingdom  of  God."  Yet,  with  all  this  light,  you  have  chosen  the 
pleasures  of  sin,  and  have  said  unto  God,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  desire 
not  a  knowledge  of  Thy  ways."  You  thus  deliberately  choose  to  be  the 
enemy  of  God  for  ever.  Can  there  be  a  greater  crime  than  this  ?  Can  it 
be  committed  under  greater  moral  light  than  you  have  enjoyed  ?  Can 
any  sinner  of  our  race,  then,  sink  under  a  more  awful  condemnation  than 
you  ?  Better  would  it  have  been  for  us  to  have  lived  in  Sodom,  better  in 
Capernaum,  better  to  have  been  an  outcast  in  our  prisons,  than  under  all 
these  accumulated  means  of  grace,  to  be  at  last  cast  off  for  ever  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lamb. 

How  solemn,  then,  must  be  the  conditions  of  our  probation !  How 
specially  solemn  the  conditions  of  the  probations  of  everyone  of  us  here 
present.  On  the  face  of  the  earth,  I  do  not  believe  that  an  assembly  can 
be  found  who  have  enjoyed  better  means  for  knowing  our  duty,  or  who 
have  been  favoured  with  stronger  motives,  or  more  effective  persuasions  to 
its  performance.  What  more  could  God  have  done  for  us  than  He  has 
done  ?  If,  then,  all  these  means  fail,  and  we  are  at  last  among  the  lost, 
must  not  our  condemnation  be  awful  beyond  comparison  ? 

SANCTIFIED  WITH  THE  BLOOD  OF  CHRIST 

Outline  of  a  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  Thomas  M.  Rees. 

"Jesus  sanctified  the  people  with  His  own  blood." — Heb.  xiii.  12. 

I.  This  Epistle  was  written  to  stay  the  faith  of  those  who  staggered 
under  the  reproach  of  Christ,  wondering  whether,  after  all,  the  new  faith 
was  better  than  the  old.  The  key-word  of  the  epistle  is  the  word 
"  better."  The  new  covenant  is,  all  through,  in  Christ,  "  better  "  than  the 
old.  The  parallelisms  and  contrasts,  characteristic  of  the  epistle,  illustrated 
in  verses  11  and  12. 

II.  Jesus  set  aside  the  past  reverently  in  fulfilling  it.  The  spirit  of  the 
true  reformer  is  filial  towards  the  past.  Reverence  and  reform  are  twin 
handmaidens  of  the  Lord.  For  the  past  is  not  childish,  is  not  arbitrary, 
God  is  in  history,  and  seeks  to  apply  its  teaching  to  the  present  through 
men  of  reform  who  are  reverent,  e.g.^  the  Old  Testament  is  more  zealously 
studied  to-day  for  the  sake  of  a  better  understanding  of  the  New.  And 
they  who  know  their  Bible  best,  do  with  more  skill  and  resolution  grapple 
with  present  problems  of  every  kind.  Jesus  bored  patiently  through  the 
letter  of  the  past  to  its  spirit.  The  intensity  of  His  understanding  of  it 
rose  in  His  teaching  to  the  height  of  contrast,  7iot  as  the  scribes.  The 
contrast  was  in  deed  as  well  as  in  word.  Unlike  Pharisees,  what  burdens 
He  imposed  He  himself  bore.  Further :  the  high  priest,  with  blood  of 
bull  or  goat,  entered  the  holy  place — Jesus  with  "  His  own  blood."  He 
who  takes  his  life  in  his  hand  to  his  task  satisfies  all  claims.  That  is  the 
standard  of  sacrifice  under  the  new  and  better  covenant. 

III.  There  is  a  deeper  meaning  still  in  the  text,  "Jesus  sanctified  the 
people  with  His  own  blood."  They  who  were  sinners  became  true 
worshippers  through  His  blood.  "  Ye  who  some  times  were  far  off, 
are  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ."  This  is  a  more  gracious  truth 
than  that  of  example.     For  when  the  example  of  Christ  was  done  for 


64  The  British  Weekly  Pidpit. 


us  what  it  may,  and  when  in  its  clear  white  h'ght  we  see  our  sin^ 
then  we  long  to  know  if  God  will  accept  us  sinners  as  worshippers,  and  to 
this  shrill  cry  of  the  bared  soul  the  text  answers  that,  the  blood  of  Christ 
makes  the  comers  thereunto  perfect.  With  all  the  plainness  with  which  the 
Bible  tells  us  of  our  sin,  and  of  the  love  of  God  to  us,  it  tells  us  that  for 
Jesus'  sake  the  Father  seeks  us  to  worship  Him. 

Htviru'.—Chnsl  went  all  lengths  in  sympathy  with  the  law.  Out  of  His 
reverent  attention  to  the  types  and  shadows  of  the  old  covenant  has  come 
the  new  and  better.  The  true  spirit  of  reform  is  one  of  reverence.  The 
sincere  reformer  is  one  who  takes  his  life  in  his  hand  to  his  task.  But, 
beyond  this,  v/e  learn  that  Jesus,  with  His  own  blood,  makes  of  sinners  a 
worshipping  people.  Let  us,  therefore,  come  boldly  unto  the  throne  of 
grace,  that  we  may  obtain  mercy,  and  find  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 

INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  June  Z:  St.  Luke  xi.  i— 13.    Golden  Text:  Luke  xi.  9. 
Prayer. 

When  you  grow  up  you  will  wish  to  learn  some  language.  Some  of  you 
are  learning  French,  or  German,  or  Latin  now.  Why  do  people  like  to 
learn  another  language  than  their  own  ?  Because  it  helps  them  to  speak 
to  different  kinds  of  men.  The  languages  we  learn  at  school  teach  us  to 
talk  to  men.  But  what  about  talking  to  God  ?  There  is  but  one  language 
for  that,  and  everybody  can  learn  it — it  is  the  language  of  Prayer.  When- 
ever we  really  pray  we  talk  to  God  in  His  own  language.  And  when  we 
learn  to  speak  to  Him  we  learn  to  understand  what  He  says  when  He 
speaks  to  us. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  prayer — the  prayer  we  say  only,  and  the  prayer 
we/ie/.  Isn't  there  a  prayer  you  learnt  from  your  mother  ?  Sometimes  you 
say  it  without  thinking,  and  if  you  are  asked  if  you  had  prayed  you  have  to 
ihink-a  little,  and  even  then  you  are  not  quite  sure.  That  is  only  saying  a 
prayer,  it  isn't  praying.  We  do  not  really  pray  unless  we  really  talk  to 
Jesus,  and  feel  what  we  are  saying.  Every  day  have  a  little  prayer  for 
yourself.  It  will  do  you  more  good  than  you  think.  Sometimes  you  find 
everybody  cross  with  you,  and  things  go  wrong  at  school,  and  you  are 
unhappy.     I  will  tell  you  the  reason— you  have  been  forgetting  to  pray. 

There  was  a  part  of  America  that  was  very  unhealthy.  Most  people  one 
time  or  other  took  ill,  and  trembled  from  head  to  foot  with  the  ague.  A 
wise  doctor  came  once  to  that  district,  and  he  told  the  people  to  get  a  little 
water  plant  and  cultivate  it,  and  soon  the  people  would  be  cured.  Most  of 
the  folks  laughed,  but  one  farmer  got  the  little  plant  and  cultivated  it  in 
ponds  near  his  house,  and  in  a  few  seasons  the  sickness  had  gone  from  that 
farm.  The  little  plant  took  hold  of  the  bad  air  and  sweetened  it,  and  then 
sent  it  out  pure.     It  was  always  at  this  work. 

And  prayer  is  like  that — once  we  plant  it  it  sweetens  and  blesses  every- 
thing. Have  a  little  kneeling  spot  of  your  own.  Dr.  Maclaren  has  asked, 
"  Is  there  any  place  in  any  of  our  rooms  where  there  is  a  little  bit  of  carpet 
worn  white  by  our  knees  "  ?  Jesus  will  know  your  kneeling  spot  and  meet 
you  there.     Learn,  then,  the  language  of  prayer. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  109,  Vol.    II.]  JUNE  6,  1890  One  Penny. 


THE   INSPIRATION  OF   SELECTION. 

A  SerJiion  by 

The  Rev.  H.  P.    Liddon,  D.D. 

Preached  before  the  University  at  Si.  ^lar/s,  Oxford,  on  W hit -Sunday. 

"  He  shall  glorify  Me  ;  for  He  shall  receive  of  Mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto 
you."— St.  John  xvi.  14. 

This  is  the  heart  of  the  promise  which  our  Saviour  made  to  His  disciples, 
when,  with  the  feelings  of  bewilderment  and  desolation  that  were  natural  at 
the  time  they  were  gathered  round  Him  in  the  supper-room.  The  day, 
they  felt  was  near  when  they  would  no  longer  see  and  hear,  at  any  rate  as 
heretofore,  the  wise  and  gracious  Friend  Who  had  taught,  and  was  teaching, 
them  so  much  that  was  best  worth  knowing.  And  He  did  not  directly 
combat  or  relieve  the  sad  anticipation.  Nay,  He  told  them  frankly  that 
He  was  leaving  them  ;  that  in  a  little  while  they  would  not  see  Him,  because 
He  was  going  to  the  Father.  But  His  place,  He  said,  would  be  taken  by 
Another  who  would  not  disappoint  them  ;  but  Who  would  only  arrive  when 
He  had  Himself  departed.  "  If  I  go  not  away  the  Comforter  will  not 
come  unto  you,  but  if  I  depart,  I  will  send  Him  unto  you."  And  what 
was  this  Envoy  and  Successor  to  achieve  when  He  did  come  ?  He  was,  no 
doubt,  to  change  the  hearts  and  minds  of  those  who  were  outside  the 
sacred  fold.  He  was  to  "  convince  the  world  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness, 
and  of  judgment."  But  He  was  also  to  do  a  yet  greater  service  for  the 
orphaned  Chuch.  "  ^V' hen  the  Comforter  is  come,  \Y\iom  I  will  send  unto 
you  from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth  which  proceeded  from  the 
Father,  He  shall  testify  of  Me."  .  .  .  "He  shall  not  speak  of  Himself; 
but  whatsoever  He  shall  hear,  that  shall  He  speak."  ..."  He  shall  glorify 
Me  ;  for  He  shall  receive  of  Mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you.  All  things 
that  the  Father  hath  are  Mine ;  therefore  said  I  that  He  shall  take  of  Mine, 
and  shall  show  it  unto  you." 

That  this  promise  would  be  kept  became  clear  to  the  Apostles  on  that 
solemn  occasion,  the  anniversary  of  which  the  Church  observes  to-day. 
When  the  crucified  and  risen  Lord  had  ascended  into  heaven  there  was  an 
interval  of  hushed  and  awful  e>  pectation  before  the  promised  Comforter 
came  down.  And  when  He  came,  essential  Spirit  though  He  was.  He 
condescendingly  came  in  su'^'n  guise  that  the  senses  of  men  should  appre- 
hend His  approach.  He  came  as  a  sound  from  heaven,  as  of  a  rushing 
mighty  wind  ;  His  arrival  was  portrayed  in  tongues  like  as  of  fire,  which 


66  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


rested  upon  the  Apostles  ;  it  was  followed  by  such  sudden  endowment  ot 
a  band  of  Galilean  peasants  with  a  gift  of  speech  in  various  dialects  as  to 
astonish  a  mixed  multitude  of  men  who  represented  almost  every  race  and 
district  between  the  Tiber  and  the  Euphrates.  These  were  but  outward 
signs,  marking  the  advent  of  a  supernatural  power :  this  was  the  birthday 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  As  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself  had  been 
conceived  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  so  the  society, 
which  was  to  perpetuate  among  men  His  mind  and  His  life,  sprang  from  a 
kindred  union  between  the  Eternal  Spirit,  and  a  sample— sufficiently  poor 
and  unrepresentative  it  might  have  seemed,  yet  still  a  sample— of  our 
common  humanity ;  and  thus  the  little  community,  hallowed  and  invigorated 
from  on  high,  entered  on  the  career  which  has  already  lasted  for  nearly 
nineteen  centuries,  and  which  will  end  only  with  the  close  of  time. 

I.  We  have  to  consider,  first  of  all,  that  particular  account  of  the  work 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  our  Lord  here  sets  before  us—"  He  shall  glorify 
IMe."  The  prediction  belongs  to  that  class  of  His  sayings  v/hich  only 
admits  of  moral  justification  if  the  speaker  is  indeed  more  than  man. 
Natural  modesty  and  good  taste,  not  to  speak  of  distinctively  Christian 
virtues,  would  make  such  language  impossible  in  the  mouth  of  any  honest 
and  humble  man  who  knew  himself  to  be  no  more  than  man,  and  was 
conscious  of  the  failure  and  weakness  which  in  every  merely  human  life 
must  so  largely  outweigh  any  solid  claims  to  glory  or  renown.  And  our 
Lord's  words  cannot  be  understood  to  foretell  any  gradual  accumulation 
and  wreathing  of  titles  or  doctrines  round  His  person,  by  the  devotional 
or  speculative  activity  of  a  later  time — if,  in  fact,  He  had  no  exact  right 
to  that  which  they  implied.  No  being,  whether  divine  or  human,  is  really 
glorified  by  having  anything  ascribed  to  him  which  is  not  his.  The  Caesars 
were  not  glorified ;  they  were  only  made  ridiculous,  as  the  wiser  of  them 
saw,  by  official  or  popular  apotheosis.  In  proportion  to  a  man's  perception 
of  the  truth  of  things,  and  the  directness  and  integrity  of  his  moral  nature, 
is  his  dislike  of  any  exaggerated  praise.  And  when  we  give  glory  to  God 
we  do  hot  and  cannot  add  to  that  which  already  belongs  to  Him  ;  we  only 
make  a  place  in  our  own  hearts,  and,  it  may  be,  in  the  hearts  of  others, 
for  some  more  adequate  apprehension  than  as  yet  exists  of  what  He  is  and 
what  is  His  due. 

When,  then,  our  Lord  said  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  would  glorify  Him, 
He  meant  only  that  the  Spirit  of  Truth  would  enable  men  to  do  justice  to 
the  real  character  of  His  life  and  person.  And  there  were  then,  as  gene- 
rally, causes  enough  at  work  to  make  such  assistance  needful.  There 
were  the  passions  of  powerful  classes,  which  made  up  the  great  majority  of 
II is  countrymen,  and  which  were  bent  on  nothing  less  than  casting  out 
His  very  name  as  evil.  There  was  the  ordinary  decay  of  memory,  which 
would  in  a  few  years  overtake  His  most  intimate  companions.  And  there 
was  the  more  perilous  activity  of  fancy,  which  might  substitute  for  the  pre- 
servation and  exhibition  of  facts  the  fictions,  or  at  least  the  decorative 
embellishments,  of  theory  or  enthusiasm. 

A  great  deal  is  said  about  the  power  and  endurance  of  posthumous  in- 
fluence ;  l)ut  after  all  how  little  can  a  man  generally  reckon  on  it !  It  is, 
in  ordinary  human  experience,  out  of  a  man's  keeping ;  it  takes  its  own 
course,  or  the  course  which  events  prescribe  for  it.  It  falls  into  the  hands 
of  some  clever  adventurer  and  is  manipulated  for  his  own  purposes  ;  or  it 


The  Inspiraiion  of  Selection.  67 


is  of  a  kind  to  discover  unsuspected  ingredients,  any  one  of  which  in  its 
exaggeration  may  give  it  a  fatally  false  turn  ;  or  it  is  crowded  out  of  its  due 
place  by  more  vigorous  and  self-asserting  competitors  for  public  favour  ;  or 
it  shows  early  symptoms  of  being  in  a  decline,  and  presently  dies  of  ex- 
haustion. A  posthumous  influence  !  It  is  wedded  to  a  philosophy  like 
that  of  Socrates,  which  may  presently  break  up  into  two  or  more  contending 
schools  of  thought ;  or  it  is  embodied  in  a  political  inheritance,  like  that  of 
Alexander,  which  maybe  distributed  among  three  or  four  successors,  whose 
jealous  rivalries  are  fatal  to  its  permanent  integrity ;  or  it  is  a  literary  or 
artistic  tradition,  which  in  the  mere  act  of  passing  into  other  keeping  is 
transformed  or  dissolved  through  contact  with  new  and  powerful  minds. 
A  posthumous  influence  !  It  must,  alas  !  be  made  over  to  the  care  of 
others ;  whether  they  be  foes  or  friends ;  whether  children  or  disciples. 
The  biography  of  a  modern  philosopher  has  taught  us  that  friends  may  not 
always  be  its  safest  guardians ;  Marcus  Aurelius  lived  long  enough  to  dis- 
cover what  weight  would  be  attached  to  his  meditations  when  the  Caesar 
Cora  modus  would  alone  represent  the  Antonines  on  the  throne  of  the 
world  ;  and  history  has  again  and  again  shown  how  disciples  may  pay  com- 
pliments to  a  departed  master,  while  they  set  aside  his  clearest  and  most 
emphatic  instructions.  And  thus  the  Preacher  might  seem  in  one  mood 
of  his  thought  to  express  the  sombre  reaUty — "Then  said  I  in  my  heart, 
As  it  happeneth  to  the  fool  so  it  happeneth  even  to  me ;  and  why  was  I 
then  more  wise?  Then  I  said  in  my  heart  that  this  also  is  vanity.  For 
there  is  no  remembrance  of  the  wise  more  than  of  the  fool  for  ever :  seeing 
that  which  now  is  in  the  days  to  come  shall  all  be  forgotten.  .  .  .  Yea  !  I 
hated  all  my  labour  which  I  had  taken  under  the  sun,  because  I  should 
leave  it  unto  the  man  that  shall  be  after  me.  And  who  knoweth  whether 
he  shall  be  a  wise  man  or  a  fool  ?  .  .  .  This  also  is  vanity."  * 

That,  therefore,  which  must  strike  us  in  the  words  of  our  Lord  is  His 
conscious  superiority  to  the  fate  which  may  be  commonly  expected  to 
befall  the  influence  of  a  man's  character  or  teaching  after  death.  He  had 
put  His  life  and  work  into  such  sort  of  keeping  that  it  would  be  unaffected 
by  the  varying  moods  of  human  minds  and  the  incalcuable  contingencies 
of  human  circumstances.  And  how  would  the  promised  Guardian  of 
Christ's  glory  set  about  His  work? 

First  of  all,  by  exerting  a  transforming,  purifying,  invigorating  influence 
upon  human  characters. 

No  merely  natural  account  can  be  given  of  the  change  which  is  observ- 
able in  the  Apostles  between  the  eve  of  the  Crucifixion  and  the  morrow  of 
Pentecost.  The  perplexed,  doubting,  timid,  half-suspicious,  gloomy 
peasants,  who  misunderstand  their  Master's  words  and  shrink  from  His 
side  in  the  hour  of  danger,  have  been  transformed  into  men  conscious  of 
being  the  trustees  of  a  supernatural  creed,  and  more  than  willing — aye, 
joyful — at  any  moment  to  attest  its  truth  with  their  lives.  And  in  the 
great  Apostle,  whose  experience  was  so  different  from  that  of  the  eleven,  a 
profound  transformation  of  character,  as  well  as  of  purpose,  is  no  less 
observable.  As  he  preached  the  faith  which  once  he  destroyed  men 
recognised,  he  says,  a  Higher  Power  that  had  wrought  the  change — "They 
glorified  God  in  Me."f 


Eccles.  ii.  15— 19.  t  Galatians  i.  24. 


68  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


And  in  after  years,  as  we  know  from  the  genuine  Acts  of  the  Martyrs, 
the  Holy  Spirit  gave  glory  to  the  unseen  Christ,  by  displaying  again  and 
again  before  the  eyes  of  the  heathen  the  courage,  and  patience,  and  meek- 
ness, and  dignity  of  His  suffering  servants.  Nor  is  it  otherwise  at  the 
present  day.  There  are  lines,  well  known  to  some  to  you,  which  describe 
at  least  one  actual,  and  probably  a  not  uncommon,  experience  : — 

"  I  saw  Thee  once,  and  naught  discerned 

From  stranger  to  admire  ; 
A  serious  aspect,  but  it  burned 

With  no  unearthly  fire. 
Again  I  saw,  and  I  confessed 

Thy  speech  was  rare  and  high  ; 
And  yet  it  vexed  my  burdened  heart. 

And  scared— I  knew  not  why. 
I  saw  once  more,  and  awestruck  gazed 

On  face  and  form  and  air  ; 
God's  living  glory  round  thee  blazed 

A  saint — a  saint  was  there."  * 

And  the  glory  of  our  Lord  was  further  promoted  when  the  Holy  Spirit 
organised  a  visible  body— the  Christian  Church.  The  Church  was  not  an 
afterthought,  founded  by  men,  who,  finding  that  they  thought  and  felt 
alike,  combined  to  form  an  association  which  could  enable  them  the  better 
to  work  together,  and  might  secure  weight  and  currency  for  their  convic- 
tions. The  Church  already  existed  as  a  home  of  souls  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost. And  for  a  believer  to  belong  to  it  was  a  matter  of  necessity,  not 
of  propriety  or  choice.  And  apart  from  its  faith,  its  life,  its  perpetual, 
scarcely  observed,  but  incessant  and  resistless  expansion,  nothing  is  more 
wonderful  in  the  early  ages  than  its  coherence.  It  is  less  remarkable  that 
the  Church  was  not  crushed  to  death  by  relentless  persecutions  than  that 
she  was  not  tempted  to  make  terms  with  the  pagan  Syncretism  which  was 
especially  in  vogue,  for  instance,  in  the  second  and  third  quarters  of  the 
third  century.  From  Elagabalus  down  to  Aurelian  a  constant  series  of 
efforts  were  made  to  induce  the  Church  to  mingle  her  creed  and  life  with 
one  or  another  of  the  conglomerate  forms  of  decaying  paganism.  So 
cleverly  were  the  sacraments  and  rites  of  Christianity  reproduced  at  one 
period  by  the  priests  of  Mithra,  that  St.  Augustine,  referring  to  it,  could, 
almost  humorously,  exclaim,  "Mithra  Christianus  est."  But  it  was  all  to 
no  purpose.  A  few  Gnostics  might  yield  to  the  spell.  The  great  Catholic 
body  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it,  though  refusal  meani  a  renewal  of 
l^ersecution.  The  truth  was  that  the  business  of  the  Church,  informed  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  was  to  uphold  in  undiminished  lustre  the  unshared,  un- 
approachable glory  of  the  Redeemer ;  and  her  separate  existence  witnessed 
to  it  in  the  ratio  of  the  dangers,  whether  of  violence  or  seduction,  to  which 
she  was  exposed  The  question  how  she  still  came  to  be  there  could  only 
be  answered  in  the  minds  of  thoughtful  men  by  reference  to  the  unique 
Person  of  her  Lord.     She  was  there  to  proclaim  His  glory. 

For  this  witness  of  the  Church  was  not  that  of  a  voiceless  or  inert  body. 
She  spoke  through  great  saints  and  writers  whose  words  commanded  the 
attention  of  the  world ;  she  spoke  through  assemblies  which,  before  the 
division  of  East  and  West,  represented,  either  by  delegation  or  by  subse- 

*  Lyra  Apost. 


The  Inspiration  of  Selection,  69 

quent  consent,  the  whole  of  the  company  to  which  the  promise  had  been 
made  in  the  supper-room.  Can  we  fail  to  see  the  hand  of  Providence  in 
this — that  before  the  separations  had  taken  place  which  suspended  the 
action  of  the  collective  Church,  every  question  had  been  asked  and 
answered  that  could  bear  upon  the  personal  glory  of  the  Redeemer ;  from 
the  truth  of  His  Divinity  down  to  the  separate  reality  of  His  human  Will  ? 
In  those  days  of  eager  speculation,  and  sincere,  if  not  always  instructed 
belief,  there  was,  indeed,  many  a  wave  of  unhallowed  passion  surging 
round  the  eternal  truths  at  stake ;  but  the  informing,  presiding,  chastening 
Spirit  rode  the  storm,  and  not  many  a  thoughtful  man,  it  may  be  supposed, 
who  begins  by  believing  that  Christ's  words  are  true,  can  trace  the  action 
of  the  Church  in  the  great  Conciliar  period  without  feeUng  himself  in  the 
presence  of  a  Power,  the  law  of  Whose  action  is  revealed  in  the  promise 
— "  He  shall  glorify  Me." 

Thirdly,  and  especially,  the  glorification  of  the  ascended  Christ  was 
achieved  by  the  creation  of  a  new  sacred  literature ;  the  Books  of  the 
Canon  of  the  New  Testament.  The  Church  is  indeed  historically  older 
than  the  New  Testament ;  but  the  New  Testament  is  the  supreme  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  when  glorifying  Christ  in  the  Church.  Pentecost  had  not 
long  passed  when  a  group  of  biographers  and  letter-writers  appeared  upon 
the  scene  of  Christendom,  each  retaining  whatever  was  characteristic  and 
individual  in  expression  and  style,  yet  so  controlled  by  a  unifying  and 
illuminating  Power  as  to  combine  harmoniously  in  the  setting  forth  many 
sides  of  a  single  truth.  There  were,  indeed,  among  the  first  teachers  of 
the  Church  minds  so  divergent  by  temper  and  genius,  that  had  all,  indeed, 
depended  upon  merely  human  influences,  had  there  been  no  supernatural 
bond  of  unity,  they  would  assuredly  have  parted  into  irreconcilable 
factions.  As  it  is,  nothing  is  more  discernible  than  the  controlling  and 
modifying  action  of  God  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  New  Testament 
writings. 

St.  Matthew  and  St.  Luke  enable  us  to  observe  how  St.  Mark  and  St. 
John  are  only  recording  differing  aspects  of  a  single  life  :  the  sermons  and 
discourses  reported  in  the  Acts,  and  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter,  discover 
the  point  of  unity  between  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  the  Galatians 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  on  the  other.  The  Eternal 
Spirit  presides  like  the  leader  of  a  great  choir  over  instruments  and  voices 
of  the  most  various  compass  ;  and  while  each  contributes  something  which 
no  other  can  give,  all  are  duly  subordinated  to  a  Single  Will,  directed  to  a 
supreme  end.  Look  through  the  Apostolic  writings  and  say  whether  there 
be  any  one  motive  in  them  so  constant  or  so  powerful  as  the  giving  His 
due  place  and  honour  in  the  thoughts  and  lives  of  men  to  our  Lord  and 
Saviour.  Each  Evangelist  glorifies  one  aspect  of  His  life  ;  whether  it  be 
His  fulfilment  of  prophecy,  or  His  true  humanity,  or  His  redemptive  mis- 
sion and  work,  or  His  pre-existent  and  personal  Divinity.  Each  writer  of 
Epistles,  or  each  group  of  Epistles,  sets  forth  some  one  truth  which  shall 
add  to  our  apprehension  of  Him ;  whether  it  be  His  example  of  patience, 
as  in  St.  Peter,  or  His  lessons  of  love,  as  in  St.  John,  or  His  perfect  law 
of  liberty,  as  in  St,  James,  or  His  Second  Coming,  or  His  justification  of 
the  sinner  through  faith  in  His  Blood,  or  the  transcendent  qualities  and 
ordered  structure  of  His  mystical  Body  the  Church,  as  in  St.  Paul.  What- 
ever else  may  be  divergent  in  the  Apostolic  writings,  this  is  the   note  of 


70  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

their  underlying  unity  of  aim  :  everywhere  we  trace  in  them  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promise,  "  He  shall  glorify  Me." 

II.  This  leacis  us  to  consider  the  method  employed  by  the  promised 
Comforter :  '•  He  shall  take  of  Mine,  and  shall  show  it  into  you." 

Here  let  us  remark  that  our  Lord  does  not  sanction  any  of  those  con- 
ceptions of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  which  treat  it  as  something 
independent  of  His  own.  The  Spirit  is  not  the  author  of  a  new  dispensa- 
tion :  He  perpetuates,  explains,  expands  the  teaching  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ:  "  He  shall  not  speak  of  Himself,"  "He  shall  take  of  Mine." 
Therefore  is  He  called,  in  the  Apostolic  writings,  not  only  the  Spirit  of 
God,  but  the  Spirit  of  Christ ;  since  it  is  Christ's  mind  and  teaching — aye,, 
and  Christ's  renewed  human  nature,  which  He  conveys  to  the  souls  of 
men. 

[a)  If,  then,  we  examine  the  three  great  departments  of  the  Holy  Spirit's 
work  in  the  inverse  order  to  that  followed  just  now,  let  us  observe,  first,  how 
He  takes  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  exhibits  them  to  the  Church  in  the 
New  Testament  writings.  The  first  five  books  of  the  New  Testament  are 
biographical  or  historical.  Popular  language  often  assumes  that  inspira- 
tion must  always  create ;  but  if  this  were  true  there  could  be  no  such 
thing  as  inspired  history.  If  history  be  the  faithful  record  of  facts,  the 
function  of  inspiration  in  history  must  be  limited  to  the  grouping  of  facts, 
to  the  assigning  to  certain  facts  a  relative  prominence,  above  all  to  the 
selection  out  of  a  large  number  of  facts  of  those  facts  which  illustrate  a 
particular  aspect  of  higher  truth.  Popular  language  is  wont  to  speak  dis- 
paragingly of  the  copyist  or  the  reporter,  but  the  inspiring  Spirit  did  not 
by  any  means  abhor  the  work  of  the  reporter  or  copyist ;  His  inspiration 
consisted  often  enough  in  guidance  to  select  from  a  large  field  those 
materials  which  would  best  illustrate  the  truth  He  had  in  view,  and  to 
exhibit  them  in  such  wise  as  to  secure  this  object  most  effectively. 

This  faculty  of  judicious  selection  is  higher  and  rarer  than  may  be  at  first 
supposed.  To  select  wisely  out  of  an  embarrassingly  large  assortment  of 
facts  and  thoughts  requires  a  combination  of  penetration  and  resolve,  in 
order  to  perceive  what  is  really  worth  preserving,  and  to  resist  the  seduc- 
tions of  what  is  not.  Without  this  gift  one  writer  will  bury  his  true 
purpose  beneath  a  mass  of  ill-selected  and  undigested  details  ;  while 
another  will  not  exhibit  details  sufificient  to  give  his  subject  the  body  and 
outline  which  it  demands.  Sometimes  books  even  of  high  excellence  in 
other  respects,  and  which  have  laid  the  world  under  such  great  obliga- 
tions, as,  for  instance,  the  "  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Eusebius,"  may  give 
us  reason  to  regret  that  their  authors  have  not  used  more  freely  certain 
sources  of  knowledge  which  must  have  been  before  them,  or  that  they 
have  not  touched  some  matters  on  which  they  are  discursive  with  a  lighter 
hand.  They  may  have  many  merits.  But  they  lack  the  inspiration  of 
selection. 

Now,  contrast  with  this  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  composition 
of  the  Gospels.  The  supernatural  is  always  haunted  by  its  counterfeit ; 
but  the  Holy  Spirit  at  once  swept  aside  a  mass  of  legends  such  as  are 
handed  down  to  us  in  a  somewhat  later  shape  by  the  New  Testament 
apocryphal  literature.  Nay  more,  He  took  only  some  of  the  true  words 
and  acts  of  Christ.  Christians  might  well  believe  that  no  acts  or  words  of 
the  Son  of   God  during  His  earthly  life  could   have   been  without  high 


The  Inspiration  oj  Selection.  71 

import  of  some  kind.  But  they  were  not  all  equally  useful  for  the  specific 
purposes  of  the  several  Evangelists.  Each  Gospel  bears  traces  of  being 
a  selection  from  a  larger  assortment  of  materials  ;  the  last  says  expressly 
that  •'  there  are  many  other  things  which  Jesus  did,"  '  and  which  the 
Evangelist  had  not  recorded.  Each  writer  having  clearly  before  him  that 
aspect  of  the  life  of  Jesus  which  it  was  his  task  to  illustrate — whether 
Messianic,  or  human,  or  redemptive,  or  Divine — traverses  with  this  object 
the  stores  of  his  own  memory,  or  the  recitals  and  reports  of  other  eye- 
witnesses, and  records  just  so  much  as  is  needed  for  his  purpose.  Each 
fulfils  the  prediction,  "  He  shall  take  of  Mine,  and  shall  show  it  unto  you.'' 

The  same  principle  of  selection,  although  it  is  differently  applied,  meets 
us  in  the  Apostolic  Epistles.  A  phrase  of  Jesus  becomes  in  the  hands  of 
an  Apostle  the  warrant  of  a  doctrine,  which  is  thus  seen  to  have  been 
always  latent  in  it.  The  title  "  Son  of  Man,"  for  instance,  reappears  in  St. 
Paul  as  the  "  Second  Adam,"  the  ideal  Representative  of  mankind.  Whose 
work  is  placed  in  vivid  contrast  with  that  of  the  first  father  of  our  race. 
A  word  about  "giving  His  life  a  ransom  for  many,"  or  "  ^ly  Blood  of  the 
New  Testament  which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins,"  warrants 
St.  Paul  and  St.  John  in  teaching  a  propitiatory  atonement  which  wins  for 
sinners  pardon  and  peace.  A  self-proclamation  not  less  observable  in  the 
Synoptists  than  in  St.  John,  constantly  repeated  and  so  unlimited  in  its 
scope  that  if  it  were  not  rendered  necessary  by  the  facts  of  the  Speaker's 
consciousness,  it  would  be  fatal  to  those  moral  qualities  which  win  the  love 
and  respect  of  men,  issues  in  the  great  passages  of  St  Paul  on  the  Divinity 
of  Christ  which  thus  takes  its  place  as  the  cardinal  truth  of  the  Christian 
creed.  These  are  but  samples  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Spirit  took  of 
the  words  of  Christ,  and  showed  their  full  meaning  to  the  Church  in  the 
Apostolic  Letters. 

Nor  was  this  method  of  selection  from  and  interpretation  of  existing 
materials  a  new  procedure  of  the  Spirit  in  the  apostolic  age.  He  then  did 
what  He  had  done  in  ages  before  the  Incarnation.  As  we  say  in  the 
Creed,  He  spake  by  the  prophets  ;  and  the  prophets  in  the  sense  of  the 
Creed  are  not  only  members  of  the  particular  order  which  was  endowed 
with  a  supernatural  faculty  for  interpretating  the  Divine  will,  whether  at 
the  passing  moment  or  in  the  more  or  less  remote  future,  but  also  the 
leading  rulers,  statesmen,  and  historians  who  were  intrusted  with  the  guid- 
ance of  the  people  of  revelation.  And  the  records  of  their  work,  as  the 
authors  of  the  historical  books  tell  us,  were  largely  compiled  out  of 
documents  already  in  existence.  One  historian  borrows  from  another — 
nay,  even  one  prophet  from  another ;  while  the  Spirit  takes  now  and  again 
from  the  conglomerate  mass  of  early  traditions  or  records  those  fragments 
which  had  on  them  the  mint-mark  of  the  Eternal  Word,  and  shows  them 
in  a  new  and  inspired  combination  to  His  ancient  people. 

And  thus  we  are  led  to  notice  a  feature  common  both  to  the  Old  and 
the  New  Testaments — the  startling  presence  of  what  may  at  first  sight 
appear  to  be  foreign  elements  in  the  Sacred  Book.  The  early  history  of 
Genesis  may  suggest  traditions  which  had  belonged  to  ancient  pagan 
peoples  living  in  the  great  Mesopotamian  plain ;  the  original  text  of  its 
early  genealogies  may  lie  buried,  as  a  distinguished  Oxford  scholar  has 
suggested,!  at  Kirjath  Sepher,  or  elsewhere,  in  brick  libraries  as  yet  un- 
*  St.  John  xxi.  25.  t  Trofessor  Sayce.  , 


72  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

examined ;  the  sacred  utensils  and  buildings  of  Israel,  though  consecrated 
to  the  worship  of  the  Alone  Eternal,  may  have  been  shaped  more  or  less 
upon  Egyptian  models  ;  its  later  literature  may  betray  affinities — however 
we  explain  them — with  Persian  forms  of  thought.  Nay,  the  sacred  tongue 
itself,  which  was  selected  to  be  the  vehicle  of  that  earlier  revelation,  was 
not,  as  was  once  supposed,  unique ;  it  was  spoken,  like  Greek,  by  neigh- 
bouring pagans  as  well,  and,  as  in  the  Moabite  Stone,  it  sometimes  heralded 
the  praise  of  pagan  deities.  These  and  such  like  facts  have  been  pointed 
to  as  showing  that  the  Jewish  revelation  did  not  come  from  God  in  any 
but  a  merely  naturalistic  sense.  What  they  really  show  is  that  the  inspira- 
tion which  dictated  its  worship  and  its  sacred  records  was  largely  an 
inspiration  of  selection. 

In  like  manner  the  New  Testament  presents  us  with  facts  supplementary 
to  the  Old  Testament  narrative,  and  often  only  derived  from  later  Jewish 
traditions.  Such  are  the  prophecy  of  Enoch ;  the  double  call  of  Abraham 
from  Ur,  as  from  Haran ;  the  hope  that  sustained  Abraham  in  offering 
Isaac ;  the  names  of  the  Egyptian  magicians ;  the  motive  of  Moses  for 
leaving  the  Court  of  Pharaoh,  and  Egypt ;  the  exclamation  of  Moses  at 
Sinai ;  the  rock  that  followed  the  Israelites  in  the  desert ;  the  prayer  of 
Elijah  for  rain. 

Again,  St.  Paul  employs  Rabbinical  arguments  and  modes  of  exegesis  ; 
and  he  quotes  heathen  authors  not  to  refute,  but  to  endorse  them. 

In  instances  like  these,  too,  the  words  are  fulfilled,  "  He  shall  take  of 
Mine."  For  the  Speaker  in  the  supper-room  is  none  other  than  the  Eternal 
Word  Who  is  announced  in  the  Prologue  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  "  His  " 
are  not  only  the  sayings  and  acts  of  the  Incarnate  Christ,  but  whatever  is 
true  in  the  earlier  history  and  thought  of  our  race.  Inspired  men,  like 
Melchizedek  and  Balaam  and  Job,  were  discoverable  beyond  the  fence  of 
race  with  which  the  Divine  Wisdom  had  guarded  His  earlier  Revelation  ; 
and  indeed,  in  all  ages,  here  and  there,  in  the  desert  wastes  of  heathendom 
there  are  to  be  met  with  patches  of  spiritual  beauty ;  flowers  which  alike  by 
creation  -and  by  culture  are  His,  Who  nevertheless  ever  had  in  the  world 
only  one  garden  for  the  human  soul,  and  Who  did  make  Israel  His 
people  and  Jacob  His  inheritance,  before  in  the  last  days  He  spoke  by 
His  Son. 

One  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  collect  these  outlying  and — may  I  say 
it  ?— less  regular  creations  of  the  Divine  Mind ;  it  is  to  disinter  the  gems 
that  lie  hidden  beneath  the  accumulated  soil  of  ages ;  it  is  to  bring  to  a 
focus  the  rays  of  light  scattered  throughout  heathendom,  and  to  exhibit 
their  place  in  the  true  Self-revelation  of  God. 

For  if  the  Holy  Spirit  thus  selects  materials  from  imperfect  or  false 
systems,  He  does  not  thereby  sanction  these  systems  as  a  whole,  or  even 
imply  that  those  portions  of  them  which  He  does  not  employ  are  after  the 
mind  of  God.  The  quotation  from  the  book  of  Enoch  does  not  prove 
that  the  whole  of  that  composition  is  inspired.  The  traces  of  Egyptian 
mfluence  in  the  Mosaic  ritual  and  legislation  do  not  imply  wholesale 
approval  of  the  Egyptian  theology.  The  prologue  of  St.  John  does  not 
commit  the  Apostle  of  Love  to  a  general  sanction  of  the  speculations  of 
Philo.  Rabbinical  arguments  which  may  be  found  here  and  there  in 
V  1  u"-'^  epistles  do  not  mean  that  all  other  reasonings  current  in  the 
Rabbinical  schools  are  valid  or  even  legitimate.     An  adoption  of  the 


The  Inspiration  of  Selection.  73 

particular  Jewish  tradition  about  the  rock  that  followed  the  Israelites  in 
the  desert  does  not  commit  the  Apostle  to  an  approval  of  all  the  legendary 
stories  that  were  already  current  in  the  Israel  of  his  day.  To  quote  a 
line  from  Epimenides,  or  Aratus,  or  Menander  did  not  imply  that  every 
fragment  of  these  writers  had  the  sanction  of  Apostolic  authority.  The 
inspiration  of  selection  sanctions  that  which  it  selects,  and  nothing 
beyond. 

(/3)  There  is  now  unhappily  little  time  for  tracing  the  selective  method 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  organisation  and  creeds  of  the  Church.  Even 
if  it  could  be  shown  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  the  presbyterate  was  cer- 
tainly modelled  upon  Jewish  and  the  Episcopate  on  Gentile  precedents, 
this  would  not  of  itself  affect  the  question  of  their  necessity  to  the  true 
form  and  life  of  the  Christian  society.  But  the  selective  action  of  the 
Spirit  is  especially  observable  in  the  Church's  use  of  ancient  philosophy. 
The  varying  phases  of  that  attitude  were  determined  by  the  capacity  of 
this  or  that  school  to  furnish  materials  that  in  a  given  set  of  circumstances 
would  assist  the  supreme  work  of  the  Spirit  among  men.  In  one  century 
Platonism  was  distrusted,  as  a  solvent  dangerous  to  Christian  belief;  in 
another  it  was  laid  under  contributions  by  Christian  writers,  and  even 
furnished  terminology  to  the  Catholic  creed.  Early  fathers  may  ban 
Aristotle  ;  yet  he  is  subsequently  preferred  to  Plato,  as  not  venturing  upon 
topics  as  to  which  nothing  can  be  known  certainly  without  a  revelation. 
The  Church  is  led  to  reject  such  a  symbol  as  the  Homoousion  at  one 
while  for  reasons  which  are  perfectly  compatible  with  her  adoption  of  it 
at  another.  The  subject  is  too  large  to  be  more  than  hinted  at.  In  this 
field  too  the  Spirit  is  constantly  choosing  whatever  has  really  come  from 
the  word  and  wisdom  of  the  Father,  and  can  be,  at  a  given  time  and 
place,  made  serviceable  to  the  interests  of  His  people. 

As  we  follow  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this  department  of  His  work,  we  may 
venture  without  presumption  to  observe  that  His  action  is  limited  by  His 
own  Attributes.  He  is  the  Spirit  of  Truth,  not  only  because  it  is  the  truth 
which  He  teaches,  but  also  because  He  Himself  is  true.  Therefore  He 
cannot  contradict  Himself.  If,  for  instance,  He  really  through  the  Sixth 
Council  pronounced  Honorius  to  be  a  heretic,  He  cannot  in  our  day  have 
pronounced  Honorius  by  implication  to  be  infallible.  Nor  can  He  take 
into  His  service  literary  fictions  which  trifle  with  the  law  and  the  sense  of 
truth.  If  it  could  really  be  shown  that  the  addresses  ascribed  to  Moses  in 
Deuteronomy  were  the  composition  of  a  writer  of  the  age  of  Josiah,  who 
desired  to  secure  for  later  legal  decisions  or  institutions  the  countenance 
of  the  great  lawgiver ;  or — that  speeches  attributed  to  David  in  the  Book 
of  Chronicles  were  never  uttered  by  the  real  David  at  all,  but  only  repre- 
sent the  opinion  of  a  sacerdotal  scribe  after  the  Exile  as  to  what  David,  if 
properly  instructed,  would  or  should  have  said  ;  or — that  passages  in 
Daniel  which  claim  to  be  predictions  of  still  future  events  are  really  a 
history  of  events  which  the  writer  had  himself  witnessed,  and  are  thrown 
into  a  predictive  form,  in  order  to  invigorate  national  enthusiasm  at  a 
critical  moment  by  the  spectacle  of  the  imaginary  fulfilment  of  a  fictitious 
prophecy  ;  or — that  the  discourses  of  our  Lord  reported  by  St.  John  are 
not  the  ipsissima  verba  of  the  same  Son  of  Man  Who  speaks  in  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  but  only  the  voice  of  some  Christian  of  the  second  century,  or 
earlier,  who   thought   has   been   steeped   in   the    Platonised   Judaism   of 


74  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Alexandria, — or,  perhaps,  of  the  Apostle  of  Love,  who,  however,  could  not 
distinguish  clearly  between  his  own  and  his  Divine  Master's  words ;  or — 
that  the  sermons  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  the  Acts  resemble  each  other 
too  closely  to  have  been  really  uttered  by  those  Apostles,  and  only  repre- 
sent a  literary  effort  to  produce  ecclesiastical  harmony  in  the  sub-Apostolic 
age  ;  or  that  the  pastoral  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  although  expressly  claiming 
to  be  his  work,  were  in  fact  composed  when  the  struggle  with  Gnosticism 
had  obliged  the  Church  to  create  a  more  elaborate  organisation,  and  are 
largely  due  to  an  endeavour  to  procure  for  this  organisation  the  sanction 
of  the  great  Apostle's  name  : — if,  I  say,  these  and  other  suchlike  theories 
which  might  be  mentioned  could  be  shown  to  be  based  on  fact,  it  surely 
would  be  shown  at  the  same  time  that  the  Holy  Spirit  could  not  have 
inspired  the  writings  in  question.  He  is  not  responsible  for  speeches 
which  cultivated  pagans  like  Thucydides  or  Tacitus  could  naturally  and 
without  scruple  put  into  the  mouths  of  their  heroes.  Those  great  writers 
had  no  more  the  divine  law  of  truth  upon  their  hearts  and  consciences 
than  they  had  the  divine  laws  of  love  or  purity ;  and  nothing  depends 
upon  the  historical  worth  of  those  fictitious  speeches  of  theirs  beyond  the 
degree  and  quality  of  literary  entertainment  which  we  at  this  day  may  or 
may  not  derive  from  them.  It  is  quite  otherwise  when  we  pass  within  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  canon  of  Scripture.  If  the  Holy  Spirit  is  in  any 
degree  concerned  in  the  production  of  its  contents  we  may  at  least  be  sure 
that  language  is  not  used  in  it  to  create  a  false  impression,  and  that  that 
which  claims,  on  the  face  of  it,  to  be  history  is  not  really  fiction  in  an 
historical  guise.  The  Book  of  Truth  cannot  belie  either  the  laws  of  truth 
or  the  Spirit  and  Source  of  truth. 

(y)  Once  more,  observe  how  the  Holy  Spirit  gradually  builds  up  or 
develops  the  Christian  character.  He  takes  of  Christ's  teaching  and 
example,  and  shows  it  in  its  attractive  beauty  to  the  Christian  conscience. 
This  work  of  His  is  always  going  forward  in  those  who  will.  As  we  pass 
through  life,  the  Holy  Spirit,  while  endowing  us  through  sacramental 
channels  with  the  new  Humanity  of  the  Redeemer,  discovers  to  us  more 
and  more  the  splendour  and  import  of  His  Person  and  work.  We  have 
learnt,  or  think  that  we  have  learnt,  something  of  truth,  and  we  are  sud- 
denly startled  at  the  deeper  meanings  of  the  Parable  of  the  Sower.  We 
have  succeeded  to  an  estate,  or  we  have  won  academical  honours,  and  we 
learn  the  import  of  the  Parable  of  the  Talents.  Our  thoughts  have  been 
led  to  dwell  on  the  great  problems  of  capital  and  labour,  wealth  and 
poverty,  which  are  so  prominent  in  the  modern  world,  and  we  see  a  new 
significance  in  the  history  of  Dives  and  Lazarus,  and  in  the  precept  given 
to  the  ricli  young  man.  We  have  been  brought  up  to  measure  the  worth 
of  men  by  some  class  or  artificial  prejudice,  and  the  position  assigned  to 
the  Good  Samaritan,  though  we  have  read  about  his  going  down  to 
Jericho  all  our  lives,  flashes  at  a  certain  moment  upon  our  thoughts  as  an 
overwhelming  discovery.  We  have  come  to  suppose  that  spiritual  liberty 
uuplies  the  rejection  of  all  outward  authority,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  reminds 
us  of  the  words  about  even  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  who  sit  in  Moses' 
scat.  We  have  wandered,  it  may  be,  from  the  path  on  which  in  earlier 
and  happier  years  our  feet  had  been  set  to  go,  and  we  find  guidance  and 
consolation  as  nowhere  else  in  the  Story  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  We  are 
getting  on  in  life,  and  mapping  out,  with  ambitious  confidence,  a  future 


Thi  Inspiration  of  Selection.  75 


which,  God  perhaps  knows,  will  never  be  ours  ;  and  we  are  brought  to  our 
senses  by  the  record  of  the  man  who  would  pull  down  his  barns  and  build 
greater  on  the  eve  of  the  very  night  on  which  his  soul  was  required  of  him. 
And  all  through  life,  and  assuredly  not  less  as  life  is  drawing  towards  its 
close,  the  great  doctrines  of  Redemption  and  Grace  are  brought  home  with 
new  power  and  clearness  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  those  who  will. 
These  are  lessons  which  may  make  Pentecost  a  perpetual  reality,  and 
bridge  over  the  interval  between  the  most  prosaic  of  lives  and  companion- 
ship with  That  incomparable  Life  which  was  lived  nineteen  centuries  ago 
on  the  shores  of  the  sea  of  GaUlee. 

And  our  Lord's  words  furnish  us  with  a  decisive  criterion  of  the  exact 
worth  of  dominant  influences  around  us,  of  currents  of  thought  which,  now 
and  again,  would  sweep  us  imperiously  along  with  them,  of  the  temper  of 
our  own  time,  of  the  Zeitgeist.  It  is  natural  to  us  to  think  that  the  days  in 
which  we  live  are  v/iser  and  better  than  any  before,  and  that  in  throwing 
our  thoughts  without  restraint  into  the  main  currents  of  the  hour  we  are 
doing  the  best  we  can  with  our  short  span  of  life.  And  yet  we  might 
observe  that  many  a  past  generation  has  cherished  this  notion  of  an  absolute 
value  attaching  to  the  thought  and  temper  of  its  day,  while  we,  as  we  look 
back  on  it,  with  the  aid  of  a  larger  experience,  can  see  that  it  was  the 
victim  of  an  illusory  enthusiasm.  When  we  analyse  the  ingredients  that 
go  to  make  up  the  spirit  of  the  time,  of  any  one  phase  of  time,  and  when 
we  observe  that,  notwithstanding  its  stout  assertions  of  a  right  to  rule,  it 
melts  away  before  our  very  eyes  like  the  fashions  of  a  lady's  dress,  into 
shapes  and  moods  which  contradict,  with  equal  self-confidence,  its  former 
self,  we  may  hesitate  before  we  listen  to  it  as  if  it  were  a  prophet,  or  make 
a  fetish  of  it,  as  though  it  had  within  it  a  concealed  divinity.  The  spirit 
of  any  generation  may  have,  must  have,  in  it  some  elements  to  recommend 
it ;  but  assuredly  it  has  also  other  and  very  different  elements,  and  the 
question  is  whence  do  they  come,  and  whither  are  they  drifting  ?  All  that 
is  moving,  interesting,  exciting  in  the  world  of  ideas,  in  the  successive 
conceptions  of  the  meaning  and  purpose  of  life  that  flit  across  the  mental 
sky,  is  not  necessarily  from,  nor  does  it  necessarily  tend  towards,  the 
Source  of  good.  The  mere  movement  of  the  ages  does  not  in  itself  imply 
a  progress  from  lower  to  higher  truth,  from  darkness  to  light  ;  movement 
is  possible  in  more  directions  than  one.  "  Brethren,"  exclaims  an  Apostle 
to  some  of  his  flock,  to  whom  every  claimant  for  speculative  sympathy 
seems  to  have  been  welcome,  "  brethren,  believe  not  every  spirit ;  but  try 
the  spirits  whether  they  are  of  God.  .  .  .  Every  spirit  that  confesseth  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  of  God  ;  and  every  spirit  that  confesseth 
not  that  Jesus  Christ  is  come  in  the  flesh  is  not  of  God."* 

The  test  of  the  true  worth  of  the  spirit  of  our  day — of  the  spirit  which 
rules  our  own  thoughts  and  lives — is  the  saying,  *'  He  shall  glorify  JNIe." 
All  that  wins  for  the  Divine  Redeemer  more  room  in  the  thoughts  and 
hearts  of  men ;  all  that  secures  for  Him  the  homage  of  obedient  and 
disciplined  wills  ;  all  that  draws  from  the  teachings  of  the  past  and  the 
examples  of  the  present  new  motives  for  doing  Him  the  honour  which  is 
His  eternal  due,  may  be  safely  presumed  to  come  from  a  Source  higher 
than  any  in  this  passing  world,  and  to  have  in  it  the  promise  of  lasting 
happiness  and  peace.     And,  for  the  rest — 

"  Sunt  multa  fucis  illita  quae  luce  purgentur  Tua, 
Tu  vera  Lux  coelestium  vultu  sereno  illumina." 


76  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

A    PULPIT    PRAYER. 

By  the  Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

Lord,  teach  us  how  to  pray.  We  know  not  how  to  pray,  or  what  to 
pray  for  as  we  ought,  but  Thy  Spirit  can  attune  our  hearts  and  teach  us 
holy  words.  We  would  be  like  the  Saviour,  firm,  gentle,  courageous, 
compassionate,  pure,  yet  sympathising  with  those  who  are  struggling 
towards  perfectness  and  often  faiHng  in  the  tremendous  process.  Take 
away  from  us  the  righteousness  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  and  fill  us 
with  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  Who  knew  no  sin.  ]\Iay  He  work  in  us 
the  miracle  of  perfectness  here,  or  yonder  in  the  land  of  the  sun.  This 
is  our  confidence  in  Him,  that  He  will  not  leave  His  workmanship  until  it  is 
without  spot  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing,  a  glorious  church  worthy  of  the 
Lamb.  Thou  knowest  what  our  life  is ;  what  a  struggle,  what  a  failure. 
Thou  knowest  its  occasional  sense  of  victory.  Thou  knowest  its  great 
sadness.  In  all  these  experiences  may  we  have  no  trust  in  ourselves.  May 
we  have  perfect,  living  trust  in  the  Son  of  God.  Help  us  to  be  sons  of  God. 
Thou  hast  surrounded  us  with  innumerable  and  ever-precious  privileges. 
May  we  not  be  as  Capernaum,  thrust  down  to  hell.  May  we  have  under- 
standing of  the  time  and  know  what  Israel  ought  to  do.  May  we  rise  to  every 
occasion,  and  discharge  every  responsibility  in  the  fear  and  love  of  God. 
We  know  the  truth  ;  may  we  do  it  always.  May  a  voice  be  heard  con- 
tinually in  our  hearts  saying,  "  To  him  that  knowethto  do  good  and  doeth 
it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin."  Forbid  that  we  should  be  the  creators  of  our 
own  perdition.  May  we  live  wisely  and  well  all  the  twelve  hours  of  the 
working  day.     Amen. 


The  Bible  is  not  a  book  of  information  about  the  Being  of  God. 
It  gives  very  little  information  about  the  heavenly  state.  We  might 
even  wish  to  know  a  little  more  than  we  do  about  the  heavenly  world. 
We  believe  angels  are  permitted  to  pay  us  a  visit,  but  they  do  not  ask 
us  to  go  and  see  them  ! 

Scripture  portraits  are  faithfully  outlined;  its  stories  of  men's  lives,  short, 
simple,  and  suggestive. 

There  is  immense  wealth  and  facility  for  spiritual  education  in  this 
ancient  and  manifold  book.  Many  departments  in  knowledge  would 
be  irreclaimable  wildernesses  but  for  the  Bible. 

Of  all  books  in  the  world  the  Scriptures  evince  the  greatest  natural 
human  fulness,  and  the  greatest  saintly  fulness.  And  yet,  further, 
the  very  matter  of  their  contents  is  self-evidencing,  not  only  as  to  ordinary 
methods,  but  as  to  their  super-ordinary  communications. 

In  the  Bible  we  have  the  central  line  of  the  world's  history.  It  is 
a  book  that  from  beginning  to  end  contends  for  righteousness.  And 
it  is  made  glorious  by  the  illuminating  centrality  of  the  Great  Person, 
Jesus  Christ. 

"  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  Yes,  and  Christ 
has  so  drawn  men  that  they  have  wished  to  be  lifted  up  to  share  his 
suffermgs,  if  only  they  may  share  His  triumph. 


The  Burning  Bush.  yy 


THE   BURNING   BUSH. 

Outline  of  a  Sermon 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Anderson  Watt. 

Exodus  iii. 

I.  The  Gospel  of  the  Burning  Bush.— {\)  A  type  of  Christ's  wondrous 
Person.  He  is  God  and  man,  having  two  distinct  natures  in  one  person. 
A  "  tender  plant,"  a  "  root  out  of  a  dry  ground,"  but  in  Him  dwells  "  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  (2)  A  pre-figuration  of  Christ's  sufferings. 
Fire  envelops  the  bush.  Earth  and  hell  concentrate  their  evil  forces  upon 
the  Blessed  Lord.  Even  heaven  shuts  its  doors  of  sympathy.  "  My  God, 
my  God ! "  (3)  A  picture  of  the  resistance  and  persistence  of  Christ. 
Fire  assails  bush  in  vain.  Christ's  foes  combine  to  thwart  Him  in  vain. 
He  bursts  bars  of  death  ;  shivers  gates  of  grave ;  vanquishes  all  and  sur- 
vives ;  and  rising  to  heaven  is  crowned  as  a  conqueror.  (4)  A  mirror  of 
the  history  of  Christ's  Church  on  earth.  By  power  not  her  own,  the 
Church  navigated  like  ship  through  storms  of  ages.  Persecution  and  trial 
burned  fierce  and  hot.    But  "  Nee  tamen  consumebatur." 

II.  The  Mystery  of  the  Burning  Biish, — All  mystery,  but  reaches  climax 
in  "  I  am  that  I  am."  The  unpronounceable  name  is  to  effect  redemption 
of  people,  (i)  The  first  mysterious  note  in  "  I  am  that  I  am  "  is  eternity. 
{a)  But  the  Eternal  becomes  an  "  infant  of  days."  The  unborn  "  I  am" 
is  born  in  Bethlehem,  {b)  Why  this  greatest  of  miracles  ?  That  man 
might  be  saved.  Sin  atoned  for.  The  God  must  be  a  kinsman.  (2)  The 
second  note  of  mystery  in  "  I  am  that  I  am  "  is  unchangeableness.  {a) 
Change  is  characteristic  of  all  terrestrial  things.  The  sal  requiem  of  our 
race  is  "  We  all  do  fade."  (b)  Jesus  as  God  is  unchangeable  in  all  His 
attributes,  e.g.,  power,  holiness,  love. 

III.  The  Mission  of  the  Burning  Bush. — (i)  A  human  ministry  and 
Divine  salvation.  God  needs  Moses.  "  I  will  send  thee."  God  needs 
men.  So  literally  that  He  became  man.  So  few  workers  !  Wanted  a 
million  missionaries!  Fireside,  outside,  platform,  pulpit,  &c.  (2)  A 
human  ministry  but  God-called.  Education,  scholarship,  Ac,  good,  but 
not  everything.  World  is  full  of  preachers.  Two  men  go  into  a  church  to 
preach.  Apparently  no  difference,  but  there  is  a  difference.  It  lies  in 
energy  by  which  message  is  delivered,  whether  impulse  of  Holy  Ghost  or 
"  false  fire."  God's  ministers  must  be  God-appointed  and  do  God's  work 
in  God's  name.  (3)  The  nature  of  the  Church's  commission.  Church 
sent  into  world  to  hold  lamp  of  truth.  This  is  her  commission.  She  is 
the  "  apostle,"  or  one  sent  for  this  end.  Her  duty  is  to  take  authoritative 
name  of  Jesus  and  hold  it  up.  "I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,"  &c.  (4)  The 
principle  of  the  Church's  commission.  The  principle  is  identification.  "  I 
am  come  down."  God  did  not  speak  down,  did  not  utter  thunderous  fiats 
from  heaven  to  let  people  go.  Did  not  send  down.  Does  not  expect  men 
to  reach  up  to  Him.  God's  religion  is  God  coming  down.  Jesus  came 
down  to  the  people.  Moses  did  not  erect  a  pulpit  and  say '*  Come."  He 
ivent  to  his  countrymen.  We,  too,  must  go  down — ascertain  wants  of  the 
people.  Workers  must  go  out  from  pews  to  workhouses,  drawing-rooms, 
slums,  lanes,  testifying  for  Christ.     "Go  down  !  " 


78  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

THE  GREATEST  QUESTION  IN  THE  WORLD. 

Outline  of  a  Sermon. 

By  Rev.  D.  Foulkes  Roberts. 

"WTiat  shall  I  do  with  Jesus,  which  is   called  Christ  ?"— St.  Matthew  xxvii.  22. 

We  have  learned  that  "the  greatest  thing  in  the  world"  is  love.  In  the  text 
we  discover  the  greatest  question.  What  more  frequently  asked  by  those  who 
bear  the  burdens  and  responsibilities  of  life  than  "What  shall  I  do?"  And  of 
all  subjects,  earthlv  or  heavenly,  that  occasion  the  inquiry,  which  so  important 
as  the  action  we  should  take  with  regard  to  the  world's  Saviour  ?  Three 
questions  found  in  Matthew's  Gospel  are  :  "  What //;z>;/i' ye  of  Christ?"  "Whom 
say  ye  that  I  am  ?"  and  "What  shall  I  do  with  Jesus  ? " 

(i)  The  first  was  evoked  by  the  unbelief  oi  ihe.  Pharisees.  Not  indifferent  to 
His  claims,  they  reasoned  in  their  hearts,  and  resisted  Christ.  They  lacked  un- 
biassed thought  and  righteous  judgment.  On  this  depended  their  acceptance 
of  Him. 

(2)  The  second  appealed  to  the  timidity  of  the  disciples.  The  Pharisees 
openly  denied  His  authority,  and  said  He  was  a  deceiver.  The  public  talked 
about  Him  freely,  but  mistookHim  for  someone  else.  The  disciples, with  all  their 
advantages,  must  have  known  Him  better.  Was  it  not  time  for  them  to  speak 
out,  with  no  uncertain  sound,  in  favour  of  His  claims  ? 

(3)  The  third  arose  from  indecision  of  character.  Pilate  believed  that  Jesus 
was  just  and  laultless,  and  declared  his  convictions  to  the  clamouring  crowd. 
His  duty  was  clear  ;  but  policy  was  consulted.  His  conscience  told  him  to  do 
the  right,  regardless  of  consequences  ;  but  {\)  fear  of  the  people,  because  they 
threatened  to  accuse  him  unto  Ciesar ;  and  (2)  self-interest,  caused  him  to 
waver. 

These  questions  are  not  out  of  date  :  they  are  applicable  to  the  men  of  to-day. 
The  truth  involved  in  them  may  be  stated  thus  :  "  Now  abideth  thought, 
speech,  action,  these  three  ;  but  the  greatest  of  these  is  action." 

I.  Thought.— l^  good  creed  is  not  to  be  ignored.  Can  you,  with  all  your  heart, 
ove  and  serve  an  unseen  Christ,  except  you  believe  (i)  that  He  died  for  you,  and 

rose  again  ;  and  (2)  that  He  is  now  able  to  forgive  and  save  ?  Is  it  not  trueto-day, 
<3)  that  he  loveth  much  to  whom  much  is  forgiven  ?  and  (2)  that  he  serves  Him 
best  whbloves  Him  most  ?  On  men's  thoughts  or  conceptions  of  Christ  depends, 
in  the  first  instance,  their  acceptance  of  Him  as  their  .Saviour  and  King. 

II.  Speech. — Secret  disciples,  who  hold  that  a  public  profession  is  not  necessary 
to  salvation,  quote  Nicodemus  as  their  pattern.  But  why  imitate  him  in  one  act, 
and  not  in  others  ?  (i)  At  first,  tis  true,  he  came  to  Jesus  secretly.  (2)  After- 
ward he  defended  Him  publicly,  in  the  midst  of  His  enemies.  (3)  Finally,  at 
considerable  expense,  he  showed  his  faithfulness  when  all  the  world  had 
deserted  Him.  Moreover,  to  us  is  revealed  the  solemn  truth,  "  Whosoever  shall 
be  ashamed  of  Me,"  &c.,  and  "  Whosoever  shall  confess  Me  before  men,"  &c. 
Do  not  the  error,  superstition,  and  practical  denial  of  Christ's  authority  which 
prevail,  call  for  clear  testimony  from  all  "  His  witnesses  "? 

III.  /?(r/w?.— Practical  decision  for  Christ,  (i)  A  yielding  of  the  heart  and 
life  to  His  control.  (2)  Consecration  to  His  service.  Salvation,  not  by  the  faith 
which  is  alone,  but  by  the  "  faith  which  worketh  by  love."  Do  the  right,  who- 
ever oppose.  Do  His  bidding,  whatever  the  results.  Follow  Him,  even  to  the 
cross,  if  need  be. 

IV.  The  greatest  of  these  is  Action.— 'Wx^  loftiest  thoughts  and  the  loudest 
;)rofession  not  enough.  You  may  believe  and  confess,  with  the  ardour  of  a  Peter, 
ih.it  Jesus  is  "  the  Son  of  the  living  God  ;"  and  even  preach,  with  the  power  of  a 
Paul,  the  acceptability  of  the  saying  that  "Jesus  came  to  save  sinners  ;"  and 
yet,  after  all,  yourself  be  a  castaway.  The  young  man  who  had  kept  all  the 
tominandments  was  not  far  from  the  Kingdom  ;  but,  like  Demas  afterward, 
he  loved  the  present  world,  and  fell  short  of  salvation.     Thousands,  like  Pilate, 


The  Christian  Name.  yg 


have  lost  their  souls  through  fear  and  self-interest,  even  though  they  have  talked 
with  Jesus.     "There  is  a  road  to  hell  from  the  gate  of  heaven  !" 

What  are  you  going  to  do  with  Jesus  ?  Whether  young,  or  middle-aged,  or 
advanced  in  years,  you  have  already  decided  questions  which  affect  your  future 
welfare  n  this  life.  Have  you  decided  what  you  shall  do  with  Jesus  ? — the 
greatest  question  in  the  world. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   NAME. 

Notes  of  a  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  William  Mortox,  B.D. 

"The  disciples  were  called  Christians  first  in  Antioch." — Acts  xi.  26. 

These  words  have  more  than  a  merely  historical  interest.  In  one  short 
sentence  we  have  a  more  powerful  witness  to  the  deep  earnestness  and  purity  of 
early  Christian  life  than  we  have  in  long  paragraphs  of  glowing  eulogy. 

This  notice  suggests  four  questions  :  (i)  To  7ohat  was  \.h.Q  name  Christian 
first  given  ?  To  a  society  ?  To  a  system  of  doctrine  ?  To  individual  persons  ? 
The  disciples  were  called  Christians.  The  phrases  "  Christian  society," 
"  Christian  thought,"  while  justifiable,  are  not  scriptural.  We  are  here  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  truth  that  true  religion  begins  not  in  becoming  connected 
with  a  Christian  society,  but  in  a  personal  attitude  towards  Christ. 

(2)  Who  gave  rise  to  the  name  Christian  ?  Did  the  Antioch  disciples  call 
themselves  Christians  ?  They  were  called  Christians.  Agrippa  and  St.  Peter 
use  the  word  Christian  in  such  a  way  as  to  indicate  that  it  was  a  contemptuous 
term,  in  short,  a  nickname.  This  points  to  either  a  Jewish  or  pagan  origin  for 
the  name.  It  is  unlikely,  however,  that  Jews  would  have  given  the  Christians  a 
Greek  nickname.  Besides,  it  is  unlikely  that  the  Jews  would  have  coined  a 
contemptuous  epithet  out  of  what  was  only  the  Greek  form  of  an  almost 
ineffable  word — Messiah.  The  name  must  therefore  have  been  given  by 
Pagans.  So  let  us,  emulating  the  Antioch  disciples,  seek  to  get  men  of  the 
world  to  call  us  Christians,  if  it  be  only  in  nickname. 

(3)  Why  w'diS  the  name  Christian  given  ?  There  were  many  features  of  Christian 
faith  and  practice  which  were  in  striking  contrast  with  the  faith  and  practice  of 
other  religions.  Christianity  brought  a  new  and  loftier  morality.  Its  moral 
maxims  were  reducible  to  one  general  principle. — "Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the 
law."  It  brought  a  new  and  simple  ritual,  which  contrasted  powerfully  on  the  one 
hand  with  the  complicated  ritual  of  Judaism,ontheotherwith  the  gaudy  pageantry 
of  heathen  temples.  Any  of  these  salient  features  of  Christianity  might  have 
suggested  a  name  to  the  pagans  by  which  to  call  the  Antioch  disciples.  Again, 
although  Aristotle  and  Zeno  had  founded  schools  of  thought,  the  followers 
of  these  great  thinkers  were  not  called  Zenoists  and  Aristotelians.  Precedent 
was  overlooked,  because  the  pagans  recognised  at  the  most  cursory  glance  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  the  centre  of  these  disciples'  doctrine,  and  the  source  of  their 
highest  life.  So  prominent  was  Christ  in  their  hymns  {c  f.  Pliny's  letter  to 
Trajan),  in  their  sermons,  that  the  heathen  were  constrained  to  call  them 
Christians.  So  let  us  make  Christ  supreme  in  our  doctrine  and  in  our  hearts. 
Let  Christ  be  so  prominent  in  our  lives  that  intelligent  men,  ahhough  they  had 
never  heard  of  the  name  of  Christ,  would  call  us  Christians. 

(4)  Where  was  this  name  given?  Not  faraway  from  the  corruption  and 
temptations  of  pagan  life,  but  in  the  very  heart  of  them.  They  were  not  called 
Christians  in  some  desert,  or  in  some  cloister,  but  in  the  great  Syrian  city, 
which  was  notorious  for  being  the  home  of  every  vice,  and  also  for  the  cold 
culture  of  many  of  its  inhabitants.  Let  us  also  approve  ourselves  Christians, 
not  only  in  the  (juiet  shady  retreats  of  life,  but  also  in  the  eyes  of  all  men.  It  is 
only  as  our  religion  becomes  the  guiding  power  of  the  whole  life  that  our 
influence  for  good  will  be  widely  felt.     The  names  of  these  Christians  were 


8o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

soon  forgotten.  The  influence  of  the  lives  of  these  Antioch  Christians 
continued  to  live  in  the  martyr  spirit  of  Ignatius,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  in 
Chrysostom,  whose  great  power  first  came  to  the  light  in  this  town,  in  the 
Antioch  school  of  interpretation,  whose  scriptural  exposition  was  simple 
and  heart-touching,  and  contrasted  powerfully  with  the  mysticism  of  the  school 
of  Alexandria. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  June  1$:  St.  Luke  xii.  13—21.    Golden  texi:  St.  Luke  12.15. 

The  Rich  Fool. 

The  love  of  accumulation  is  a  strong  master-passion  of  the  human  mind. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  child  living  who  has  not  felt  the  power  of  its  fascination. 
It  is  such  a  delight  to  heap  up,  to  collect  things.  Whatever  it  be  that  you 
are  heaping  up,  there  are  two  things  I  can  tell  you  about  your  store.  One 
thing  is  that  the  store  of  things  becomes  dear  to  you,  just  the  very  possess- 
ing it,  makes  you  love  it.  You  remember  what  Jesus  said  :  "Where  your 
treasure  is,  there  will  your  heart  be  also;"  and  the  second  thing  is  that  the 
larger  the  store  you  are  heaping  up,  the  more  you  will  desire  to  add  to  it. 
In  to-day's  lesson  Jesus  gives  us  a  picture  of  a  man  who  had  this  passion 
for  accumulation,  and  he  had  set  his  heart  on  his  earthly  treasures  and  he 
wanted  to  heap  up  more.  This  man's  neighbours  would  probably  have 
called  him  a  good  man  of  business  very  careful  and  prudent.  But  God's 
estimate  of  the  man  was  "  Thou  fool."  Why  was  it  that  there  was  such  a 
difference  in  these  two  estimates  of  the  rich  man,  why  was  this  wise, 
sensible,  prudent  man  of  business  denounced  by  God  as  a  fool  ? 

Notice  first  that  Jesus  does  not  tell  us  of  any  very  evil  things  he  did ; 
of  any  commandments  he  had  broken.  But  Jesus  warns  us  not  only 
against  sins  of  commission  which  we  all  recognise  as  sins,  but  against  sins 
of  omission.  These  sins,  one  of  which  we  are  warned  against  in  the  parable, 
are  more  deadly  and  dangerous  than  the  others.  The  sins  of  commission 
are  like  the  dangerous  rocks  on  some  coast,  marked  by  the  lighthouse 
beacon  that  warn  us  that  many  a  noble  ship  has  been  driven  on  them  by 
storms  to  destruction.  But  the  sins  of  omission  are  rather  like  the 
hidden  sandbanks  beneath  the  cruel  silent  tide  when  no  warning  flash  tells 
of  ruin  and  destruction  near.  What  is  the  fault  of  the  man  that  we  might 
call  prudent,  but  that  God  calls  a  fool  ?  Just  these  two  things — he  did 
not  remember  the  existence  of  a  higher  life  than  that  which  we  live  here. 
And  another  mistake  was  that  he  had  accumulated  all  these  riches  for 
himself — he  thought  he  was  the  possessor,  not  the  steward. 

He  thought  he  could  feed  his  soul  on  his  fruit  and  his  wheat :  "  Soul,  thou 
hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years."  There  is  a  hunger  and  a  thirst 
that  only  God  can  satisfy.  He  ha's  given  us  the  bread  and  the  water  of 
life  to  satisfy  this  spiritual  hunger  and  thirst.  Then  this  rich  man  shut 
liimsclf  up  with  his  goods  calling  them  his  own.  God  is  the  proprietor  of 
all  we  have,  and  He  will  take  account  whether  it  has  been  used  selfishly, 
or  for  Him,  and  His  poor,  His  sick,  His  children,  His  Church,  His  world. 

•  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abrilged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  no,  Vol.    II.]  JUNE  13,  1890  One  Penny. 


THE  BRANDS  OF  THE  LORD  JESUS. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  A.  Goodrich,  D.D. 

Preached  in  Westminster  Chapel  on  Sunday  evening.  May  4,  1890,  on  behalf  0^ 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

"  Henceforth  let  no  man  trouble  me.  For  I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of 
the  Lord  Jesus."  Or  as  the  Revised  Version  reads  it  :  "  From  henceforth  let 
no  man  trouble  me.  For  I  bear  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus  "  ;  or, 
"  I  bear  branded  in  my  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus." — Galatians  vi.  17. 

In  the  time  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  pagans  devoted  to  some  deity  and  attached 
to  his  temple  were  often  branded.  Among  the  Galatians,  to  whom  our  epistle 
was  written,  there  were  many  persons  so  branded  ;  for  throughout  Galatia 
the  worship  of  Cybele  was  very  prevalent  and  enthusiastic.  Referring  to 
these  brands  of  devoted  service  to  some  god,  Paul  in  our  text  says  :  "  I, 
Paul,  am  devoted  absolutely  to  Christ  for  ever  and  altogether.  I  serve 
Him  irrevocably.  I  am  His ;  I  bear  in  my  body  His  brands."  These 
bodily  brands  or  marks  were  plainly  the  scars  which  his  being  stoned  and 
frequently  scourged  had  left  upon  him,  as  also  his  worn  and  broken 
expression,  the  result  of  his  labours  more  abundant  and  of  his  varied 
suffering  for  Christ.  As  these  sufferings  were  the  effects  of  his  devotedness, 
so  the  marks  they  left  on  his  body  were  the  evidences  or  brands  of  his 
devotedness.  "  Henceforth,"  he  says,  "  let  no  man  annoy  me  or  trouble 
me  by  casting  doubts  on  my  sincerity,  or  on  my  devotedness,  or  upon 
my  apostleship,  for  of  these  I  bear  full  proof  in  bearing  thus  in  my  body 
the  marks  or  brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus." 

Observe  now  :  first,  that  all  devoted  service  brands  the  person  devoted, 
not  visibly,  it  may  be,  not  on  his  body  as  in  Paul's  case,  but  none  the 
less  really,  and  to  the  discerning  none  the  less  visibly.  The  student, 
for  example,  devoted  to  Plato  or  Aristotle,  to  Locke  or  Kant,  to  Haeckel 
or  Spencer,  will  in  the  whole  type  and  tone  of  his  thinking  bear  the  marks 
of  his  master.  His  intellectual  body  will  bear  their  brand,  quite  cognisant 
by  the  initiated.  So  in  music,  the  artist  devoted  to  Handel,  or 
Mendelssohn,  or  Wagner,  or  any  other  great  master,  or  the  artist  devoted 
to  Raphael,  or  Correggio,  or  Titian,  will  in  his  artistic  life  bear  the  marks 
of  his  master.  A  judge  in  these  spheres  will  discern  branded  into  their 
respective  works  the  brand  of  their  respective  master.  Perhaps  this  is 
more  true  of  the  sphere  of  literature.     Be  devoted  to  any  great  master  of 


82  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

prose,  and  you  will  bear  his  mark,  be  it  Home,  or  Johnson,  or  Addison, 
or  Carlyle.  But  more  true  still  is  this  of  the  moral  life.  Here  is  a  man, 
let  us  say,  devoted  to  the  temple  of  Mammon,  serving  there  night  and  day. 
His  restless  spirit,  his  keen,  hungry  eye,  his  eager,  hurried  strife  for  the 
goal,  his  talk — ever  in  some  form  exhibit  him  as  branded  v?ith  the  marks  of 
Mammon.  That  stiff,  lofty  indifference,  that  contemptuous  disregard  of 
others,  that  unquestioning  assumption  of  the  best  in  everything,  in  that 
other  man,  show  him  to  be  branded  with  the  marks  of  pride.  The  conceit 
of  self,  the  eagerness  for  the  notice  of  others,  the  sensitiveness  to  the 
opinion  of  others,  the  constant  looking  all  about  to  see  if  people  are  not 
admiring  him ;  what  he  does,  what  he  says,  how  he  dresses  to  court 
attention — all  evidence  that  he  is  branded  with  the  marks  of  vanity.  So 
that  bloated  face,  that  furtive  eye,  those  feverish  lips,  that  hard,  defiant 
bearing,  the  company  he  keeps,  the  language  he  uses,  evidence  that  that 
other  man  is  branded  with  the  marks  of  sensuality. 

When,  then,  we  rise  into  the  supreme  spiritual  sphere,  that  of  enthusiastic 
devotedness  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  when  we  become  whole-hearted  priests  in 
that  great  temple  of  Christ,  it  is  not  strange  that  we  receive  in  our  very 
spirit,  in  our  mind,  and  in  our  body,  the  brand  of  that  service. 

"  1  bear  in  my  body  the  brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  What,  then,  are 
these  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  or  these  brands,  attesting  that  we  thus 
belong  to  Him  ? 

The  first  we  mention  is  that  of  moral  earnestness.  In  the  early  morn- 
ing I  suppose  most  of  us  have  at  some  time  or  other  listened  to  the  waking 
up  of  the  great  city  to  work  and  life.  How  deliberately  earnest  it  is  in 
beginning  its  work.  The  thin  stream  of  its  work  at  first  gently  murmurs 
on  the  slumbering  air,  receiving  as  the  hours  wear  on  from  all  directions 
additional  streamlets.  It  becomes  ere  long  a  deep,  broad,  rushing  river  of 
hard  pulsating  work,  filling  the  spectator,  who  stands  as  it  were  on  its 
banks,  with  amazement  at  its  force  and  fulness.  Ah,  whither  is  that  rush 
of  work  all  going  ?  What  is  it  all  doing  ?  How  much  of  it  issues  in 
vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit  ?  How  much  of  it  issues  in  contentment  and 
well-being?  Yes,  we  Britishers  are  an  earnest  people,  we  think  hard,  we 
work  hard.  I  look  into  the  faces  of  men  as  they  are  going  about  their 
work  in  our  cities,  and  read  in  their  set,  resolute  lives,  *'  I  will  do  it.  I 
must  reach  it,  live  or  die."  Do  what  ?  reach  what  ?  That  is  the  ques- 
tion. Earnestness  is  a  noble  quality,  but  to  be  a  mark  of  our  being  in  the 
service  of  our  Lord  Jesus  our  earnestness  must  be  penetrated  and  inter- 
penetrated with  moral  feeling  and  spiritual  purpose.  The  settled  purpose 
in  our  soul  must  be,  "I  will  do  God's  will."  This  strong,  struggling, 
ambitious  life  we  as  a  people  inherit,  we  each  of  us  must  seize  with 
masterful  hand  and  say,  "  Go  to  worldly  success  if  you  will,  push  right 
through  to  the  front  if  you  will ;  but  whether  you  get  to  the  front  or  not, 
you  shall  not  forget  God  or  injure  your  neighbour.  You  may  fail ;  you 
shall  not  do  wrong."  A  soul,  brethren,  thus  morally  earnest,  will  be  vexed 
enough  with  its  own  and  with  other  people's  faults,  it  will  often  before 
God  with  sorrow  have  to  cry,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  I  am  weak,  the 
world  strong,"  but  this  moral  earnestness  is  a  mark  or  a  brand  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  From  this  how  different  the  giddy,  frivolous  life  of  many. 
Flippancy  is  not  a  mark  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Whose  mark  is  it  ? 
Where  there  is  such  moral  earnestness  there  will  appear  sooner  or  later 


The  Brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  83 

spiritual  faith,  which  is  the  second  mark  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  A  frivolous 
age  is  ever  an  age  of  scepticism ;  an  earnest  age  is  ever  an  age  of  faith. 
All  history,  I  believe,  supports  this.  Take  one  example  from  English  his- 
tory— the  Puritan  period  and  the  Restoration  period.  The  Restoration 
period  was  destitute  of  moral  earnestness;  like  its  unkingly  king,  Charles 
II.,  it  lived  in  vanity  and  died  jesting.  No  serious  effort  was  made  in 
that  age  in  the  legislature  for  the  benefit  of  the  country.  Low  sports  and 
a  wretched  drama  marked  it.  Its  frivolity  issued  in  the  decay  of  faith. 
It  gave  birth  to  philosophers  like  Hobbs,  and  to  poets  like  Butler.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  age  of  the  Puritans  was  characterised  by  moral  earnest- 
ness, a  terrible  earnestness  against  superstition  in  religion,  wrongs  in 
government,  and  vices  in  life;  an  earnestness  which  in  its  intensity 
degenerated  in  some  into  gloominess.  Connected,  however,  with  that 
moral  earnestness  was  spiritual  faith.  Men  then  believed  with  all  their 
heart.  That  age  of  faith  because  of  earnestness  produced  poets  like  Mil- 
ton, divines  like  Howe,  and  patriots  like  Hampden,  Pym,  and  Cromwell. 
As  with  the  age,  so  with  the  individual.  The  flippant  and  frivolous  do  not 
need  faith.  At  most,  a  little  shallow  scepticism  suffices  with  them.  They 
attempt  nothing  that  taxes  their  higher  nature.  They  can  speculate,  but 
they  cannot  believe.  Some  tell  us  that  the  lack  of  faith  springs  frequently 
or  always  from  strength  of  intellect.  No.  It  springs  from  the  lack  of 
moral  earnestness.  The  morally  earnest  must  believe,  or  his  earnestness 
perishes.  He  must  believe  in  the  right,  in  its  authority,  in  its  ultimate 
triumph,  or  he  could  not  be  earnest  to  secure  the  right  for  himself  and  for 
others.  The  strong  desire  for  the  good  must  constrain  him  to  pray  for  its 
attainment,  which  involves  faith  in  the  personality  of  the  Father,  in  His 
accessibility  and  responsibility.  His  sense  of  failure  and  sin  will  move  the 
earnest  man  to  ask,  "  Is  there  forgiveness  with  God  ?  If  so,  how  ?  "  He 
will  therefore  be  open  to  receive  God's  message  of  forgiveness  of  sin 
through  Jesus  Christ.  His  yearning  for  the  perfect  will  suggest  to  him 
there  must  be  a  world  beyond  this  mound  of  failures  where  the  good  will  be 
satisfied  by  God,  and  where  the  Divine  aspiration  which  God  hath  breathed 
into  the  soul  shall  meet  its  complete  fulfilment.  The  morally  earnest  may 
reject  this  theological  theory  or  even  that  theology,  but  it  must  believe. 
It  cannot  exist  without  faith.  Faith,  therefore,  ever  is  where  the  morally 
earnest  is.  But  the  flippant,  irreverent  spirit  can  do  without  faith ;  nay,  it 
could  not  be,  save  on  a  basis  of  unbelief. 

Bom  now  of  such  spiritual  faith,  comes  next,  as  the  third  mark  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  made  upon  the  spirit,  that  of  charity  or  love.  I  say,  Christian 
charity  is  the  third  mark  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  There  is  in  the  Chapel  of  the 
Virgin  at  Padua  a  significant  fresco  by  Giotto  of  "  Charity."  The  modern 
conception  of  Charity  is,  I  think,  that  of  a  woman  not  very  strong  in  her 
physique  bearing  an  infant  in  her  arms,  and  surrounded  by  two  or  three 
children.  Giotto's  representation  of  charity  is  also  that  of  a  woman,  but  the 
woman  he  takes  as  representing  charity  is  of  finer,  stronger,  and  more  intel- 
lectual mould  than  the  woman  made  to  represent  our  modern  charity.  This 
figure  holds  in  her  right  hand  a  great  bowl  full  of  food  and  flowers,  which 
would  tire  most  women  and  some  men  to  hold  a  minute  or  two.  The 
other  hand  stretches  upward  to  receive  a  human  heart,  which  one  of  God's 
angels  is  extending  towards  her.  Her  face  is  large  and  open, 
serenely  content.     She  stands   upon  bags  of  gold,  and  other   bags   lie 


84  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

thick  about  her  feet.  A  master  conception  this  of  Christian  charity. 
Take  one  or  two  of  its  features.  She  stands  on  bags  of  gold.  She  does 
not  kick  them  away  in  contempt,  she  is  not  looking  down  upon  them  with 
jealous  watchful  eye.  Her  eyes  are  directed  elsewhere.  Gold  under  the 
feet— that,  brethren  is  the  proper  place  for  gold.  Possess  the  gold  ;  you 
cannotjdo  much  good  of  a  certain  kind  without  it ;  possess  the  gold,  but 
have  it  under  your  feet,  not  on  the  back  bearing  you  down  from  upright- 
ness, not  in  the  heart  cankering  it.  A  good  ground  gold  makes  in  this 
world  to  stand  upon.  Giotto's  charity  has  it  there  in  abundance.  She, 
however,  does  not  think  her  duty  discharged  by  giving  a  few  pieces  of 
her  abundant  gold.  She  seems  to  have  used  it  to  purchase  food  and 
flowers.  That  food  and  flowers  she  holds  in  her  hand.  What  did  the  artist 
mean  by  that  ?  He  meant  that  love's  great  work  is  the  gift  of  simple  and 
beautiful  services,  which  satisfy  and  gladden  human  hearts  pining  for  love. 
These,  rather  than  gifts  of  gold — though  the  gold  in  its  place  and  time  is 
necessary — these  are  the  characteristic  deeds  of  Christian  charity  ;  these 
deeds  enrich  society  more  than  gifts  of  gold.  Giotto  was  profoundly 
right.  That  human  heart,  given  of  God's  angel,  which  Giotto's  charity 
with  supreme  blessedness  receives,  teaches  that  the  highest  reward,  and 
the  reward  which  alone  can  satisfy  love,  is  the  human  heart  given  purely 
as  from  heaven,  and  that  ever  is  given  to  wise,  noble  charity.  Such  is 
charity,  then,  conceived  under  the  full  inspiration  of  Christ.  It  differs  a 
little  from  our  modern  conception  of  charity — that  of  a  somewhat  weak 
woman  with  several  children  about  her.  We  must  not  slight  our  modern 
charity  looking  after  the  children,  for  the  pyramid  of  society  rests  upon 
the  child.  But  we  must  never  forget  that  the  charity  which  is  specifically 
Christian — the  charity  which  bears  manifestly  on  it  the  mark  of  the  Lord 
Jesus — is  the  charity  which  dispenses  the  food  and  the  flowers,  which  adds 
abundantly  the  gifts  and  services,  which  satisfies,  and  which  gladdens 
human  love.  It  is  not  simply  looking  after  this  form  of  what  we  in  modern 
language  call  charity,  so  much  as  it  is  giving  unto  the  great  masses  of  man- 
kind at  this  present  the  liberal  food  which  should  duly  nourish  them 
by  giving  unto  them  that  leisure  which  shall  enable  them  to  surround 
their  lives  with  that  which  answers  to  the  flowers — namely,  that  which 
shall  beautify,  gladden,  and  re-create.  It  is  more  leisure  for  recreation 
and  for  culture,  more  liberality  as  to  that  which  brings  the  maintenance  of 
life  in  health  and  strength,  that  the  charity — Christian  charity — of  this  day 
has  to  accomplish.  They,  therefore,  who  out  of  a  Christian  heart,  seek  in 
this  day  to  ameliorate  the  conditions  of  the  masses,  to  sanitate  the  houses 
of  the  people,  to  give  them  a  fair  chance  for  hberal  food  and  due  leisure 
for  recreation  and  culture,  are  doing  the  work  which  marks  them  with  the 
marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  For  the  Lord  Jesus  in  His  day  went  about 
doing  good,  and  such  good  as  met  the  physical  needs,  as  well  as  the 
spiritual  needs,  of  the  people. 

These  works,  then,  of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  we  have  mentioned,  namely, 
moral  earnestness,  spiritual  faith.  Christian  charity,  are  marks  pre-eminently 
upon  the  spirit  of  a  person.  They  are  not  very  visible,  at  least  not  so 
visible,  lor  example,  as  the  scars  on  Paul's  face  from  the  stoning,  or  the 
seams  on  his  back  from  the  scourging.  But  these  scars  had  not  been  on 
Paul's  body  had  not  Paul  had  within  marks  on  his  spirit. 

If  tliese  marks  be  on  our  spirit,  we  may  be  assured  there  will  be  also 


The  Brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  85 

branded  on  the  whole  body  of  our  external  life  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 
Our  estate,  for  example,  will  bear  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  A  part 
of  it  will  be  given  directly  to  the  Lord's  work  in  the  world.  Our  cash- 
box  will  have  its  marks  in  certain  gifts.  Our  little  ledger  will  have  an 
entry  for  religious  and  benevolent  expenditure.  Our  time  will  bear  its 
marks  ot  the  Lord  Jesus.  It  will  not  all  be  given  to  business  and  pleasure, 
and  an  hour  or  two  on  the  Sabbath,  when  we  think  we  can  do  nothing 
better,  grudgingly  given  to  church.  Our  Sabbath  mornings,  too,  will  not  be 
spent  in  idleness,  and  our  afternoons  and  evenings  in  visiting.  Each  day 
also  will  bear  its  marks  in  having  had  some  portion  of  it  devoted  to 
prayer.  Does  our  time  bear  the  Lord's  mark  ?  It  is  for  some  of  our 
time  that  the  Lord  to  many  of  us  is  loudly  caUing.  Our  business  will 
bear  the  mark  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  His  mark  will  be  on  the  stuff  we  sell 
and  the  goods  we  manufacture.  That  mark,  though  not  quite  understood, 
will  be  soon  known  in  the  market  as  the  guarantee  of  sound  work  and  fair 
measure.  Our  speech  and  spirit  will  bear  His  mark.  Guile  will  not  be 
found  in  our  mouth,  a  lie  will  not  stain  our  lips,  vileness  will  not  dis- 
figure our  speech,  nor  malignity  darken  our  spirit.  His  mark  will  be 
there — truth  and  righteousness  is  that  mark,  in  our  spirit  and  in  our  life, 
and  in  our  very  body  literally  will  the  Lord's  mark  appear. 

Francis  of  Assissi  bore,  the  legend  tells  us,  the  stigmata  of  the  Lord's 
crucifixion  on  his  hands  and  feet  as  proof  of  his  devotedness  to  and  com- 
munion with  the  Lord.  This  legend,  as  also  the  legend  of  the  Scarlet 
Letter,  rests  upon  the  truth  that  the  spirit  from  within  powerfully  affects 
the  body.  We  have  seen  faces  which  at  one  time  bore  the  brand  of  the 
vices  gradually  become  changed  under  the  transforming  power  of  Christ 
within.  Lines  of  wrath  and  hate  gave  place  to  those  of  content  and  love. 
The  bloated  flesh  of  the  vices  sinks  away  into  the  purer,  firmer  form  of 
health.  On  others  we  have  seen  the  Lord's  mark  more  plainly — the  erect 
form,  the  fearless  movement,  the  pure  eye,  the  open  brow,  the  lip  so  firm 
and  free,  knowing  nothing  of  hesitation  in  good  or  concealment  in  truth, 
the  far-away  look,  the  supersensuous  tone,  the  holy  light,  the  face  sugges- 
tive of  Stephen's,  which  shone  like  an  angel,  plainly  saying,  "  I  bear  in  my 
body  the  marks  of  my  entire  devotedness  to  the  Lord  Jesus."  Yes  ;  if  our 
spirit  be  marked,  the  whole  body  of  our  being  bear  the  marks  also  of  our 
devotedness  and  service  to  Christ. 

Now  if  I  have  not  proved  thus  far  in  pointing  out  what  are  really  the 
marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  you  will  see  how  different  they  are  from  what 
mere  popular  thought  affirms  them  to  be.  Passion  and  prejudice,  narrow- 
ness of  view  and  bitterness  of  spirit,  self-complacency  and  self-assertion, 
the  lack  of  a  keen  sense  of  honesty  and  veracity,  these  are  marked  with 
the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus  some  would  have  the  temerity  to  afifirm,  or 
here  and  there  a  bad  specimen  of  those  calling  themselves  Christians  do 
affirm.  On  the  contrary,  moral  earnestness,  spiritual  faith,  noble  charity 
on  the  spirit  are  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  showing  themselves  in 
marking  all  the  outer  parts  of  the  body  m  some  such  way  as  we  have 
indicated.  To  be,  brethren,  thus  branded  with  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus,  fire  must  fall  upon  us  from  heaven ;  the  consecrating  iron,  heated 
hot,  maybe,  in  fiery  trial  or  burning  experience,  must  touch  us  ;  ay,  rest 
on  and  press  into  our  quivering,  shrinking  flesh.  There  must  be  a  com- 
plete devotedness  to  God  in  Christ  that  comes  only  through  fire  from 
heaven  in  some  form. 


86  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

It  is  painful  work,  this  branding,  but  it  is  worth  the  pain.  So  branded 
our  religion  becomes  as  no  chalk  mark,  which  the  afflictions  of  life  may  rub 
off,  no  mere  adhesive  stamp,  which  a  little  rather  rough  weather  may  wash 
off.  The  mark  is  burned  into  us  so  that  whether  we  live  we  Hve  unto  the 
Lord,  or  whether  we  die  we  die  unto  the  Lord ;  so  that  whether  we  live  or 
whether  we  die  we  are  the  Lord's  :  we  bear  in  our  body,  soul,  and  spirit 
the  brand  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

I  should  like  to  point  out  very  briefly  how  such  devotedness  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  in  our  case,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  delivers  us  from  trouble. 
"  Let  no  man  trouble  me,"  he  says  in  our  text,  "  for  I  bear  in  my  body  the 
brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  It  is  idle  to  attempt  to  trouble  me,  for  I  will 
not  be  troubled,  I  cannot  be  troubled."  To  many  Christians  everything 
is  a  trouble  and  anyone  can  trouble.  They  have  no  fine,  strong,  indepen- 
dent life.  They  cannot  say,  "  I  know  what  I  think  and  what  I  believe,  and 
what  I  must  and  will  do,  for  I  am  in  the  leading  of  God."  They  are  not 
certain  and  determined.  They  are  troubled.  Criticism  or  remark,  they 
say,  troubles  them,  diverts  and  irritates  them.  Everything,  indeed,  is  a 
trouble  to  them,  and  anything  can  trouble  them.  Doubts  can  trouble 
them,  temptations  can  trouble  them,  the  world's  contempt  or  scorn  troubles 
them.  They  are  full  of  troubles.  To  pray  is  a  trouble,  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures is  a  trouble,  to  attend  their  church  is  a  trouble,  to  give  a  subscrip- 
tion to  God's  work  is  a  trouble. 

Oh,  brethren,  if  we  had  anything  like  the  spirit  of  Paul  towards  our 
blessed  Lord  and  Master,  we  should  be  able  to  say  to  the  world,  and  to 
self,  and  to  everything,  "  Let  no  man  trouble  me,  for  I  bear  the  brand  of 
the  Lord  Jesus.  I  will  not  be  troubled,  you  cannot  trouble  me,  I  am 
settled  and  firm,  entirely  and  absolutely  devoted.  It  is  waste  of  time  to 
attempt  to  trouble.  Leave  me  alone  and  save  your  trouble,  for  whatever 
you  may  say  or  do  or  be,  on  this  I  am  determined,  to  serve  the  Lord 
Jesus."  . 

This  evening  you  are  to  have  an  opportunity  of  contributing  to  the 
funds  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society.  I  am  quite  certain  if  you 
have  within  you  anything  approaching  the  spirit  of  entire  devotedness  unto 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  which  our  text  has  brought  before  us,  you  will  con- 
sider this  no  trouble.  This  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  deserves 
well  of  every  soul  that  is  anxious  for  the  good  of  man  and  the  glory  of 
God.  If  we  ourselves  have  tasted  of  this  Word,  and  know  how  precious  it 
IS,  we  can  but  have  one  feeling,  the  desire  that  others  also  may  taste  of  it. 
I  am  informed  that  our  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  distributes 
annually  four  millions  of  copies  or  portions  of  the  Bible,  and  that  through 
its  mstrumentality  we  have  at  this  present  day  nearly  three  hundred  trans- 
lations of  this  Bible  into  the  languages  of  the  earth.  That  is  to  say,  there 
are  nearly  three  hundred  languages  which  have  the  Scriptures  in  their  own 
tongue,  and  that  now  every  great  language — and  by  every  great  language 
IS  meant  every  language  that  is  spoken  by  some  ten  miUions  of  people— in 
every  great  language  of  the  world  the  whole  Bible  is  translated.  Of  course, 
there  are  many— I  may  say  hundreds,  I  believe  it  is  equal  to  thousands- 
there  are  may  hundreds  of  languages  in  which  the  Bible  is  not  yet  translated. 
1  h  -re  is  therefore  ample  scope  for  the  work  of  the  Bible  Society.  I  appeal, 
therefore,  to  those  of  you  who  know  something  of  the  preciousness  of  the 
BiLIc,  and  appreciate  somewhat  the  work  of  the  Society,  to  contribute 


The  Brands  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  87 

freely  unto  the  funds.  I  hear  that  by  a  stress  of  work  they  have  gone  this 
year  some  thousands  over  their  ordinary  expenditure.  It  is  therefore  the 
more  needful  that  collections  such  as  this  should  not  only  come  up  to,  but 
go  beyond,  what  they  have  been  in  previous  years.  The  collection  will 
now  be  taken. 

Prayer  before  Sermon. 

O  Lord  God  Almighty,  we  draw  night  to  Thee,  confessing  our  un- 
worthiness  and  sin.  It  is  not  that  we  have  fallen  into  the  open,  flagrant 
sin,  or  that  we  have  brought  upon  ourselves  disgrace  and  dishonour  in  the 
eyes  of  men.  Our  burden  is,  that  our  moral  and  spiritual  man  is  so  weak, 
that  the  good  we  would  we  do  not,  and  we  would  not  do  that  which  we 
do.  Our  burden  is,  that  we  are  so  blind  to  the  sense  of  Thy  presence,  and 
so  irresponsive  to  the  touches  of  Thy  Spirit.  Our  sense  of  sin  rises  in 
the  way  we  so  often  prefer  ourselves  before  Thee,  our  God,  and  guide  us 
our  way  by  the  maxims  of  this  world,  rather  than  by  the  convictions  of 
conscience  and  the  inspirations  of  Thy  Spirit.  Forgive  us,  O  God,  in  this 
fundamental  wrong.  Forgive  us  in  this  our  heart  having  strayed  from 
Thee  ;  this  sin  of  our  ways  not  being  right  before  Thee.  Touch  us  with  a 
deeper  sense  yet  of  the  sinfulness  of  this,  and  may  our  penitence  for  it 
be  increasingly^  sincere ;  and  may  our  faith  in  Thy  forgiveness,  and  our 
faith  in  the  incoming  of  Thy  Spirit,  became  larger  and  yet  larger.  We 
pray  Thee,  holy  Father,  that  Thou  wilt  quicken  and  strengthen  us  in  all 
understanding  of  Thy  holy  Word  and  will.  Deliver  us  from  darkness  of 
man,  from  prejudice  and  passion,  which  may  interfere  with  our  receiving 
Thy  truth,  as  well  as  doing  Thy  will.  Help  us  day  by  day  to  overcome 
temptations  which  fall  to  us,  and  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  our  common 
life.  In  our  homes  give  us  grace  to  be  kindly  and  affectionate  one  to 
another.  In  our  business  help  us  to  be  faithful,  diligent,  and  honest,  in 
all  our  intercourse  one  with  another.  Give  unto  us  the  charity  which  is 
kind  and  suffereth  long.  As  citizens,  may  we  be  faithful  to  our  oppor- 
tunities to  bring  our  civic  and  national  life  into  harmony  with  Thy  holy 
will.  As  members  of  society,  help  us  with  wisdom  which  is  from  above 
to  see  what  should  be  done  in  our  social  life  to  heal  the  many  wounds 
and  to  bind  up  the  many  running  sores  that  now  so  weaken  the  social 
body.  We  give  Thee  thanks,  good  Lord,  for  all  Thy  goodness  and  mercy 
to  usward.  We  thank  Thee  especially  for  Thy  dear  Son,  Jesus  Christ 
We  thank  Thee  for  all  that  He  has  revealed  to  us  concerning  Thyself — for 
all  that  He  has  wrought  for  us  ;  and  we  more  especially  this  evening  give 
Thee  thanks  for  the  gift  of  Thy  holy  Book.  We  thank  Thee  that  through 
the  long  line  of  the  past  Thou  has  raised  up  from  time  to  time  holy  men, 
and  inspired  them  by  Thy  Spirit  so  that  they  have  lived  the  lite  and 
written  the  Word  which  we  have  now  for  our  instruction.  We  thank  Thee 
for  the  marvellous  way  in  which  Thou  hast,  by  Thy  providence  and  grace, 
given  unto  us  this  holy  Book,  and  preserved  it  amid  the  wrecks  of  time  unto 
this  present.  We  bless  Thee  for  all  the  manifest  marks  in  this  Book  that 
it  is  from  Thee.  We  rejoice  in  the  great  company  who,  in  the  study  of 
this  holy  Book, have  found  spiritual  life  and  strong  consolation.  We  bless 
Thee  that  the  Word  is  the  seed  which,  taken  into  the  heart  of  man,  brings 
forth  the  fruit  of  eternal  life.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  sanctifying  truth  of 
Thy  Word  ;  for  all  its  great  and  exceeding  precious  promises ;  for  all  its 


88  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


faithful  and  terrible  warnings.  But,  most  of  all,  we  thank  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  in  this  holy  Word  set  a  place  for  Thy  dear  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  We 
thank  Thee  that  He  is  the  light  and  glory  of  this  holy  Book,  and  we 
bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  so  clearly  set  Him  in  this  Book  that  we, 
gazing  upon  Him  therein,  are  convinced  that  not  only  He  is  from  Thee, 
but  that  the  Book,  which  thus  records  Him,  must  be  also  from  Thee.  We 
beseech  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  bless  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  granting  unto  its  directors  grace  and  wisdom  from  above  to  guide  its 
affairs  with  discretion  and  to  success  ;  giving  also  unto  the  varied  agents 
of  the  Society  faithfulness  to  fulfil  the  duties  which  devolve  upon  them. 
May  they  be  wise,  and  earnest,  and  successful,  not  only  in  advocating  the 
claims  of  this  holy  Book  and  of  this  Society,  but  also  in  communicating 
the  truths  of  that  Book  when  such  opportunity  presents  itself  to  those  to 
whom  they  speak.  Be  with  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  this  evening,  and, 
with  every  worshipping  assembly,  granting  the  presence  of  Thy  Holy  Spirit 
to  quicken  and  to  bless.  For  Christ's  sake  do  Thou  hear  us,  and  unto 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit  be  everlasting  praise.     Amen. 


SONS  OF  ELI,  YET  SONS  OF  BELIAL. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

Preached  in  the  City  Temple^  London^  on  Sunday  evening^  May  ii,  1890. 

"The  sons  of  Eli  were  sons  of  Belial." — i  Samuel  ii.  12. 

Let  us  see  if  we  can  remember  these  words  :  "  The  sons  of  Eli  were  sons 
of  Belial."  That  would  seem  to  be  impossible.  Eli  was  a  holy  man. 
'  Eli  was  a  priest.  Eli  was  not  intellectually  a  strong  man,  but  morally  he 
was  righteous  and  faithful  up  to  a  very  high  degree.  He  was  not  much 
of  a  ruler  at  home,  still  he  was  substantially  a  good  man.  Belial  represents 
corruption,  darkness,  the  devil,  the  unholy  genius  of  the  universe,  anything 
that  indicates  selfishness,  baseness,  corruption.  Now  read  the  text,  "  The 
sons  of  Eli,  the  holy  priest,  were  sons  of  Belial,  the  bad  spirit,  the  evil 
genius." 

We  are  always  coming  upon  these  conflicts,  ironies,  impossibilities. 
There  is  no  smooth  reading  in  history.  For  miles  the  river  flows  calmly 
and  brightly,  and  is  almost  the  willing  mirror  of  the  green  beauty  all 
around,  and  the  blue  on  high  ;  then  suddenly  it  plunges  over  some  great 
rocks,  and  becomes  not  a  river,  but  a  cataract.  For  a  long  time  a  man 
lives  a  sober,  honest,  and  good  sort  of  life,  and  the  day  after  to-morrow 
you  will  hear  that  he  has  gone  to  the  devil.  What  has  he  done?  All 
kinds  of  things  thai  are  wrong.  Statistically  he  may  only  have  done  one 
thing,  but  that  one  thing  may  be  so  pregnant  and  inclusive  as  to  hold  in  it 
a  whole  hell.  There  are  some  one  things  we  could  not  have  done  but  for 
a  process  that  means  long  plotting,  deep  conspiracy,  many  a  secret  inter- 
view witli  our  spiritual  foe ;  and  we  have  lighted  our  mental  candle  at  the 
torch  of  his  baleful  genius.  Our  suggestions  are  not  all  our  own.  We 
can  carry  a  good  deal  oi  evil.  Men  do  not  like  to  hear  of  this.  They 
would  rather  hear  music  and  see  pictures,  and  be  taken  out  at  summer 
noonlide  and  be  shown  all  the  celestial  blue,  and   all  the   apocalypse  of 


Sons  of  Eli,  yet  Sons  of  Belial.  89 

light-charged  clouds.  At  the  same  time  there  is  the  fact,  solemn,  tragical, 
tremendous,  that  the  sons  of  a  good  man  may  be  bad  men,  and  that  good 
men  themselves  may  be  surprised  or  insidiously  led  into  the  deepest, 
gravest  evils.  "  Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he  fall." 
"  Hold  Thou  me  up,  and  I  shall  be  safe."  Only  as  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being  in  God  can  we  realise  all  our  privileges,  and  turn  them  into 
solid  and  beneficent  character.  What  becomes  of  the  doctrine  of  spiritual 
heredity  ?  There  may  be  something  in  physical  descent,  and  there  ought 
to  be  a  good  deal  in  spiritual  descent.  Eli  ought  not  to  have  bad 
sons.  Bad  people  ought  never  to  come  out  of  good  homes.  Their  so 
doing  involves  so  much,  and  implicates  so  many  people,  and  throws  sus- 
picion upon  so  many  circumstances  and  processes,  unworthy  and 
humiliating  suspicion.  The  danger  is  that  Eli  himself  may  be  charged  with 
responsibility.  It  is  so  difficult  for  an  ill-judging  and  prejudiced  human 
nature  to  distinguish  between  cause  and  effect.  How  apt  we  are  to  say 
because  a  man  is  bad,  his  father  must  have  been  bad.  We  are  more  apt  to 
say  that,  perhaps,  than  to  say  the  contrary,  namely,  this  youth  must  surely  be 
good,  his  father  was  such  an  honest  man.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  evil  in 
us  in  this  direction,  always  willing  to  find  out  wickedness,  always  prepared 
to  suggest  hypocrisy,  seldom  inclined  to  think  and  feel  the  best  about 
children  that  have  come  out  of  sweet  homes.  Yet  we  ought  so  to  act 
towards  them  as  to  suggest  to  their  own  minds  that  we  are  simply  bewil- 
dered and  confounded  by  certain  things  we  have  seen  in  them,  which 
contrast  so  vividly  and  terribly  with  what  we  expected  from  them.  Do 
not  suppose  that  you  will  be  good  men  because  your  father  was  a  good 
man,  or  your  mother  a  good  woman.  You  may  upset  the  whole  process 
of  heredity,  you  may  create  a  point  of  departure  in  your  own  development. 
It  lies  within  the  power,  but  not  within  the  right  of  every  man  to  say, 
"  From  the  date  of  my  birth  there  shall  be  black  blood  in  our  family,  I 
will  live  the  downward  life,  I  will  make  hospitality  in  the  house  for  evil 
spirits,"  so  easy  is  it  to  destroy,  so  tempting  is  it  to  make  bad  fame. 

But  we  see  this  not  only  religiously  in  the  distinctive  sense  of  that 
term:  we  see  this  inversion  and  perversion  of  heredity  along  all  the  lines 
of  hfe,  and  in  all  the  spheres  of  human  experience.  A  civilised  man,  a 
son  of  civilisation,  may  be  one  of  the  most  barbarous  men  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth ;  it  does  not  come  within  the  power  of  a  savage  to  be  so  bar- 
barous as  a  civilised  man  can  be.  Let  us  beware  how  we  talk  about 
savages,  and  barbarians,  and  people  who  are  not  civilised,  and  the  like.  I 
would  again  lay  down  the  thought,  which  cannot  now  be  discussed  and 
illustrated  at  large,  that  civihsation  has  in  its  power,  by  the  very  necessity 
of  its  being  civilisation,  to  go  deeper  tlian  ever  poor  ignorant  barbarism 
could  do.  Barbarism  has  not  the  intelligence,  has  not  the  faculty,  has  not 
the  instruments.  There  is  no  fall  so  tremendous  as  the  fall  from  heaven. 
How  foolish  we  are,  therefore,  in  this  discrimination  of  character  when 
we  fall  back  from  the  poor  savage,  and  hold  concert  and  fellowship  with 
the  perverted  son  of  civilisation,  the  man  who  knows  all  that  art  can  do, 
and  yet  serves  the  very  spirit  of  baseness.  There  are  atheisms  of  that 
kind  in  great  abundance  in  the  world,  men  who  know  music  and  never 
listen  to  it  except  it  is  hired  to  do  the  devil's  work,  men  who  are  critics 
in  art,  and  yet  care  nothing  for  it  except  the  figure  shall  suggest  the  devil — 
not  openly,  overtly,  and  vulgarly,  but  shall  have  about  it  some  twist  and 


go  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

colour  and  suggestion  pointing  downward  towards  all  evil  indulgence 
and  interdicted  delight.  "  The  sons  of  Eli  were  sons  of  Belial."  The 
corresponding  sentence  in  the  lower  levels  of  history  is,  "  The  sons  of 
civilisation  are  sons  of  barbarism." 

So  we  might  proceed  to  further  illustration  and  say,  "The  sons  of  educa- 
tion are  sons  of  the  greatest  ignorance."  Some  day  we  shall  under- 
stand the  meaning  of  the  word  education  better.  It  is  not  a  word  to  be 
limited  to  letters  and  to  the  knowledge  of  what  has  happened  in  the  world. 
It  is  a  word  which  ought  to  apply  to  the  soul,  to  its  development,  its 
firuition,  its  continual  uplifting  towards  the  highest  ideal,  yea,  to  the  very 
Deity  Himself.  Who  can  be  so  ignorant  as  a  soul  who  has  given  himself 
up  to  the  service  of  evil  ?  It  is  not  ignorance  of  the  base  and  vulgar  type 
that  can  be  excused  on  the  ground  of  want  of  privilege  and  want  of 
opportunity,  but  it  is  that  peculiar  ignorance  which,  having  the  light,  hides 
it ;  which,  knowing  the  right,  does  the  wrong.  Who  commits  the  crime  of 
the  world  ?  Men  of  great  intelligence  unbalanced  by  great  moral  integrity. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  ignorance  may  conduce  to  crime.  That  is  crime 
of  the  most  diluted  sort  compared  to  the  crime  that  is  possible  to  an 
educated  or  intelligent  man  who  is  about  to  use  the  instrument  of  intelli- 
gence for  doing  the  work  of  evil.  Such  men  ought  to  be  punished  tenfold 
more  than  the  poor  waifs  and  strays  who  never  had  any  chance  in  life,  who 
never  had  one  really  long  happy  summer  day  in  all  their  experience.  When 
you  find  a  so-called  gentleman  doing  wrong,  let  him  feel  what  it  is  to  be  in 
penal  servitude.  Education  is  an  element  in  his  condemnation.  We  must 
not  treat  poor,  miserable,  homeless  ignorance  and  crime  as  if  they  were  the 
most  dangerous  quality.  It  is  the  man  who  knows  better  and  can  do 
better,  and  will  not  do  it,  that  is  the  pest  of  society. 

Sometimes  we  may  say,  "  the  sons  of  refinement  are  the  sons  of  vul- 
garity." There  is  a  refinement  which  is  only  external ;  there  is  a  refine- 
ment of  form  and  of  conventionality  and  of  habit  and  of  custom.  There 
are  men  who  will  lie  whilst  they  are  smiling ;  there  are  men  who  can 
indulge  their  worst  passions  even  when  they  are  apparently  indulging  their 
highest  aspirations.  To  laugh  at  the  want  of  refinement  in  others  who 
have  never  had  an  opportunity  of  being  refined  is  the  cruellest  and  the 
basest  vulgarity.  Refinement  of  the  highest  quality  is  patient,  hopeful, 
sympathetic.  The  Divine  refinement  sees  beauty  where  the  eyes  of  self- 
ishness and  worldliness  can  only  see  features  and  elements  to  mock  and  to 
laugh  at.  Say,  is  there  any  refinement  so  vulgar  as  the  refinement  which 
gives  itself  up  to  work  all  manner  of  evil  criticism  with  greediness  and  with 
diabolical  delight  in  the  torture  and  humiliation  of  others  ? 

The  whole  point  is  this,  that  our  heredity  may  be  broken  in  upon,  our 
ancestral  privileges  maybe  thrown  away;  sons  of  Eli  may  be  sons  of 
Belial.  We  hold  nothing  by  right  of  ancestry.  That  has  been  the  curse 
of  history,  so  far.  The  whole  spirit  of  feudalism  is  a  spirit  of  wickedness, 
because  a  spirit  of  selfishness.  We  ought  to  hold  nothing  by  right  of 
ancestry.  Every  man  should  hold  his  property  by  right  of  labour,  by 
right  of  honest  moral  conquest.  Whatever  you  have,  young  man,  take  it 
at  the  spear  point.  What  was  given  you  is  nothing;  but  what  God  has 
enabled  you  to  get  with  your  own  bow  and  arrow,  that  is  wealth.  You 
can  appreciate  it,  you  can  value  it ;  you  know  what  it  cost  you.  But  when 
riches  and  honour  and  all  kinds  of  shallow  delight  have  been  thrust  upon 


Sons  of  Eli,  yet  Sons  of  Belial.  91 

you  as  if  by  right,  why,  you  become  wanton  and  unruly,  lustful  and 
suicidal.  Whatever  we  have  in  the  way  of  moral  character  we  hold,  not 
because  our  fathers  and  mothers  were  good,  but  as  the  result  of  our  own 
good  conduct  under  the  grace  and  blessing  of  God.  You  cannot  hand 
down  a  good  character  to  others.  You  can  set  up  a  great  reputation  for 
goodness,  and  that  ought  to  be  a  suggestion  and  a  stimulus  and  a  direction 
and  a  comfort,  but  you  cannot  hand  on  your  character  as  you  hand  on  your 
acres  or  your  pounds  sterling.  Whatever  we  have  we  can  only  have  by 
right  of  labour,  thought,  watchfulness,  and  conducting  the  whole  economy 
of  life  in  the  spirit  of  stewardship. 

Oh,  he  is  poor,  so  poor  that  words  fail  to  describe  his  pauperism,  who 
has  nothing  but  what  has  been  left  him  ;  and  he  never  would  have  had  it, 
if  the  people  could  have  taken  it  away  with  them.  But  having  to  unload 
it  somewhere,  they  unloaded  it  at  his  feet.  That  is  not  life,  that  is  not 
character,  that  is  not  greatness — whatever  you  learned  yourselves,  whatever 
you  mastered.  Your  father  could  not  give  to  you  his  knowledge  even  of 
the  alphabet.  Every  man  has  to  conquer  the  alphabet  as  if  no  other  man 
had  ever  conquered  it  before.  Why  not  amplify  that  idea  and  carry  it 
throughout  the  whole  scheme  of  character,  and  see  how  we  are  called  upon  to 
work  for  what  we  have,  and  not  to  depend  upon  ancestral  blessings  and 
privileges.  If  we,  however,  receive  these  in  the  right  spirit,  we  can  turn 
them  into  advantages.  They  need  not  be  burdens.  They  can  be  so 
received  as  to  perpetuate  noble  memories,  they  can  be  so  received  as  to  be 
used  as  accessories  to  strength  already  in  possession.  But  to  the  man  who 
has  not  learned  to  conquer  life  on  his  own  account  under  the  inspiration 
and  blessing  of  God,  all  gifts  become  more  or  less  burdensome,  and  of 
the  nature  of  encumbrances  and  hindrances  in  the  way  of  progress. 

Do  not,  then,  say :  "  My  father  was  good,  my  mother  was  good,  there- 
fore I  need  not  take  any  interest  in  these  matters  myself ;  part  of  the 
virtue  is  laid  up  for  me.  I  may  draw  upon  it  by  and  by."  All  that 
reasoning  is  vicious,  false,  spiritually  destructive.  A  double  damnation  is 
theirs  who  have  great  advantages  to  begin  with,  and  who  do  not  rise  to 
the  nobleness  and  greatness  of  their  opportunities.  What  some  men  have 
to  begin  with !  How  much  they  have !  Such  roomy  houses,  such 
libraries,  such  kindness  and  love  on  the  part  of  their  parents  and  friends; 
they  are  born  to  all  manner  of  social  advantages  so-called — where  are  they 
to-day  ?  How  dare  some  men  look  back  to  their  beginnings  and  compare 
those  beginnings  with  what  they  are  to-day  ?  Their  fathers  were  great  or 
good,  their  homes  were  loveliness  itself,  the  walls  were  alive  with  eloquent 
colour,  and  all  the  air  was  charged  with  the  music  of  birds  and  young  lives 
of  many  kinds.  They  had  great  opportunities  for  learning  at  school.  They 
were  sent  to  the  best  academies ;  no  bill  of  costs  was  regarded  as  too  high 
in  discharge  of  their  educational  responsibilities.  Where  are  they  to-day  i^ 
Did  they  not  begin  with  too  much  ?  Were  they  not  overburdened  ?  I 
have  seen  boys  who  have  been  the  round  of  the  Continent  of  Europe  before 
they  were  thirteen.  That  is  inflicting  a  tremendous  disadvantage  upon 
any  boy — to  give  him  all  that  can  be  given  just  as  he  is  opening  his  teens. 
Rather  keep  him  to  the  plough,  keep  him  to  labour,  keep  him  to  service, 
teach  him  that  life  is  not  a  joke,  or  a  dream,  or  a  scented  delight.  Teach 
him  that  life  is  a  service,  a  discipline,  a  probation,  an  education  ;  and  then, 
as  the  years  come  and  go,  give  him  larger  and  larger  advantages,  because 


92  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

his  capacity  is  increased,  and  his  sense  of  appreciation,  and  his  sense  of 
gratitude. 

Possibly  some  of  you  may  have  begun  too  well.  You  are  not  altogether 
to  be  blamed  for  it.  I  have  men,  applicants  for  bounty  now,  whose  fathers 
were  worth  a  hundred  thousand  pounds.  There  are  men  in  London  to- 
day on  the  tramcars  who  came  from  houses  such  as  I  never  saw  until  I 
was  probably  more  than  five  and  twenty  years  of  age.  There  are  men 
who  have  wasted  a  whole  inheritance  of  ancestral  repute  for  wisdom  and 
greatness.  Yet  I  cannot  altogether  blame  them.  The  parental  Eli  cannot 
wholly  escape  responsibility.  They  had  too  much.  Things  came  too 
easily.  Easy  come,  easy  go,  is  a  motto  which  experience  has  tested  and 
endorsed.  It  would  have  been  better  for  some  men  if  they  had  begun 
lower  down  with  harder  fare  and  more  work  to  do. 

And  with  how  little  have  some  other  men  begun,  and  yet  look  at  them 
to-day.  How  is  this  ?  They  have  been  faithful,  they  have  been  honest, 
they  have  recognised  the  spirit  of  stewardship  and  have  answered  it.  God 
knows  all  this  and  will  judge  accordingly.  We  must  judge  men  by  com- 
parison and  not  by  absolute  position  and  result.  What  were  the  men  at 
the  beginning  ?  What  was  their  struggle  ?  How  high  was  the  hill  they 
had  to  climb  before  they  ever  got  a  breath  of  fresh  air  ?  How  long  were 
they  confined  to  some  dingy  position  where  they  never  heard  a  bird  un- 
caged sing  in  the  morning  ?  How  difficult  it  was  for  them  to  pick  up  a 
little  learning.  They  picked  up  a  little  at  night  school.  I  have  been  told 
by  some  of  them  that  they  learned  to  write  with  a  skewer  in  the  sand  that 
was  spread  upon  the  school  table,  and  yet  I  have  seen  them  rise  to  wealth, 
which  is  nothing ;  to  intelligence,  which  is  much ;  and  to  spiritual  influence, 
which  is  best  of  all. 

Do  not,  therefore,  on  the  one  hand,  presume  upon  your  parentage,  and 
say,  "My  father  was  good  and  therefore  I  cannot  be  bad" ;  and  do  not, 
on  the  other  hand,  be  discouraged,  and  say,  "  I  came  from  so  low  a 
beginning  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  do  anything."  There  is  nothing 
impossible  to  courage,  to  faith,  to  reverence,  to  prayer.  I  would,  therefore, 
cheer  those  to  whom  life  has  been  a  hard  lot  so  far.  There  is  nothing 
impossible  to  you  if  you  be  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Then 
you  are  living  a  harmonic  life— living  musically,  living  sympathetically. 
Then  you  march  with  the  stars,  you  are  in  the  course  of  the  Divine 
development  of  history.  At  the  judgment  how  many  will  be  first  whom 
we  thought  last,  and  how  many  will  be  last  whom  we  thought  first  !  The 
miracles  of  society  we  have  not  yet  fully  discovered.  There  is,  it  may  be, 
many  a  boy  that  is  here  who  is  a  great  miracle  in  the  sight  of  God.  It  does 
not  appear  so  to  us,  because  we  do  not  know  all  the  origins,  all  the 
begmnings,  and  all  the  difficulty.  But  at  the  last  God  will  identify  him 
and  crown  him. 

Work  in  the  spirit  of  hopefulness,  therefore.  The  way  up  has  been  very 
difiicult  to  some  of  you,  because  you  have  no  sooner  got  an  inch  above 
ground  than  some  cruel  foot  was  set  upon  you  and  crushed  you  back  again. 
Still  hope  m  God.  There  is  no  day  so  long  that  it  will  not  close,  there  is 
no  darkness  so  dense  that  God  cannot  pierce  it  with  shafts  of  light ;  and 
m  the  long  run  you  may  be  all  the  better  for  your  weakness,  and  sorrow, 
and  difticulty,  and  struggle.  God  knows  it  all.  Do  not  trouble  to  explain 
yourselves  or  to  defend  yourselves.     Keep  to  your  work,  go  on  faithfully. 


Compromise  with  Evil.  93 


sturdily,  solemnly,  and  lovingly  and  courageously,  and  at  the  end  you 
shall  have  light  enough. 

God  is  judge.  What  are  you  pampered  ones  going  to  do?  You  had 
better  give  it  all  up  and  start  afresh.  What  are  you  discontented  ones 
going  to  do  ?  It  is  long  since  you  saw  a  new  book.  You  have  read  the 
first  pages  of  many  books  at  the  booksellers'  windows,  and  sometimes  have 
said,  "Oh  if  that  page  would  only  turn  over  !  What  is  there  on  the  other 
side  of  it  ?  "  We  have  read  a  first  page  to-night.  Perhaps  to-morrow  the 
bookseller  will  make  a  mistake  in  settmg  it  up,  and  we  shall  read  overleaf. 
One  of  the  greatest  Latin  scholars  in  the  century  learned  what  little  Latin 
he  did  under  a  public  lamp.  He  could  not  afford  a  candle  at  home,  and 
so  he  went  to  read  by  a  parochial  lamp.  If  you  want  to  be  good,  and 
true,  and  great,  you  can  be  it  all  in  some  degree.  Do  not  sit  there 
repining,  and  whining,  and  moaning ;  but  rise,  do  the  little  that  lies 
within  reach,  and  no  man  can  tell  what  a  harvest  may  come  out  of  one 
handful  of  corn.  Sow  the  corn,  and  the  fruit  of  it  may  shake  like 
Lebanon. 


COMPROMISE    WITH   EVIL. 

Outline  of  a  Sermon, 

By  the  Rev.  Isaac  O.  Stalberg. 

"  And  Reuben  said  unto  them.  Shed  no  blood,  but  cast  him  into  this  pit  that 
is  in  the  wilderness,  and  lay  no  hand  upon  him  ;  that  he  might  rid  him  out  of 
their  hands  to  deliver  him  to  his  father  again." — Gen.  xxxvii.  22. 

We  are  often  told  to  study  men.  Those  with  whom  we  stand  shoulder 
to  shoulder  ;  but  those  also  who  ever  live  in  the  pages  of  history — sacred 
and  secular.  Reuben  thus  comes  within  the  range  of  our  investigation — 
a  man  of  varied  passions — surging  life  and  throbbing  heart.  Into  that 
heart  and  life  we  can  look  through  the  window  of  our  text. 

I.  Oiir  first  impulse  is  to  adtnire  Reuben.  Reuben's  part  is  dark.  The 
ill-odour  of  his  act  with  Bilhah  hovers  about  him,  &c.  Because  a  man  is 
wrong  on  one  point,  must  we  brand  him  a  demon — counting  him  beyond 
redemption  ?  Generally  some  good  can  be  seen — there  are  pearly  teeth  in 
the  jaw  of  the  dead  dog.  (i)  Because  of  his  dutiful  affection — thinking 
of  the  old  father.  Something  worthy  of  admiration  "  to  deliver  him  to 
his  father  again."  Reuben  heard  of  the  plot  against  "the  dreamer,"  but 
neither  consented  nor  approved — rather  revolted.  (2)  Because  of  his 
brotherly  regard — thinking  of  the   youth — "  lay  no    hand    upon    him." 

-Pitying  Joseph — resolves  to  stand  between  him  and  his  brethren.  (3) 
Because  of  his  beautiful  integrity — thinking  of  the  act — "  shed  no  blood.' 
We  reach  a  lofty  position,  when  we  hate  sin  because  it  is  sin,  &c. 

II.  Our  next  impulse  is  to  syttipathise  with  Reube7i.  Much  in  Reuben  we 
do  not  like,  shall  we  condemn  ?  Human  to  denounce.  Divine  to  sympathise, 
(i)  Because  of  the  difficulty  of  his  position.  Task — curb  his  brethren's 
hatred.  Difficult  work.  .  Such  men  have  often  been  bound  with  fetters 
and  chains ;  but  the  chains  have  been  "  plucked  asunder  " — "  the  fetters 
broken  in  pieces."  (2)  Because  we  find  him  in  a  minority.  Nine  to  one 
when  nine  friends  are  behind  us  applauding — all  is  easy.  When  we  stand 
alone  looking  upon  nine  antagonistic,  fiendish  faces — How  then  ?    (3) 


94  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Because  in  his  heart  there  is  good  intention.  He  meant  well — "  That  he 
might  rid  him  out  of  their  hands."  Don't  idolise,  but  recognise  good 
intention. 

Our  third  impulse  is  to  accept  the  warning  he  presents.  Reuben  is  a  beacon. 
He  lacked  backbone,  force,  outspokenness.  He  was  a  trimmer— running 
with  the  hare  and  holding  with  the  hounds,  (i)  Compromise  with  evil  is 
dangerous  and  brings  its  own  reward.  Failing  to  rescue  Joseph,  Reuben, 
with  his  brethren,  hides  behind  a  lie.  A  lie  may  flap  on  the  lips— may 
flash  from  the  eye— or  may  be  acted  till  a  man  becomes  a  goliath  false- 
hood (v.  32.)  (2)  Bold  reproof  of  sin,  even  if  fruitless,  is  not  only 
desirable,  but  right.  Connivance  cannot  be  countenanced  but  at  our  peril. 
Reuben  winked  at  sin  instead  of  reproving  it — "Put  him  into  this  pit." 
Reprove  plainly,  but  wisely.  (3)  God  is  not  deceived,  neither  is  self, 
though  our  fellows  may  be  blinded.  The  hypocrite  screened  himself,  then 
rose  up  to  comfort  his  father  (v.  35).  Conscience  was  not  hoodwinked. 
Before  God  he  was  unmasked. 

Stand  decidedly,  uncompromisingly,  gladly  for  right  and  truth,  for  God 
and  Christ. 


A  CHILDLIKE  MAN. 

"  Brethren,  be  not  children  in  understanding  ;  howbeit  in  malice  be  ye 
-children,  but  in  understanding  be  men." — i  COR.  xiv.  20. 

"  A  CHILDLIKE  man,"  about  the  highest  commendation.  Yet  something 
in  childhood  to  be  avoided.  "  In  malice,"  all  evil  dispositions,  be  babes ; 
but  "in  understanding"  men.  "Understanding"  =  not  possession  of 
knowledge,  nor  the  intellectual  faculty,  but  what  is  embraced  under  the 
name  character.  It  denotes  the  best  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  solidity 
of  judgment,  depth  of  emotion,  firm  grasp  of  principle,  disciplined  strength 
and  tenacity  of  righteous  purpose. 

I.  We  are  taught  to  cherish  a  wise  thoughtfulness  as  against  an  un- 
thinking inexperience.  A  child's  inexperience  is  a  great  drawback, 
unfitting  it  for  the  hard  facts  of  life.  It  has  to  outgrow  that.  Many  who 
are  mature  enough  in  years  have  all  a  child's  immaturity  of  thought  and 
experience,  and  thus  are  dreaming  of  the  impossible,  Uke  a  child  crying 
for  the  moon.  Socrates  (Plato's  "Phsedo")  bids  us  have  "lullabies 
wherewith  to  sing  to  rest  the  child  in  the  soul."  The  grown-up  man,  who 
may  think  that  he  has  long  since  put  away  childish  things,  has  a  child  in 
his  soul,  and  the  child  too  often  rules  the  man,  and  dictates  his  desires, 
hopes,  and  plans.  Hence,  what  longings  for  what  cannot  be ;  what  ex- 
pectations which  no  clear,  sound  reasonableness  would  ever  entertain.  What 
is  it  to  put  pleasure  in  the  place  of  duty,  to  think  of  life  as  before  all  things 
a  sphere  for  enjoyment  ?  Is  not  that  to  act  like  a  child,  to  whom  to  live 
means  only  to  eat  and  drink,  to  play  and  sleep  ?  What  is  it  to  think  that 
you  can  do  your  own  sweet  will,  and  yet  stand  approved  of  God — to  think 
that  you  can  choose  any  path  you  like,  and  yet  find  yourself  at  the  end  at 
the  right  destination  ?  Is  there  in  that  a  child's  wayward  thoughtlessness, 
or  a  man's  wise,  pondering  reflectiveness  ? 

II.  Taught  to  cultivate   firmness   and   stability  as  against   fickleness. 


A  Childlike  Man.  95 


Children  usually  fickle,  inconstant,  and  wanting  in  stability.  Arises  in 
part  from  what  is  a  beautiful  feature  of  child  nature — impressibility,  open- 
ness to  outward  influence.  A  danger  here — need  for  safeguarding.  Else 
mind  and  heart  at  the  mercy  |of  any,  even  the  worst,  influences.  Must 
have  fixedness  of  purpose  in  holding  to  the  good,  and  refusing  to  let  it  go 
until  we  are  sure  of  something  better.  Paul's  words  to  the  Ephesians 
(iv.  13,  14)  helpful  here — "  That  we  henceforth  be  no  more  children, 
tossed  to  and  fro,  and  carried  about,"  &c.  Decision,  settled  conviction 
necessary.  The  mind  tossed  and  driven  like  a  boat  beaten  of  the  wind, 
the  prey  of  every  influence,  the  sport  of  every  new  attraction,  has  not  got 
beyond  the  weakness  of  childhood.  Must  therefore  overcome  fickle 
impulsiveness,  which  makes  a  man  be  "everything  by  turns,  and  nothing 
long."  There  must,  indeed,  be  growth  in  knowledge  and  experience,  and 
consequent  change  of  opinion  and  conduct,  for  a  healthy  mind  must  grow. 
Yet  one's  mental  and  moral  nature  not  all  in  a  fluid  condition,  in  watery 
instability ;  there  must  be  in  it  some  crystallised  convictions.  Good  for 
many  had  they  more  of  a  child's  impressibility.  Power  of  receiving 
impressions  from  the  outer  world  of  nature  and  thought  and  life  is  among 
the  most  precious  gifts  a  man  can  have — the  responsiveness  of  heart  that 
rises  to  greet  the  beauty  and  grandeur  of  God's  works,  and  that  feels  the 
subduing  influence  of  anything  sublime  or  pathetic.  But  with  a  child's 
tender  susceptibility  must  be  combined  a  man's  firm  adherence  to  truth  and 
principle.  Mere  openness  to  impression  will  only  cause  you  to  describe 
circles  as  outward  influences  blow  upon  you ;  but  fixed  principle  will  carry 
you,  not  "  about,"  but  forward,  ever  nearer  the  appointed  goal. 

III.  Taught  to  have  deep,  comprehensive  views  of  Christian  life,  as 
against  shallowness  and  narrowness.  A  child  grasps  only  the  elementary 
notions  of  things.  Christians  not  to  remain  at  this  stage,  but  to  have  a 
growing  ability  to  appreciate  the  "  deep  things  of  God."  The  elements, 
'•  first  principles,"  of  Christian  truth,  all-important  and  ever  necessary. 
But  must  not  be  content  with  learning  the  alphabet.  Cannot  live  always 
on  food  that  suits  childhood.  Should  be  able  to  digest  the  "  strong  meat" 
that  suits  those  of  full  age  (i  Cor.  iii.  i,  2).  So,  then,  as  to  doctrine,  we 
should  have  a  spiritual  faculty  of  growing  power  to  estimate  the  magnitude 
and  grandeur  of  Gospel  truth.  As  to  duty,  two  things — aim  and  motive, 
(di)  Aim.  Must  put  away  shallow  and  contracted  views.  You  have  to 
follow  and  copy  Christ.  Is  it  a  manly  or  a  childish  understanding  to 
imagine  that  is  done  sufficiently  well  by  renouncing  a  few  evil  practices, 
and  performing  a  few  good  deeds  with  more  or  less  regularity  ?  {b)  Motive. 
Why  are  you  not  a  worldling  ?  Is  it  simply  because  an  ungodly  life  would 
put  you  in  eternal  danger  ?  Not  a  high  motive ;  only  such  as  a  child  might 
have.  A  prize  is  offered  for  good  conduct ;  the  child  thinks  of  the  prize, 
the  good  conduct  is  secondary.  You  follow  Christ.  Is  it  because  He 
promises  salvation  and  heaven's  glory  ?  or  is  it  because  you  find  a  rare  joy, 
a  very  heaven,  in  doing  so?  H.  C. 


If  thou  hast  found,  O  young  man,  that  the  foe  is  strong,  that  old  Adam  is 
too  strong  for  young  zeal,  remember  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  very  nerve  of 
human  nature.  No  private  valour  is  hidden  from  the  eye  of  the  great 
Commander. 


96  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

! 

SERMONETTE    FOR   CHILDREN   ON   THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  June  22  :  St.  Luke  xii.  22—34.  Golden  text:  Luke  xii.  30. 

Daisies  and  Buttercups. 

All  around  us  now — the  roadsides  and  fields  and  hills  are  beautiftil  with 
daisies  and  buttercups.  In  Palestine  the  variety  of  flowers  that  grow  wild 
is  very  great.  The  climate  is  much  varied  in  that  little  country,  and  some- 
one has  said  that  it  is  a  little  world  of  itself,  since  we  find  there  trees  and 
flowers  which  commonly  grow  only  in  widely  separated  parts  of  the  world. 
Christ,  when  He  looked  over  the  fields  covered  with  beautiful  wild  flowers 
— perhaps  with  scarlet  anemones  or  Huleh  lilies — said,  "Consider  the  lilies 
of  the  field."  Were  He  among  us  He  would  probably  have  said,  "  Consider 
the  daisies  and  buttercups  of  the  field."  Jesus  wished  the  wild  flowers 
to  teach  a  lesson  to  His  hearers. 

I.  The  great  lesson  Christ  wished  to  teach  was,  Trust  in  God.  He  said, 
"  Take  no  anxious  thought  for  the  morrow."  Anxiety  must  be  a  sin  very  deep 
in  the  heart.  A  large  portion  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  directed 
against  anxiety.  This  anxious  care  has  been  likened  to  a  sort  of  southeast 
wind  of  the  soul,  that  does  not  bring  rain,  but  chills  everything.  The 
meaning  of  Jesus'  word  translated  "  thought  "  is  a  restless,  carking  care. 
The  word  had  this  meaning  long  ago,  and  we  read  in  a  history  book  that 
•'Queen  Catherine  died  of  thought."  It  is  against  such  thought  that 
Jesus  warns  His  disciples.  Why  should  you  fear  and  be  anxious  ?  God,  He 
says,  cares  for  the  flowers — He  gives  them  beauty — He  sends  on  them  rain 
and  sunshine,  and  He  will  take  care  of  His  dear  children. 

II.  The  daisies  and  buttercups  teach  us  a  lesson  of  humility.  One  sin 
into  whiqh  a  great  many  are  very  apt  to  fall  is  pride  of  dress.  Some  people 
worry  and  fret  to  get  money  for  make-believe  flowers,  for  a  hat  or  a  bonnet,  so 
as  to  outshine  their  neighbours.  Think  of  the  wild  flowers.  They  out-do 
Solomon  in  all  his  glory,  but  they  do  not  worry  and  fret  over  dress.  God 
provides  their  clothing.     How  lovely,  and  yet  how  simple  it  is* 

III.  The  daisies  and  buttercups  tell  us  that  we  soon  must  die.  The 
flowers  soon  fade.  Just  as  surely  we  are  fading.  We  are  not  like  the  oaks 
and  pines  that  last  for  hundreds  of  years.  We  are  just  like  these  daisies, 
staying  only  a  little  while  on  the  earth.  The  glory  of  man  is  as  the  flower 
of  the  field.  But  you  know  there  is  such  a  thing  as  transplanting  a  flower. 
When  the  right  time  comes  God  does  this  with  His  flowers.  He  transplants 
them  to  the  better  land.  Then  God's  flowers  will  shine  with  a  beauty  they 
have  never  had  in  this  poor  cold  world.  May  we  be  so  filled  with  Christ's 
beauty  here  below,  that  if  death  comes  and  takes  us  away,  it  may  be  said  of 
us,  "It  is  another  flower  transplanted  to  God's  other  garden." 


"*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  Ill,  Vol.    II.]  JUNE  20,  1890  One  Penny. 


A  SERVICE  AT  CAMBERWELL  PRESBYTERIAN! 
CHURCH. 

Conducted  by 

The  Rev.  Principal  Dykes,  D.D., 

On  Sunday,  June  8,  1890  {Hospital  Sunday),  and  completely  reported. 

Opening  Prayer. 

O  Lord  God  Almighty,  Who  dwellest  in  the  heavens,  Whom  we  are  not 
worthy  to  approach,  most  humbly  we  come  to  the  seat  of  Thy  majestv, 
beseeching  Thee  to  meet  with  Thine  unworthy  servants,  and  to  accept  our 
worship.  Though  Thou  be  high,  yet  hast  Thou  respect  unto  the  lowly. 
Have  respect  unto  us  also,  O  most  merciful  Saviour.  This  is  the  day 
which  Thou  hast  made.  Assist  us  to  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  it,  and  shed 
down  upon  us  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  that  with  praise  we  may  laud  Thy  name, 
may  receive  with  meekness  Thy  Word  of  truth,  offer  unto  Thee  sincere 
petitions,  and  rest  with  confidence  upon  all  Thy  promises,  throu^^h  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

Hymn  216. 

"  God  reveals  His  presence  : 
Come,  let  us  adore  Him, 
And  with  awe  appear  before  Him. 
God  is  in  His  temple,"  &c. 

Prayer. 

Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  glory,  who  art  filling  heaven  and  earth 
with  Thy  majesty,  and  before  whom  the  blessed  angels  bow,  give  unto  us, 
the  lowly  children  of  earth,  deep  reverence  and  godly  fear  when  we  come 
thus  before  Thine  immediate  presence.  Father,  we  are  not  worthy  to  lift 
up  our  eyes  to  Thy  pure  heaven,  for  we  are  the  stained  and  evil  children 
of  this  sinful  world,  born  of  an  unclean  race,  with  unclean  and  evil  hearts, 
not  having  purged  ourselves  from  our  sins  as  we  ought  to  have  done. 

Father,  we  come  before  Thee  this  morning  with  the  voice  of  contrition 
and  confession,  acknowledging  that  we  have  broken  Thy  holy  law  and 
grieved  Thy  blessed  Spirit,  that  we  have  neither  walked  according  to  the 
light  of  our  own  righteousness  nor  according  to  the  light  of  Thy  revealed 
word.    Thy  fatherly  Majesty  we  have  not  reverenced  ;  the  love  of  the  Son 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


Who  died  for  us  we  have  not  welcomed  and  praised  as  we  should ;  the 
grace  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  we  have  not  reverently  followed.  O  our 
Father,  we  confess  that  we  have  sinned  against  Thee  in  every  relation  of 
life— in  the  home,  in  the  market-place,  in  the  church,  in  the  state.  We 
have  done  evil  in  Thy  sight,  seeking  our  own  way,  and  not  Thine  ;  our 
pleasure,  and  not  Thy  glory.  Our  Father,  who  hast  called  us  to  be 
children,  how  little  reverence  have  we  paid  to  Thee,  how  little  obedience ! 
We  confess  our  sins  this  day.  The  memory  of  them  is  grievous  to  us. 
Help  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  with  a  genuine  contrition  of  heart  to  acknow- 
ledge them,  and  spread  them  out  before  Thee,  in  the  name  of  the  great 
High  Priest  and  sin-bearing  sacrifice  for  men. 

With  him  Thou  art  ready  to  dwell  who  is  of  a  humble  and  contrite 
heart.  Give  unto  us  now  present  the  contrite  spirit,  we  entreat  Thee,  and 
dwell  with  us,  come  to  us,  purge  the  inward  part  of  each  of  us  to  become 
a  temple  clean  for  Thy  dwelling  place,  and  do  Thou  shed  abroad  within 
us,  we  entreat  Thee,  through  the  sacrifice  and  blood  of  Jesus,  the  peace  of 
reconciliation.  Give  us  acceptance  and  pardon,  say  unto  each  of  us  that 
our  sins  are  forgiven  us,  and  may  we  with  a  new  sense  of  reconciliation  as 
redeemed  of  the  Lord  address  ourselves  to  the  services  of  this  morning. 
Let  our  songs  come  through  purged  lips,  our  prayers  from  forgiven  hearts. 
Let  us  hear  Thy  word  as  those  who  are  in  fellowship  with  Thee,  who  know 
the  Father's  voice.  Let  us  follow  the  Good  Shepherd  as  those  who  are 
His  sheep  indeed.     Speak,  Lord,  this  day,  and  Thy  servants  will  hear. 

And  now  unto  God  the  Father,  Who  loved  us  with  an  infinite  love,  and 
spared  not  His  Son ;  and  unto  the  blessed  Son,  the  adorable  sacrifice  for 
sin  ;  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit  W^ho  administers  the  grace  that  we  need,  and 
sheds  abroad  the  love  of  God  in  our  hearts — to  this  one  holy,  holy,  holy 
God  be  glory,  as  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall  be,  world 
without  end.     Amen. 

First  Lesson. 

Genesis  i.  24,  to  ii.  3. 

Chant. 
Psilm  ciii,,  verses  i  to  13  (Scotch  version.) 

Second  Lesson. 
St.  Matthew  viii.  i — 17. 

Children's  Hymn  (459). 
"  Oh,  what  can  little  hands  do 
To  please  the  King  of  Heaven,"  &c. 

Prayer. 
Infinite  and  mighty  God,  in  Whom  and  through  Whom  and  for  Whom 
we  and  all  things  exist,  out  of  whose  fulness  this  whole  universe  hath  pro- 
ceeded, we  magnify  Thee  and  praise  Thy  holy  name  this  morning  with 
cheerful  voice,  because  Thou  art  love,  and  ever  out  from  Thy  love  Thou  art 
sending  blessings  and  life  and  gladness  upon  all  creation.  We  praise  Thee 
for  our  being,  that  Thou  hast  made  us  men,  and  for  all  the  lovingkindness  we 
have  tasted  since  we  came  upon  this  earth.  We  praise  Thee  for  Thy 
goodness  to  our  fathers  before  us,  and  to  the  land  of  our  dwelling.     We 


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magnify  Thee  and  bless  Thee  that  Thou  hast  given  unto  us  homes  and 
parents  and  friendships,  and  the  means  of  growth  in  knowledge  and  virtue, 
surrounding  our  life  with  so  many  sweet  things,  and  making  it  gladsome 
and  beautiful  in  Thyself.  We  bless  Thee,  our  Father,  for  the  happy  summer 
days  that  we  have  seen,  and  that  Thou  hast  made  the  revolutions  of  the 
years  thus  to  minister  to  the  welfare  of  us  and  of  all  mankind,  feeding  us 
with  fruitful  seasons  and  their  fruits.  O  our  Father,  we  praise  Thee  again 
this  morning  for  this  summer  day,  and  for  the  gladsome  light,  and  for  the 
rest  Thou  hast  sent  upon  the  toiling  millions  of  this  great  city. 

We  praise  Thee  for  Thy  thoughtful  kindness  to  all  mankind,  and  though 
we  have  deserved  nothing  at  Thy  hand,  but  have  been  ungrateful,  dis- 
obedient, provoking  Thee  by  our  waywardness  and  selfishness,  and  love- 
lessness,  how  patient  hast  Thou  been  with  us,  how  unwearied  in  Thy 
bounty,  how  unstinted  in  Thy  generosity.  Out  from  Thy  full  hand  have 
blessings  upon  blessings  flowed  to  us  and  to  all  men.  Goodness  and  mercy 
have  followed  us.  We  have  had  a  cup  that  ran  over.  We  have  been 
crowned  with  the  lovingkindness  of  the  Lord.  Praise  the  Lord,  O  our  souls, 
and  magnify  His  mercy. 

We  beseech  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou  wouldst  enable  us  to  receive  at 
Thy  hand  better  gifts  than  these,  even  the  gift  of  a  pardoned  spirit,  the 
gift  of  a  grateful  and  contented  heart.  Give  us  to  know  the  Giver,  and  to 
rejoice  in  Him  more  than  in  the  gifts.  Give  us  to  be  one  with  Thyself 
through  Jesus,  the  Way  unto  the  Father.  Give  us  to  come  near  with  our 
burdens,  our  confessions,  our  weariness,  our  regrets,  our  self-condemna- 
tion. Help  us  to  pour  out  all  that  is  within  our  souls  into  Thy  bosom. 
Help  us  to  lay  the  head  that  is  aching  and  weary  with  the  world's  warfare 
and  life's  bitterness  and  disappointment  down  upon  the  infinite  bosom  of 
the  unceasing  love,  the  love  that  wearies  not,  the  love  that  reproaches  not, 
the  love  that  is  ever  faithful,  ever  true. 

We  pray,  O  great  Father  of  our  spirits,  Who  hast  revealed  Thyself  to 
us  in  Christ  as  so  pitiful,  so  tender,  so  generous,  so  forgiving,  that  we  may 
all  of  us  take  fresh  hope  and  courage  this  day  from  Thy  house,  from  Thy 
word,  from  Thy  footstool.  Away  with  us  may  we  carry,  each  of  us,  a  new 
sense  of  courage,  a  new  inspiration  to  duty,  a  new  resolution  to  bear  all 
we  have  to  bear  in  life,  and  do  all  we  can  in  life. 

And  we  pray,  Father,  that  it  may  please  Thee  this  morning  to  remember 
especially  any  among  us  who  are  especially  burdened,  who  have  left  cares  at 
home,  who  have  brought  cares  with  them,  anxieties  about  business,  about 
families,  about  themselves.  O  God,  do  Thou  be  pleased  to  draw  nearer 
where  Thou  seest  heavy  hearts  before  Thee.  Lift  on  them  the  light  of 
Thy  countenance.  Where  Thou  knowest  that  there  are  thoughtless  ones, 
going  on  ignorant  of  the  shadow  that  lies  a  Httle  way  before  them  on  the 
path,  prepare  them.  Where  Thou  seest  absorbed  and  anxious  ones,  bur- 
dening themselves  by  taking  too  firm  a  grip  of  this  world's  goods,  Lord, 
disengage  these  clinging  fingers  ere  it  be  too  late,  and  lift  the  heavy  eyes 
that  seek  the  ground  to  see  the  crown  of  immortal  life. 

We  thank  Thee  that  the  best  of  Thy  gifts  are  the  freest  and  the  cheapest, 
that  Th(>u  hast  not  only  so  much  to  give  but  givest  to  all  men  liberally  of 
the  best,  upbraiding  none.  Give  us  contentment  of  heart,  give  us  peace 
of  conscience,  give  us  purity  of  motive,  give  us  nobleness  of  aim,  give  us 
the  treasures  that  shall  endure,  that  are  not  of  the  world's  giving  nor  of  the 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


world's  taking;  Thy  peace,  O  God,  give  us  through  Jesus  Christ  this  day. 
And  while  we  pray  for  ourselves,  Father,  we  humbly  beseech  Thee  to 
remember  the  multitudes  around  us  who  are  wandering  in  their  folly  away 
from  Thee.  Have  pity  on  those  whose  hearts  are  bewildered  by  the  attrac- 
tions of  the  world,  by  its  fascination,  by  the  scene  that  passes,  and  forget 
Thee  in  the  midst  of  the  many  things  Thou  has*  made  around  them. 
Forgive  them,  O  Father,  and  draw  them  with  a  secret  voice  within  their 
hearts  to  Thyself  this  day,  that  they  may  come  unto  Thee  and  be  satisfied. 
We  pray  Thee,  O  God,  to  have  mercy  on  those  who  have  come  into 
sorrow,  need,  distress,  or  any  trouble  in  this  life,  who,  in  their  passage 
through  these  years  along  the  dim  and  changeful  pathway  of  this  life,  have 
fallen  into  dark  and  evil  places.  We  pray  Thee,  O  God,  that  Thou 
wouldst  stretch  out  Thy  hand  and  pluck  from  the  heart  the  rooted  sorrow  ; 
that  Thou  wouldst  be  pleased  to  lay  Thine  ear  close  to  the  lips  that  sigh 
and  moan  for  the  grief  they  cannot  tell ;  that  Thou  wilt  come  to-day  tc 
the  sick  man's  couch,  that  Thou  wilt  still  the  fever  and  assuage  the  thirst. 

O  Thou  Who  art  the  pitifui  and  the  condescending  friend  of  the  needy 
and  the  suffering,  put  it  into  our  hearts  and  the  hearts  of  all  Thy  friends 
this  day  on  earth  to  be  good  neighbours  to  all  sufferers.  Have  compassion 
on  the  sick,  we  beseech  Thee,  on  the  sick  in  hospitals  and  the  sick  in  the 
home,  and  help  those  that  tenderly  minister  to  their  necessities,  giving 
them  patience  and  gentleness  and  the  very  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  to 
minister  withal.  And  we  pray  that  Thou  wilt  accept  the  offerings  of  Thy 
people  this  day  throughout  London,  and  bless  these  great  institutions  of 
Christian  philanthropy  for  which  we  give,  that  they  may  be  more  and 
more  kept  from  abuse,  that  they  may  be  more  and  more  put  to  their  blessed 
and  rightful  use,  that  they  may  be  more  and  more  a  witness  to  the  charity 
that  Thou  hast  kindled  in  a  myriad  hearts,  for  Jesus'  sake. 

Lord,  we  beseech  Thee  to  remember  men.  Thou  hast  given  Thy  Son 
to  be  a  man.  Oh,  have  compassion  on  all  who  wear  His  likeness  the 
wide  world  over.  Spread  Thy  kingdom  wherever  there  are  men  to  be 
brought  within  it.  Bless  all  who  seek  the  good  of  their  fellow-men,  espe- 
cially all  who  seek  to  bring  them  the  highest  and  the  best  good,  which  is 
the  knowledge  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

And  we  pray  Thee  to  bless  this  flock.  Lord,  strengthen  Thy  servant 
their  pastor,  the  elders  associated  with  him  in  the  oversight,  those  who 
manage  its  affairs,  the  Sunday-school  teachers,  those  who  labour  in  mission 
woik,  all  connected  with  the  congregation,  the  fathers  and  mothers,  and 
little  children.  Be  gracious  to  all  of  them.  Be  in  their  homes.  O  God, 
do  Thou  bless  parental  instruction,  and  sanctify  the  discipHne  of  household 
experience. 

Hear  us  for  all  our  brethren  of  the  church,  O  God,  for  our  fellow 
Christians  of  every  name,  for  Thy  kingdom  throughout  the  wide  world. 
Hasten  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ,  fill  the  earth  with  the  knowledge  of 
His  Cross,  and  passion  of  His  glory,  and  ascension,  and  may  the  kingdoms- 
of  this  world  become  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  earth  be  brought  nearer, 
nearer,  nearer  to  Thee,  Thou  fount  of  life,  Thou  light  of  men. 

Hear  us,  O  God,  in  these  our  prayers.  What  we  fail  to  ask  fail  not 
'I'hou  to  give.  Remember  not  our  sins  against  us  ;  remember  the  multi- 
tude of  Thy  mercies,  O  our  Father.  For  we  sum  up  all  these,  and  all  our 
desires  in  the  great  words  Thy  Son  hath  taught  us  : 


A  Service  at  Camberwell  Presbyterian  Church.        loi 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name.  Thy  kingdom 
come.  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread,  and  forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 
And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil.  For  thine  is  the 
kingdom,  the  power  and  the  glory,  for  ever  and  ever.    Amen. 

Hymn  520. 

"  Thine  arm,  O  Lord,  in  days  of  old, 
Was  strong  to  heal  and  save,"  &c. 

Prayer. 

O  God,  Who  hast  given  Thy  Word  for  the  illumining  of  our  hearts,  send 
now  Thy  quickening  and  enlightening  Spirit,  that  we  may  understand  the 
truth,  and  that  it  may  work  within  our  hearts  obedience  to  Thy  will,  for 
Jesus  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 

SERMON. 

Christ  the  Saviour  of  the  Body. 

'*  He  is  the  Saviour  of  the  body." — Ephesians  v.  23. 

A  fair  argument  in  favour  of  the  truth  of  revelation  may  be 
founded  on  the  completeness  with  which  it  exhibits  every  side  of 
truth — overstating  nothing,  overlooking  nothing.  Error,  as  you 
know,  is  nearly  always  the  exaggeration  of  a  truth,  or  the  sacri- 
fice, at  least,  of  one  aspect  of  the  truth  to  another.  Even  the 
wisest  thinkers  can  rarely  hold  the  balance  even  between  extremes, 
and  human  systems  in  their  recoil  against  excess  in  one  direc- 
tion run  often  in  the  opposite.  It  is  a  merit  of  Holy  Scripture, 
a  merit  which  I  think  attests  the  Divine  influence  over  its  growth 
and  formation,  that  while  it  puts  each  side  of  a  truth,  it  does 
justice  to  all  its  sides  all  round,  and  with  marvellous  sobriety 
builds  up  a  full  orbed  whole  of  doctrine  in  symmetrical  complete- 
ness. If  I  were  required  to  illustrate  this  balance  in  the  teaching 
of  the  Gospel,  I  should  fetch  not  the  least  of  my  examples  from 
the  manner  in  which  it  deals  with  the  body,  with  the  material, 
physical  side  of  man.  For  this  is  a  crucial  point  in  every  system 
of  religion,  in  every  system  of  religious  philosophy,  or  even  of 
morals.  Even  to-day  I  am  not  sure  that  we  may  not  test  the 
various  schools  of  opinion  which  are  claiming  to  instruct  us  on 
the  highest  of  all  questions,  by  this  :  What  place  do  they  assign 
to  the  bodily  part  of  man  ?  It  is  so  easy,  on  the  one  side,  to  make 
too  much  of  the  physical  life,  to  regard  ourselves  as  essentially 
a  growth  of  nature,  immersed  in  the  animal  life  of  the  globe, 
dominated  wholly  by  its  conditions,  and  fitted,  therefore,  to  share, 
we  may  presume,  in  its  destinies.  It  is,  on  the  other  hand,  so 
natural  for  a  religion  which,  being  a  religion,  must  protest  against 
this  materialistic  teaching,  that  men  are  like  the  beasts  that 
perish — it  is  so  like  religion  in  making  that  protest  to  go  to  the  other 


102  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

extreme,  and  to  overlook  our  close  connection  with  the  physical 
life  of  the  globe  ;  so  to  be  ashamed  of  it,  so  to  place  man's 
highest  hope  in  a  stern  subjection  to  his  fleshl}'  desires.  And 
between  these  two  extremes  it  seems  to  me  as  if  the  pendulum  of 
human  thought,  and  of  practice  too,  had  never  ceased  to  oscillate 
since  first  men  began  to  speculate  upon  their  own  position  upon 
this  earth.  And  he  who  knows  best  the  vagaries  and  excesses 
that  have  prevailed  on  this  subject,  will  be  best  able  to  admire  the 
perfect  poise  of  Scriptural  teaching.  He  will  know  how  difficult 
it  is  to  put  due  honour  upon  the  human  body  without  overlooking 
the  supreme  claims  of  the  human  spirit ;  how  difficult  it  is  to  give 
due  attention  to  the  wants  of  the  flesh  without  pampering  the 
fiesh,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  save  it  from  degrading  pollution 
without  sacrificing  its  legitimate  rights ;  how  to  make  it  the 
cared-for  servant  of  the  spirit,  but  neither  its  master  nor  its  slave. 
This  is  not  the  place  I  think  in  which  to  enter  upon  a  detailed 
description  of  these  propositions  which  I  have  throv/n  out  for 
your  consideration.  And  yet  I  may  remind  you  on  w^hat  soil  it 
was  and  amid  what  surroundings  that  this  Scripture  doctrine  on 
the  subject  grew  up,  this  marvellously  well  poised  and  reasonable 
doctrine.  It  grew  up  on  Asiatic  soil,  and  in  Asia  men  may  be 
said  to  have  incessantly  swung  betwixt  the  most  extreme  positions 
on  this  subject,  between  the  bestial  idolatry  of  their  own  physical 
nature  and  a  frantic  effort  to  rid  themselves  of  their  physical  part 
altogether.  Recollect,  I  pray  you,  how  the  nature-worship  of 
Asia  in  the  midst  of  which  the  Hebrews  lived — the  worship  of 
the  fecund  earth  and  the  sun  that  quickens  it,  spring  out  of  a  too 
keen  sense  of  man's  participation  in  the  animal,  of  that  animal 
life  of- nature  that  we  see  for  ever  propagating  and  renewing  itself 
endlessly.  Think,  I  pray  you,  of  what  obscene  objects  of  adora- 
tion and  what  shameless  forms  of  worship  this  exaggeration  of  the 
physical  life  thus  produced,  till  outraged  decency  itself  revolted 
against  worship,  and  the  very  land  was  ready  to  vomit  out  its 
inhabitants.  Now,  would  it  have  been  at  all  surprising,  when  the 
children  of  Israel  were  planted  among  a  people  that  were  seething 
with  the  conception  of  man  and  his  relation  to  nature — would  it 
have  been  surprising  if,  in  their  grim  fight  against  such  abomina- 
tions, bound  at  all  risks  to  inculcate  a  purer  morality  and  a  more 
spiritual  faith,  the  Hebrew  prophets  had  done  like  all  other  great 
teachers  and  reformers  would,  swung  right  off  to  the  opposite 
extreme,  preaching  the  evil  of  man,  the  inherent  evil  of  the  flesh, 
and  summoned  men  to  an  ascetic  contempt  for  all  kind  of  animal 
enjoyment,  if  they  would  be  pure  and  holy  men,  winning  the 
lavour  of  the  gods  ?  So  have  done  the  powerful  religious  philoso- 
phies of  India.  They  have  striven  to  §ave  men,  they  have  been 
ascetic,  and  their  aim  has  been,  not  to  provide  a  saviour  for  the 
body,  but  to  save  man  from  his  body,  and  restore  him  to  the  pure 
realm  of  spirit.     Thus  it  was  with  the  dualism  of  Zoroaster,  the 


A  Service  al  Camherwell  Presbyterian  Church.         103 

transmigration  of  Brahminism,  the  Nirvana  of  Buddha,  the  old 
sects  of  the  Essenes,  the  Gnostics,  the  Manichaeans,  and  other 
forms  of  religious  thought  that  have  sprung  out  of  the  home  of 
religions,  the  far  East. 

In  marked  contrast  to  all  these  stands  the  teaching  of  Moses 
first  and  of  all  his  successors,  recommending  to  the  people  of  God 
a  temperate  enjoyment  of  all  His  gifts,  telling  them  that  all  God 
has  made  is  good,  basing — actually  basing  religion  on  the  family 
institution — and  promising  temporal  well-being  as  the  reward  for 
purity  and  sobriety.  Remember  how  fierce  was  Israel's  fight  for 
existence  in  a  world  entirely  given  up  to  the  vilest  indulgence  of 
the  senses,  and  wonder  that  Israel  was  never  tempted,  not  once, 
to  deny  the  Divine  origin,  the  dignity,  the  rights  of  man  as  a 
physical  creature.  No  Jew  ever  planted  his  conception  of  holiness 
in  mortification  of  the  body,  not  so  long  as  Judaism  remained 
under  Divine  influences.  In  that  opening  page  of  Genesis  which 
we  read  we  have  the  twofold  origin  of  man  distinctly  taught.  But 
the  part  of  him  taken  from  the  earth,  on  which  he  is  bound  to 
thus  maintain  an  animal  system,  is  not  a  whit  less  the  good 
creation  of  God  than  is  the  inbreathed  soul  which  allies  him 
with  the  Divine.  And  the  last  page  of  Revelation,  if  you  turn  to 
it,  will  show  you  man  in  his  ideal  future,  finally  restored  to  a 
blissful  state  that  transcends  his  primitive  paradise.  But  the  grave 
and  the  sea  have  first  given  up  their  corpses,  and  they  who  walk 
the  streets  of  the  heavenly  city  are  re-embodied  men,  although 
from  their  eyes  every  tear  has  been  wiped  away.  And  so  you  see 
that  from  the  first  page  of  this  book  to  the  last  there  is  not  a 
word  to  place  salvation  of  man  with  any  neglecting  or  despairing 
of  his  body,  any  more  than  there  is  to  encourage  base  indulgence 
of  it.  But  He  Who  is  its  author  and  its  subject  is  One,  He  is  as 
much  the  Saviour  of  the  body  as  He  is  the  Saviour  of  the  soul. 

Now  when  you  come  to  look  more  closely  on  this  chaste  and 
balanced  teaching  of  Scripture  on  the  material  side  of  man,  you 
very  soon  discover  that  it  centres,  all  of  it,  in  the  person  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  the  facts  of  His  life.  The  position 
taken  up  with  this  subject  in  the  Old  Testament  was  an  intended 
preparation  of  man  for  the  fact  of  the  Incarnation.  To_  the 
Oriental,  who  has  trained  man  to  regard  his  body  as  a  prison- 
house  for  his  soul,  his  birth  into  this  world  as  a  misfortune,  and 
escape  from  matter  his  only  salvation — I  say,  to  such  an  Oriental 
it  is  one  of  the  greatest  stumbling-blocks  to  be  found  in 
Christianity,  one  of  the  great  hindrances  to  its  acceptance  with 
thoughtful  and  philosophic  minds,  that  it  opens  with  this  message, 
"  The  eternal  Word  became  flesh."  And,  had  the  Hebrews  been 
left  to  the  ideas  elsewhere  prevalent  in  Asia,  no  field  would  have 
been  prepared  on  which  an  incarnation  of  God  had  been  possible 
or  credible.  But  the  teaching  of  Genesis,  to  which  ever  after  the 
book  of  revelation  remained  faithful,  had   indoctrinated  that  one 


104  ^^^  Briiish  Weekly  Pulpit. 

people  at  all  events  in  these  truths,  which  were  to  be  the  seed- 
bed from  which  our  holy  religion  of  the  Incarnation  springs — that 
the  physical  world  is  God's  creature  ;  that  it  is  all  good  ;  that  man 
is  its  crown  and  flower  on  his  physical  side,  the  image  of  God  ; 
that  it  is  essential  to  our  completeness  that  we  should  be  vitally 
enlinked  on  one  side,  the  material  nature  with  the  physical,  pro- 
vides that  basis  on  which  man  is  to  assert  his  proper  spiritual 
dignity,  and  rule  in  the  name  of  God ;  that  the  service,  the 
worship,  the  blessedness  which  are  man's  perfection  are  only 
possible  while  he  remains  the  child  and  viceroy  of  God  on  this 
material  globe,  linking  by  his  wondrous  compound  being  the 
lower  creation  to  God,  the  highest  of  all ;  that  therefore  to  be 
lodged  here,  a  spark  of  the  Divine  in  clay,  is  not  a  discredit  to  it, 
since  He  who  inhabits  eternity,  Whose  name  is  holy,  will  not 
disdain  to  dwell  with  men  upon  the  earth,  inhabiting  the  humble 
and  the  contrite,  who  tremble  at  His  word. 

Now  all  this  beautiful  and  gracious  teaching  was  singularly  in 
accord  with  what  science  has  come  nowadays  to  tell  us  about 
man's  close  relationship  to  nature  and  the  lower  animals.  The 
legitimate  cope-stone  was  this,  that  the  very  Son  of  God  Himself 
was  born  on  earth  to  be  the  Son  of  man.  The  whole  series  of 
awful  events  which  began  with  the  annunciation  to  the  blessed 
Virgin  was  a  practical  vindication  of  the  truth  that  matter  is 
good,  not  evil ;  that  man's  material  constitution  is  not  a  con- 
temptible thing,  a  thing  to  be  ashamed  of  and  get  rid  of,  but  is  a 
worthy  vehicle  for  the  very  noblest,  the  very  purest  type  of 
spiritual  life.  That  was  a  holy  thing  that  was  born  of  the  Vir- 
gin's womb.  It  was  human  nature  redeemed  indeed  from  its 
stains,  restored  to  its  innocence,  and  become  thereby  fit  shrine 
for  Deity ;  although  on  its  physical  side  it  was  feeble  with  the 
feebleness  of  a  wailing  babe.  Can  any  despise  infancy  after  that, 
or  think  meanly  of  human  nature  ?  The  eternal  Father  Whom 
we  picture  as  surrounded  by  pure  spirits,  the  eternal  Father 
looked  down,  well  pleased,  not  only  on  the  infant  in  the  cradle, 
on  the  handicraftsman  of  Nazareth,  on  the  itinerant  preacher  of 
Galilee,  on  the  agonised  petitioner  of  Gethsemane,  on  the  martyr 
at  Golgotha,  to  show  that  poverty  is  not  despicable  ;  no,  nor 
toil ;  no,  nor  tears,  nor  strong  cries  in  need,  nor  body  that  sweats, 
though  it  be  bloody  sweat,  nor  pangs  of  dying  anguish.  O  rare 
endorsement  of  man's  humiliation  !  O  sweet  sufficiency  of  the 
Son  of  God  !  which  forbids  us  to  think  meanly  of  any  sufferer,  or 
to  grow  ashamed  of  human  nature,  even  in  its  utmost  extremity 
and  helplessness  and  despair.  Brethren,  there  are  mean  essentials 
to  human  life.  They  come  out  at  birth-beds,  and  at  sick-beds, 
and  death-beds.  Those  who  have  had  much  experience  in  severe 
disease  know  very  well  that  the  sick-bed  speaks  as  impressively  of 
man's  humiliation  as  of  his  capacity  to  endure.  But  I  say  that 
even  in  humiliation  of  the  body,  when  it  is  at  its  lowest,  there  is 


A  Service  at  Camberwell  Presbyterian  Church.         105 

no  disgrace,  not  anything  unworthy  of  Him  Who  made  us  men. 
No.  Think  reverently  and  tenderly  even  of  the  dead  by  the 
memory  of  that  pale  and  livid  corpse  from  which  women's  hands 
washed  the  bloodstains  away.  Let  no  man  be  irreverent  to  the 
dead,  not  even  a  dead  foe  or  a  malefactor.  Let  him  be  mutilated 
or  insulted  no  more.  Pay  pious  rites  to  the  worst,  whose  image 
Jesus  bore  that  sad  eve  when  in  His  tomb  they  laid  Him,  draped 
in  white  linen.  For  remember  how  still  that  senseless  clay — 
mere  clod  of  earth  you  call  it— remained  very  part  and  parcel  of 
the  eternal  Son  of  God,  not  by  Him  forsaken  amidst  death's 
slumbers  in  the  darksome  tomb,  but  to  be  by  Him  resumed,  by 
Him  transformed.  It  is  not  in  His  incarnation  only,  or  in  His 
birth  and  death,  that  I  learn  from  Jesus  the  inherent  honourable- 
ness  of  the  body,  the  dignity  of  it  as  the  seat  of  a  divine  life.  I 
learn  it  in  His  resumption  of  that  slain  body  and  redemption  of 
it  when  He  ascended  far  above  all  heaven.  I  learn  it  in  the  per- 
sonal union  of  even  this  fickle  and  material  humanity  of  ours  with 
the  Lord  of  all  creation.  I  learn  it  in  the  strange  and  unknown 
metamorphosis  which  passed  over  His  flesh  to  adapt  it  to  celestial 
conditions.  I  learn  it  in  the  descent  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  rest 
upon  the  heads  of  redeemed  men,  and  dwell  within  them,  making 
their  bodies  temples.  I  learn  it  in  the  promise  of  the  final  resur- 
rection of  the  dead.  An  awful  series,  as  I  said,  of  Christian  facts, 
instinct  from  first  to  last  with  this  startling  thought—"  He  is 
the  Saviour  of  the  body." 

Yes.  He  saves  it.  He  does  not  destroy  it.  He  saves  it  by 
making  it  the  organ  of  the  highest  life — His  own  life  the  organ 
through  which  God  lived  on  earth  once,  in  heaven  now — saves  it 
by  restoring  to  it  its  divineness,  its  honour,  transforming  it  to  a 
spiritual  body. 

So  much,  then,  of  Christ's  position  and  the  teaching  of  His  holy 
religion  upon  the  physical  side  of  humanity.  Now  this  marked 
respect  shown  for  the  physical  side  of  our  constitution,  that  side 
in  which  we  are  so  strangely  and  so  closely  linked  with  the  lower 
animal,  in  the  redemptive  work  of  God,  that  marked  respect  of  the 
body  has  worked  most  widely  and  most  fruitfully  in  Christianity. 
It  would  take  me  a  great  deal  too  far  this  morning  from  my 
immediate  scope,  were  I  to  show  you  how  by  clothing  the  human 
body  in  sanctity  it  has  worked  more  effectually  than  the  old  ascetic 
systems  in  favour  of  sobriety  and  sexual  purity.  In  fact,  the 
Gospel  may  have  been  said  to  constitute  a  new  virtue,  the  virtue, 
if  I  might  dare  to  coin  the  phrase,  of  bodily  holiness,  in  that  just 
and  reverent  use  of  one's  own  and  other  people's  bodies  as  the 
redeemed  members  of  Christ  and  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
is  quite  familiar  to  the  Christian  religion,  and  is  a  direct  outcome 
of  the  Christian  teaching  I  have  been  insisting  on.  By  the  very 
honour  which  it  has  put  upon  the  flesh,  making  us  members  of 
His  flesh  and  bones,  the  Son  of  God  has  claimed  these  organs  and 


io6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

these  instincts  of  our  animal  frames  for  Himself  and  for  His  hoi}- 
service,  redeeming  them  from  being  prostituted  into  the  instru- 
ments of  unhallowed  pleasure  or  of  hurtful  excess.  Glorify  God 
in  your  body.  "  Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  do  all  to  the  glory  of 
God." 

But  leaving  for  the  present  with  this  suggestion  only  this  im- 
portant department  in  the  practical  saving  of  the  body,  both  the 
hour  and  the  occasion  warn  me  to  point  out  to  you  rather  the  bear- 
ing of  Christianity  upon  our  treatment  of  physical  suffering.  Now 
the  two  false  extremes  between  which  I  have  said  our  religion 
holds  the  balance,  I  mean  the  extreme  of  bodily  indulgence  on  the 
one  side,  and  the  extreme  asceticism  or  the  neglecting  of  the  body 
on  the  other,  are  neither  of  them  friendly  to  the  victims  of  disease 
and  pain.  Take  the  error  of  over-estimating  the  flesh  as  an  organ 
of  enjoyment,  a  means  by  which  we  may  please  ourselves,  and 
something  therefore  to  be  pampered  and  indulged.  That  leads  of 
course  to  the  sin  of  sensual  excess,  the  sin  beneath  which  the 
ancient  pagan  civilisation  rotted  away,  beneath  which  Moslem 
civilisation  is  rotting  to-day  before  all  men's  eyes,  the  sin  of  our 
own  wealthy  and  luxurious  age  as  of  all  wealthy  and  luxurious 
ages,  firstborn  child  of  materialistic  philosophy,  which  re-appears 
as  a  practical  heathenism  in  the  so-called  Christendom  of  our  time. 
Now  all  such  animalism  among  persons  of  prosperous  or  easy  life 
tends  swiftly  and  certainly  to  a  heartless  indifference  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  other  people.  This  selfish  liberty,  the  pampering  of  the 
body,  shows  itself  in  a  peculiarly  ignoble  shape,  and  its  work  is  to 
blunt  the  sensibility  to  actual  pain,  to  dry  up  the  springs  of  human 
charity,  and  render  the  self-indulgent  man  indifferent  to  his  poor 
brother,  and  incapable  of  denying  himself  for  his  brother's  sake. 
There  is  no  fact  in  morals  better  attested  than  this,  that  sensuality 
and  cruelty  are  twins.  Such  pampering  of  the  body  is  the  vice  of 
no  particular  class.  I  am  not  aiming  at  those  that  are  rich,  for 
the  rich  do  often  live  in  habits  of  personal  simplicity  and  even  ab- 
stemiousness, notwithstanding  the  display  that  society  expects  of 
thcni,  in  habits  of  personal  simplicity  and  abstemiousness  which 
put  to  shame  the  too  frequent  wastefulness  and  the  occasional 
excess  of  many  among  the  poor.  But  among  every  section  of  the 
public  it  is. not  to  the  self-indulgent  that  our  charities  are  in  the 
habit  of  looking  for  support.  It  is  to  the  temperate,  to  those  who, 
living  in  careful  avoidance  of  waste  and  dissipation,  have  kept 
their  bodies  clean,  their  affections  pure,  their  tastes  simple,  their 
sympathies  healthy,  and,  having  learned  how  to  put  constraint 
upon  themselves  with  a  manly  self-control,  have  the  more  to  spend 
in  prudently  relieving  the  wants  of  others. 

But,  on  the  opposite  side,  it  is  not  found  that  the  ascetic  neglect 
of  the  body,  the  habit  of  despising  its  wants,  does  in  the  long  run 
foster  a  generous  attitude  towards  other  people.  Perhaps  it  is 
scarcely  worth  while  taking  up  time  with  this  extreme,  because 


A  Service  at  Camberwell  Presbyterian  Church.         107 

it  has  all  but  died  out  in  modern  days.  We  scarcely  know  what 
the  thing  means.  But  the  usual  experience  has  been  that  he 
who  thinks  it  well  to  court  pain  as  a  discipline,  or  to  mortify  his 
flesh  as  the  seat  of  sinful  inclination,  is  apt  in  the  nature  of 
things  to  grow  as  pitiless  to  other  people  as  he  has  learned  to  be 
severe  upon  himself. 

From  both  these  foes  to  a  human  and  tender  charity — from  the 
cruel  self-indulgence  of  animalism  on  the  one  side,  and  a  hard, 
stern  effort  after  the  subjugation  of  the  flesh  on  the  other,  Christ 
has  saved  us.  By  teaching  us  the  true  place  and  honour  of  the 
human  body  as  an  organ  of  the  spirit,  essential  to  the  complete 
development  of  our  being,  He  has  recognised  it  as  a  part  of  His 
mission  and  of  ours,  therefore,  to  save  the  body — to  save  it  from 
its  evils,  to  save  it  from  its  sufferings. 

And  for  this  every  sufferer  owes  Jesus  Christ  thanks.  Now,  it 
is  not  a  thing  to  be  taken  easily  for  granted  that  it  should  be  so. 
For  it  might  have  been  supposed  that  a  religion  so  spiritual  as  the 
Gospel — a  religion  which  sets  out  by  proclaiming  the  soul  to  be 
of  quite  infinite  and  unspeakable  value,  and  which  calls  for  every 
man  in  tones  so  rigorous  to  deny  himself,  to  crucify  the  flesh,  to 
renounce  everything  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake,  to  count 
this  world  nothing  that  he  may  win  heaven — that  such  a  religion 
would  have  set  small  store  by  the  mere  passing  afflictions  inci- 
dental to  our  mortal  pilgrimage,  and  would  not  have  turned  aside 
or  gone  out  of  its  way  to  care  for  the  ills  and  aches  to  which 
humanity  is  heir.  And  certainly  there  have  been  many  who  take 
up  only  a  portion  of  its  teaching,  turn  with  impatience  from  the 
petty  anxieties  of  time,  bidding  us  to  care  nothing  for  these  things, 
and  prepare  ourselves  for  those  overwhelming  ills  of  God's  eternal 
damnation,  and  the  death  which  dieth  not  and  which  threatens 
sinners  in  eternity.  But  that  is  an  exaggeration.  I  have  shown 
you  how  the  Christian  Gospel  has  been  delivered  from  such  one- 
sidedness.  Through  the  incarnation  of  God,  and  through  His 
ascension  in  a  true  body,  and  His  sitting  in  glory  in  a  true  body, 
our  physical  nature  has  been  associated  with  Deity  and  crowned 
with  honour ;  and  through  the  residence  within  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  very  body  is  turned  into  a  temple  and  grows  sacred. 
The  bodies  of  the  saints  are  included  in  the  salvation  of  Christ. 
The  bodies  of  the  saints  are  to  be  raised  in  the  likeness  of  His 
celestial  glory.  Therefore  we  cannot  be  indifferent  to  physical 
pain  or  malady,  or  decrepitude,  or  mutilation,  as  though  these 
were  evils  not  to  be  accounted  of,  beneath  the  consideration  of 
immortals  who  were  preparing  themselves  for  judgment.  Rather, 
Jesus  by  His  example  on  earth  has  taught  us  how  to  look  at  them. 
He  went  about  as  a  physician,  healing  all  manner  of  sickness 
and  all  manner  of  disease,  that  we  might  understand,  brethren — 
oh,  do  understand  it  this  day — how  much  God  Almighty  Who 
made  us  man  cares  for  the  body.     What  pity  possesses  Him  for 


loS  The  British  Weekly  Ptilpit. 

the  feeble,  wasted,  aching,  fevered  flesh,  and  how  He  toils  on  for 
ever  in  His  blessed  office  of  a  healer.  The  doctors  tell  you  they 
can  do  nothing  but  make  fair  room  and  scope  for  that  which 
they  call  the  vis  mcdicatrix  naiurcr.  What  is  that  vis  medicatrix 
but  God,  the  one  true  Healer  on  whose  footsteps  we  should 
wait  ? 

In  these  footprints  of  God  let  us  deem  it  our  honour  to  walk 
to-day,  brethren,  in  His  own  noble  humanity.  Jesus  is  bidding 
you  and  me  associate  ourselves  with  Him  to-day.  He  gives  us  an 
opportunity  and  a  call  to  be  for  once  His  assistants,  through  our 
liberality.  His  assistants  in  the  Christ-like  work  that  goes  on 
week  in  week  out,  in  every  London  hospital  or  dispensary,  the 
work  of  mitigating  suffering  and  disorder  in  those  feeble  frames 
in  which  God  has  fashioned  us  so  tenderly,  which  Christ  in  lowli- 
ness condescended  to  wear,  which  He  has  redeemed  from  the 
power  of  evil,  which  He  is  going  to  transfigure  into  spiritual 
bodies,  incorruptible,  deathless,  and  full  of  glory. 

Brethren,  have  I  made  out  a  case  ?  Are  you  satisfied  that  the 
numerous  and  noble  medical  charities  of  the  metropolis,  for  which 
we  are  making  our  yearly  offering,  do  deserve,  not  only  our  sup- 
port as  men,  but  our  special  support  as  Christian  men  ;  that  they 
are  the  practical  utterance,  in  a  language  which  the  dullest  can 
understand,  of  that  compassionate  care  for  man  as  man  which 
brought  down  the  Son  of  God  a  Saviour  upon  earth  ;  that  they 
are  a  continual  preaching,  in  a  language  which  goes  out  into  all 
the  world,  of  the  truths  of  our  most  holy  religion  ;  that  they  are 
repeating  and  carrying  forward  in  the  very  outward  form  and 
fashion  of  it,  as  well  as  in  its  spirit,  the  services  Jesus  Christ 
did  to  humanity  when  He  went  about  Palestine  ;  that  they  are  each 
one  of  them  a  living  commentary  to  us  of  Christ's  membership  in 
our  common  bodily  nature,  in  the  fact  that  we  have  a  Divine 
head  over  our  race  ;  that  He  has  redeemed  our  flesh  from  every 
evil  thing  ;  that  He  has  risen  again  in  blessedness,  a  pledge  of  our 
resurrection  to  come;  that  He  is  in  His  glorified  humanity  the 
hope  of  every  man,  a  commentary  in  brief  on  these  rare  words 
which  might  properly  enough  be  inscribed  in  characters  of  light 
over  every  ward  in  all  our  hospitals—"  He  is  the  Saviour  of  the 
body  "  ? 

Prayer. 

Our  merciful  Father,  Who  hast  done  so  much  for  us  in  soul  and  body, 
Who  art  so  careful  and  so  pitiful  of  these  frail  tabernacles  of  the  dust, 
•we  humbly  beseech  Thee  now  to  give  us  human  sympathy  and  childlike 
charity,  that  we  may  give  of  our  substance  as  Thy  stewards  for  the  relief 
of  Thy  suffering  ones,  giving  freely  as  Thou  hast  prospered  us.  And  let 
the  offering  find  acceptance  with  Thee  for  His  dear  sake  Who  also  is  man 
and  in  His  flesh  suffered  for  us  the  just  for  the  unjust.     Amen. 

O  r  F  E  R  T  o  R  V. 


House  Building.  109 


Hymn  534. 
*'  Lord,  let  mercy  now  attend  us, 

As  we  leave  Thy  holy  place,"  &c. 

Benediction. 

The  grace  of  the   Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God,  and  the 
communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  be  with  you  all  for  ever.     Amen.; 


HOUSE  BUILDING. 

"  Every  one  therefore  which  heareth  these  words  of  Mine,  and  doeth  them, 
shall  be  likened  unto  a  wise  man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  rock  :  and  the 
rain  descended,  and  the  floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  beat  upon  that 
house  ;  and  it  fell  not  :  for  it  was  founded  upon  the  rock.  And  every  one  that 
heareth  these  words  of  Mine,  and  doeth  them  not,  shall  be  likened  unto  a  foolish 
man,  which  built  his  house  upon  the  sand  :  and  the  rain  descended,  and  the 
floods  came,  and  the  winds  blew,  and  smote  upon  that  house  ;  and  it  fell  :  and 
great  was  the  fall  thereof." — Matt.  vii.  24 — 27. 

Our  Lord  concludes  his  sermon  on  the  Mount  with  a  series  of  contrasted 
pictures  :  two  gates,  two  ways,  two  trees,  and  two  houses.  In  the  appli- 
cation of  His  sermon  He  does  two  startling  things  : — (i)  He  makes  a  fit 
claim  for  His  message.  (2)  He  makes  a  great  division  among  His 
hearers. 

I.  Two  builders.  Both  are  conscious  of  one  need.  Both  are  working 
to  one  end.     Both  are  successful  in  their  endeavours. 

II.  Two  foundations.  One  is  rock,  suggesting  strength,  solidity,  perma- 
nence. Christ  says  that  His  teaching  is  rock.  The  other  is  sand.  Un- 
substantial, yielding,  shifting.  All  that  is  antagonistic  to  or  negligent  of 
the  principles  underlying  Christ's  teaching  is  sand, 

III.  Two  houses.  Every  man  builds  his  house.  Deeds,  words,  thoughts, 
principles.  The  house  which  each  man  builds  he  must  inhabit.  The  dif- 
ferences in  men's  houses  are  sometimes  invisible.  Men  build  with  diverse 
purposes.  One  man  builds  a  shop,  another  a  study,  one  a  theatre,  another 
a  temple. 

rv.  One  storm.     Certain,  impartial,  terrible. 

V.  Two  results.  The  house  on  the  sand  becomes  folly's  monument  of 
ruins.     The  house  on  the  rock  remains  as  wisdom's  abiding  refuge. 

VL  Two  examples.  These  are  of  universal  application,  necessary, 
present. 

And  in  standing  against  these,  Christ  stood  aside  from  the  world,  aside 
from  its  ordinary  and  specious  proposals,  aside  from  careers  that  would 
have  led  to  natural  wealth  and  glory. 

What  was  Christ's  method  ?  It  was  this  :  to  stand  utterly  against  false- 
hood— the  falsehood  of  the  common  people,  the  falsehood  of  the  rich ; 
against  covetousness  ;  against  hypocrisy  ;  to  stand  as  a  wall  of  fire  that 
not  only  protects  what  is  behind,  but  consumes  what  would  approach. 


no  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

A  SPECIAL  PRAYER  MEETING. 

Outline  Sermon 
By  the  Rev.  J.  Vinson  Stephens. 
This  incident  is  called  the  Transfiguration,  but  it  is  only  a  prayer-meeting 
accompanied  by  great  success.  "  And  He  took  Peter,  and  John,  and 
James,  and  went  up  into  a  mountain  to  pray."  Every  prayer-meeting 
should  be  a  place  of  transfiguration.  If,  "as  we  pray,  the  fashion  of  our 
countenance  do  not  alter,"  then  there  is  no  sincerity  in  the  heart 
(Isaiah  xxix.  13). 

I.  The  pecidiarities  of  this  sirafige prayer-meeting.— -{i)  It  was  held  in  the 
night.  The  night  is  often  upon  us  when  the  sun  shines  beautifully  above ; 
and  there  is  no  night  so  dark  as  the  mid-day  night— when  it  is  dark  at 
noon.  But  as  the  night  helped  to  make  Christ's  transfiguration  on  the 
mountain  more  lustrous,  so  does  the  darkness  which  shrouds  our  heavens 
help  in  the  hour  of  prayer  to  make  God's  glory  more  impressively 
beautiful.  (2)  It  was  held  "  on  a  high  mountain."  Many  in  these  days 
would  suggest  to  hold  it  at  its  foot.  Most  assuredly  they  would  not  climb 
a  high  mountain  to  hold  a  prayer-meeting.  God's  blessings  are  set  on 
high.  They  can  never  be  easily  gotten.  But  the  higher  the  mount  of 
difficulty  which  man  asccends,  the  higher  will  God's  glory  be  on  its  summit. 
(3)  Another  peculiar  feature  in  this  strange  prayer-meeting  is  that  half  the 
congregation  were  sleeping.  "  But  Peter  and  they  that  were  with  him 
were  heavy  with  sleep."  And,  as  usual,  those  who  ought  to  be  most 
interested  were  asleep.  Sleepy  Christians  always  commit  blunders  when 
they  wake.  Their  best  course  is  to  hold  their  peace  when  they  have  shut 
their  eyes,  "  for  they  wist  not  what  to  say."  How  foolishly  will  they  speak  : 
"  Let  us  make  three  tabernacles  !  "  Did  Peter  attempt  it  ?  No,  for  he 
consulted  his  Master,  saying  unto  Him,  "  Lord,  if  Thou  wilt " ;  and  no 
sooner  had  he  consulted  Christ  than  the  absurd  suggestion  vanished  away. 
Many  of  our  foolish  notions  become  living  deeds  to  grieve  and  torment  us, 
for  the  simple  reason  that  we  neglect  consulting  our  Lord  and  Master. 

II.  The  defects  of  this  prayer-meeting. — (i)  Its  exclusiveness.  Only  the 
three  favoured  ones  were  present ;  the  other  nine  were  in  sore  distress, 
struggling  with  an  unclean  spirit  down  in  the  valley.  Christ  now  can  be 
present  with  all  His  people.  His  presence  with  the  few  does  not  exclude 
the  many.  (2)  Its  secrecy.  They  were  charged  to  tell  the  vision  to  no 
man.     That  was  hard.     Not  so  now. 

III.  The  influence  of  this  prayer-meeting. — It  was  two-fold.  As  He 
prayed  the  fashion  of  His  countenance  was  altered.  That  is  the  primary 
effect  of  prayer.  And  on  the  next  day  He  rebuked  the  unclean  spirit  out 
of  a  child.  And  that  is  the  secondary  eftect  of  prayer.  Two  trans- 
figurations follow  every  prayer.  One  takes  place  on  the  mount  with  God  ; 
the  other  in  the  valley,  as  the  prayer  intermingles  with  men  on  the  next 
(lay  with  a  remnant  of  the  Divine  glory  still  retained  in  his  face.  And 
by  the  work  done  on  the  next  day  the  world  estimates  how  near  God  man 
has  been  on  the  previous  night. 

IV.  The  advice  gi'i'cn  in  this  strange  pray  tr-mecting. — "Hear  ye  Him.' 
He  speaks  with  authority.  His  message  is  precious.  And  what  He 
speaks  is  of  vital  interest  to  the  hearer. 


Seckinor  Knowledge. 


SEEKING  KNOWLEDGE. 

Outline  Sermon 

Bv  Hugh  Clarach. 

*'  Master,  where  dwellcst  Thou  ?  " — St.  John  i.  38.     "  Lord,  who   is  it    " — St.  John 
xiii.  25.     "  It  is  the  Lord."— ST,  John  xxi.  7. 

These  short  texts  are  valuable  pebbles  of  truth  on  the  shore  of  the  sea  of 
Revelation — one  here,  one  there,  and  one  far  away.  Let  us  collect  them 
together,  and  examine  them  in  the  light  of  one  another.  They  were  dropped 
there  by  the  same  mind.  They  are  the  only  sayings  of  John  recorded  by  him- 
self. John  was  not  a  speech-making  Apostle.  He  was  an  attentive  listener  and 
close  thinker,  but  not  a  frequent  speaker.  But  very  likely  he  spoke  oftener  than 
it  is  reported.  He  was  not  like  the  preachers  of  the  modern  Church,  anxious 
to  have  his  sermons  reported.  He  faithfully  reported  Christ ;  but  he  was  willing 
to  be  not  reported  himself.  Inspiration  made  him  humble,  desiring  to  hide 
himself  and  his  sayings,  but  he  was  constrained  by  the  same  force  to  report 
these  three  sayings  of  his  own.     They  are  of  paramount  importance. 

The  first  was  spoken  at  the  commencement  of  Christ's  public  life,  the  second 
at  the  end,  and  the  third  at  the  beginning  of  his  resurrection  life.  The  first  is 
concerned  about  Christ's  abode  ;  the  second,  about  Christ's  followers  ;  and  the 
third,  about  Christ  himself.  The  first  is  the  question  of  an  anxious  inquirer  ; 
the  second,  question  of  a  confidential  disciple  ;  and  the  third,  the  declaration  of 
a  ripe  Christian  recognising  his  Lord  in  trying  circumstances.  They  mark  the 
development  of  the  influence  of  Christ  on  the  beloved  disciple,  and  the  progress 
of  the  disciple's  faith  in  his  Lord. 

L  The  beloved  disciple  seeking  more  knowledge  of  his  Lord.  "  Where 
dwellest  Thou  ?  "  Similar  question  was  asked  by  Solomon  when  consecrating 
the  Temple  :  "  Will  God  indeed  dwell  witJi  man  upon  earth  ? "  John's  question 
implies  that  Solomon's  question  is  answered  :  "  Where  dwellest  Thou  .'  "  He 
does  dwell,  the  question  now  is  where.     Progress  in  the  inquiry  of  faith. 

Christ's  answer,  "  Come  and  see"  ;  that  is  the  address  of  Christ.  He  dwells 
wherever  He  is  seen,  and  wherever  a  sinner  comes  to  Him.  He  is  not  confined 
to  a  locality. 

n.  The  beloved  disciple,  on  behalf  of  the  Church,  seeking  knowledge  about 
the  Church.  Describe  circumstances.  Only  the  nearest  to  Christ  could  ask, 
"  Who  is  it,  Lord  ? "  John  was  confident  that  Christ  knew  who  was  the 
traitor.  It  is  a  mark  of  greatness  in  a  man  to  be  able  to  discover  an  enemy  in 
a  friend's  garb.  Ilhis. — Generals  discovering  traitors  ;  Stanley  and  rebels  in 
Africa. 

Ckrist  reveals  this  secret  when  He  is  prayed  by  one  that  He  loves.  The 
best  Christians  are  to  take  charge  of  the  discipline  of  the  Church.  They 
possess  the  secrets  of  Christ. 

III.  The  beloved  disciple's  power  of  recognising  his  Lord.  Describe  cir- 
cumstances. Progress  in  the  development  of  faith  from  "Where  dwellest 
Thou  ? "  to  "  It  is  the  Lord." 

The  disciples  could  not  recognise  Christ  of  His  resurrection  by  his  appear- 
ance. They  were  making  mistakes  continually.  So  here.  John  recognised 
Him  by  His  voice  and  deed.  Christ  was  about  to  withdraw  in  His  bodily 
appearance.  He  is  to  be  known  henceforth  to  the  Church  by  His  voice  Cor 
word)  and  His  deeds.  H,  C 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  June  29  :  Review  of  the  Quarter's  Lessons. 

The  Lord's  Prayer. 

These  words  of  the  Lord's  own  prayer  are  the  prayer,  the  request  of  a  Son 
of  God.  It  is  as  sons,  as  children,  that  we  are  to  obey  Jesus  and  utter 
this  prayer.  "  Our  Father  "  we  are  to  say  at  the  first  word,  with  confi- 
dence, with  a  feeling  that  He  loves  us,  with  a  feeling  that  we  may  be  very 
frank  with  Him,  and  with  the  knowledge  that  we  shall  be  listened  to.  You 
know  not  whether  your  Father  will  grant  your  request  or  not.  He  will 
grant  it  if  it  be  right. 

\Vhen  you  say  at  the  side  of  your  little  bed  "  Our  Father  "  is  not  Jesus 
there  beside  you  ?  Oh  yes,  you  are  never  alone  in  prayer  ;  you  have  always 
one  companion  in  prayer,  and  this  is  the  blessed  Jesus  who  prayed  for  us, 
and  prays  with  us,  and  who  taught  us  to  pray.  We  go  to  God  in  Jesus' 
company.  It  is  in  His  name  we  come.  Remember  God  is  your  Father 
for  Jesus'  sake. 

Notice  that  if  we  pray  as  Jesus  would  have  us  to  do,  we  come  to  God  as 
sons  who  care  more  for  the  Father's  interests  than  for  our  own. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  selfish  praying — ^just  asking  for  ourselves.  Jesus' 
prayers  are  not  selfish.  He  says  not  "  Forgive  us  our  sins,"  but  first  He 
says  "  Hallowed  be  Thy  name."  May  Thy  name  be  kept  holy  by  all. 
Three  different  times  He  prays  that  the  Father's  wishes  may  be  accom- 
plished, and  the  Father's  name  honoured  before  He  even  begins  to  speak 
about  His  own  affairs.  If  we  would  pray  aright  we  must  ask  first  for  those 
things  for  which  Jesus  asked. 

Another  thing  about  this  prayer  is,  that  if  we  pray  as  Jesus  would  have 
us  to  do,  it  must  be  with  the  most  entire  submission  in  our  hearts  to  the 
will  of  God.  We  are  to  say,  "  Let  this  thing  be,  only  if  it  be  good  for  me, 
only  if  it  is  good  in  Thy  sight." 

Then  if  we  come  to  God  as  His  sons,  to  pray  aright  we  must  feel  that 
we  depend  upon  His  goodness  for  everything ;  that  in  Him  is  gathered  up 
all  we  need  in  this  world  and  the  next — all  we  need  for  our  bodies  and  for 
our  souls.  Jesus  does  not  say,  "  Come  once  and  ask  for  all."  He  says  we 
are  to  ask  for  "  daily  bread." 

We  are  not  to  ask  for  to-morrow's  bread,  or  next  year's,  but  just  what 
wc  need  now.  No  more.  It  is  daily  asking  for  necessaries — no  more. 
There  is  no  encouragement  to  ask  for  more  than  is  necessary  for  this  life. 
Ask  for  to-morrow's  bread,  and  you  will  not  get  it.  It  is  continual  depend- 
ence on  God.  Keep  on,  always  depending,  always  asking  in  the  spirit  of 
a  little  child  who  feels  its  needs  just  now,  with  no  store  and  no  goodness  of 
its  own.     This  is  the  spirit  of  the  Lord's  own  prayer. 


*  These  Sermoncttcs  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  112,  Vol.    II.]  JUNE  27,  1890  One  Penny. 


WITH  CHRIST. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Antliff. 

Preached  at  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference,  in  memory  of  the  late 
Rev.  Joseph  Toidson, 

"  To  depart,  and  to  be  with  Christ  ...  is  far  better."— Phil,  i.  23. 
The  Apostle  was  a  prisoner  when  he  wrote  these  words.  He  knew  not 
whether  he  would  be  liberated  or  martyred,  but  that  uncertainty  caused 
him  no  anxiety.  He  was  more  concerned  about  the  advance  of  Christianity 
than  about  his  own  welfare.  He  counted  not  his  life  dear  unto  him,  that 
he  might  finish  his  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  which  he  had  received 
of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of  God.  Should  they 
liberate  him,  he  would  preach  Christ,  and  extend  His  kingdom  :  to  him  to 
live  was  Christ.  Should  they  martyr  him,  his  death  would  provoke  so 
much  inquiry  that  Christianity  would  be  advanced  thereby  :  the  blood  of 
the  martyr  would  be  the  seed  of  the  Church.  Being  assured  that  Christ 
would  be  magnified  in  his  body,  whether  by  life  or  death,  he  cared  but 
little  by  which  means  the  end  should  be  secured.  He  was  in  a  strait 
betwixt  two,  having  a  desire  to  depart  and  to  be  with  Christ,  which  was 
far  better ;  but  to  abide  in  the  flesh  was  more  needful  for  the  Philippians. 
He  would  not  be  able  to  make  a  choice  whether  to  live  or  to  die.  He  was 
like  a  man  around  whom  a  rope  has  been  loosely  entwined,  and  persons 
are  pulling  at  each  end.  The  more  they  pull,  the  more  tightly  they  hold 
him.  "  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two.  To  depart,  and  to  be  with  Christ 
is  far  better;  nevertheless,  to  abide  in  the  flesh  is  more  needful  for  you." 

In  the  words  that  we  have  selected  and  submitted  for  brief  considera- 
tion, being  with  Christ  in  heaven  is  compared  with  living  for  Christ  on 
earth,  and  pronounced  to  be  "  far  better."  But  underlying  this  comparison 
are  two  assumed  facts.  In  the  first  place,  the  Apostle  assumes  that  death 
is  not  the  end  of  our  being,  but  a  change  of  our  abode  ;  and,  in  the  second 
place,  he  assumes  that  when  Christians  die  they  depart  hence  to  be  with 
Christ. 

The  Apostle  assumes  in  these  words  that  death  is  not  the  destruction  of 
our  consciousness,  but  a  change  in  the  conditions  of  our  existence.  We 
still  live,  but  live  in  other  circumstances.  We  depart  hence  to  another 
abode.  This  doctrine  of  a  life  beyond  this  has  been  accepted  throughout 
the  ages,  and  by  most  nations.  The  philosophic  and  poetic  ancients  of 
Europe  peopled  their  Elysium  and  Tartarus  with  human  spirits  retaining 


114  ^''^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

all  their  earthly  recollections.  Socrates  delighted  himself  with  the  convic- 
tion that  he  would  after  death  converse  with  Orpheus,  Musaeus,  Hesiod, 
and  Homer.  Cicero  rejoiced  in  the  prospect  of  meeting  with  Cato  in  the 
assembly  of  the  great  and  good.  The  less  cultured  and  civilised  inhabitants 
of  China  and  India  cherished  the  conviction  that  they  would  survive  their 
bodies  and  exist  elsewhere.  In  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  the  people, 
while  still  heathen,  believed  that  they  would  follow  their  departed  friends, 
and  rejoin  them  in  another  state  of  being.  On  the  western  prairies  the 
Indians  believed  that  they  would  live  after  death  in  some  beautiful  region 
beyond  the  setting  sun.  In  the  wilds  of  the  Dark  Continent,  the  fetish 
worshipper  suffered  decapitation  that  he  might  accompany  his  chieftain 
and  serve  him  in  the  spirit- world.  And  throughout  Christendom  this  con- 
viction has  universally  prevailed — that  our  souls  are  distinct  and  separable 
from  our  bodies,  and  will  survive  them,  and  exist  apart.  This  doctrine 
was  better  understood  by  God's  ancient  and  chosen  people  than  by  sur- 
rounding nations  ;  but  the  full  revelation  of  it  was  reserved  till  these  last 
days — this  final  dispensation,  when  the  curtains  were  drawn  back,  ajid  life 
and  immortality  brought  to  light  through  the  Gospel.  Our  Saviour,  in  one 
of  His  discourses,  lifted  the  curtain  a  little,  and  revealed  to  human  gaze 
men  whose  conditions  in  this  world  had  been  widely  different,  but  were 
more  widely  different  in  the  world  beyond.  When  surrounded  by  a  multi- 
tude who,  in  their  eagerness  to  hear  Him,  pressed  forward  and  trod  upon 
one  another.  He  said,  "  Fear  not  them  which  kill  the  body,  and  after  they 
have  done  that,  have  no  more  that  they  can  do  ;  but  rather  fear  Him  who, 
after  He  hath  killed,  hath  power  to  cast  into  hell."  In  response  t©  the 
appeal  of  the  penitent  malefactor.  He  said,  "This  day  shalt  thou  be  with 
Me  in  Paradise."  The  inspired  Apostles  taught  that  we  should  be  absent 
from  the  body — that  we  should  depart.  The  doctrine  of  a  life  beyond  the 
present  accords  both  with  reason  and  revelation. 

But  the  writer  of  our  text  further  assumes  that  when  Christians  die,  they 
depart  hence  to  be  with  Christ.  But  where  is  Christ  ?  According  to  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  He  ascended  on  high — "  ascended  into  heaven  " — where 
He  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God  the  Father  Almighty."  This  doctrine 
has  been  accepted  by  the  churches,  and  accords  with  the  testimony  of  our 
Saviour  and  His  Apostles.  He  told  His  disciples  that  He  would  go  to 
their  Father ;  that  in  His  Father's  house  were  many  mansions  ;  that  He 
would  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  His  people.  The  Apostle,  in  one  of  the 
lessons  we  have  heard  to-night  (i  Thess.  iv.),  reminded  us  that  God  will 
bring  with  Him  those  that  sleep  in  Jesus  ;  and  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour, 
and  the  assumption  in  our  text,  is  that  when  believers  die  they  go  to  be 
with  Christ.  They  do  not  sink  into  astateof  unconsciousness,  and  slumber 
in  their  crumbling  tabernacles— they  depart.  They  do  not  enter  and  linger 
in  some  intermediate  and  purgatorial  state  ;  but  they  depart  to  be  with 
Christ.  Absent  from  the  body,  present  with  the  Lord  !  "  Having  a 
desire  to  part,  and  to  be  with  Christ."  Jesus  said  to  the  dying  malefactor, 
"  This  day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise."  They  were  both  about  to 
leave  their  bodies  hanging  on  the  crosses  ;  but  they  were  going  away,  and 
the  promise  of  the  Redeemer  to  that  penitent  offender  was,  "  Thou  shalt 
be  with  Me  in  Paradise." 

But  to  be  with  Christ  is  better— "far  better."  The  Apostle  was  a  man 
of  hke  passions  and  infirmities  with  ourselves.    Doubtless,  he  would  some- 


With  Christ.  115 


times  feel  sadness  stealing  over  his  spirit ;  but  he  was  not  accustomed  to 
condemn  the  world  in  which  he  lived,  and  complain  of  his  material  and 
social  surroundings.  He  did  not  affirm  that  there  was  nothing  in  this 
world  worth  living  for.  He  felt  that  to  live  for  the  advantage  of  his 
brethren  was  so  great  a  privilege  that  he  would  willingly  forego,  for  a  time, 
the  enjoyments  of  heaven,  that  he  might  render  help  to  the  Church  on 
earth.  But  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ,  to  serve  in  the  higher  sphere,  is 
better  than  to  serve  down  here.  Better  surroundings,  better  employments, 
better  companions,  better  duration.  To  be  with  Christ  is  far  better  than 
being  here,  because  the  surroundings  will  be  better  there  than  here.  On 
this  side  of  the  river  there  are  beautiful  growths  ;  but  in  the  land  of  Canaan 
there  are  finer.  There  is  much  that  is  beautiful  and  much  that  operates 
powerfully  and  pleasingly  in  this  life;  but,  accepting  the  language  of  the 
inspired  penman,  we  conclude  that  our  surroundings  hereafter  will  be 
better  far  than  our  conditions  here.  Our  employments  will  be  better.  In 
the  service  of  our  Lord,  and  in  the  work  of  the  Church,  we  find  much  of 
our  purest,  our  most  exquisite  happiness.  We  linger  upon  the  past.  There 
are  blessed  memories  of  work  done,  of  good  realised,  and  of  the  Divine 
presence  felt ;  but  to  be  with  Christ  and  serve  in  His  upper  sanctuary,  and 
engage  in  the  higher  ministries  of  heaven,  will  be  better  than  the  best 
services  in  which  we  are  permitted  to  engage  down  here.  Our  companions 
will  be  better.  We  have  friends,  noble-hearted  friends,  here,  but  the  best 
of  men  are  but  men  at  the  best,  and  there  is  some  admixture  of  evil  to  be 
found  in  the  best  society  in  which  we  move  here ;  but  yonder  all  will  have 
been  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  Lamb.  Every  garment  will 
be  stainless  ;  every  heart  will  be  pure  ;  every  man  will  be  a  brother  ;  there 
will  be  none  to  disturb.  We  can  scarcely  avoid  lingering  to  think  of  the 
loved  ones  with  whom  we  took  sweet  counsel  and  walked  to  the  house  of 
God  in  company  while  they  were  here.  They  have  gone  forward.  They 
were  good,  they  awakened  our  admiration,  they  secured  our  affection 
while  they  were  here.  They  are  better  yonder,  and  when  we  rejoin  them 
we  shall  find  them  improved.  We  shall  not  only  have  the  fellowship  of 
those  whom  we  have  known,  but  of  all  those  of  whom  "  the  world  was  not 
worthy,"  men  whose  biographies  we  have  in  the  sacred  books,  and  multi- 
tudes besides.  They  are  awaiting  our  arrival  in  that  better  state.  And 
those  "  ministering  spirits,"  who  have  manifested  so  much  interest  in 
human  welfare,  will  be  our  associates — our  more  intimate  associates — 
hereafter.  And,  best  of  all,  we  shall  see  Him  "  Whom,  having  not  seen, 
we  love  ;  and  in  Whom,  although  we  see  Him  not,  believing,  we  rejoice 
with  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  Then  our  conditions  will  be 
enduring.  The  happiness  we  realise  on  earth  is  transient.  In  the  sanc- 
tuary, and  in  the  active  service  of  our  God,  we  realise  something  of  heaven 
down  here:  but  we  soon  go  forth,  and  the  chilling,  adverse  influences  of 
the  world  operate  upon  us  again,  and  we  soon  feel  that  we  are  still  sur- 
rounded by  adversaries,  and  must  engage  in  conflict.  But  yonder  our 
enjoyment  will  be  everlasting,  and  our  employment,  fitted  to  our  condi- 
tions, will  never  weary  nor  exhaust ;  but  in  perpetual  joyful  strain  we  shall 
admire  and  serve  our  God.  To  depart  and  be  with  Christ  is  better,  far 
better ! 

But  who  will  be  with  Christ   when  they   depart  hence  ?     When  our 
Saviour  lifted  the  veil  a  little,  and  enabled  men  to  look  beyoid  the  grave, 


ii6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


they  saw  two  men  who  had  lived  together  on  earth,  but  who  were  widely 
separated  yonder,  and  their  conditions  had  been  reversed.  The  poor  man 
was  no  longer  full  of  sores  and  waiting  for  a  little  bread,  but  reclining  on 
Abraham's  bosom.  The  rich  man  was  no  longer  clad  in  purple  and  faring 
sumptuously  every  day,  but  in  burning  torments,  piteously  appealing  for 
a  little  help.  But  their  conditions  were  unalterable,  they  could  not  pass 
from  one  side  to  the  other.  When  men  die  they  depart  hence,  but 
whither  ?  We  shall  die,  we  shall  depart  from  these  material  surroundings, 
but  whither  shall  we  go  ?  Shall  we  depart  to  be  with  Christ?  Or  shall 
we  depart  to  everlasting  misery  ?  The  Apostle,  in  that  portion  of  Scripture 
from  which  we  have  selected  our  text,  gives  his  own  experience  :  "To  me 
to  live  is  Christ."  If  I  live  in  the  flesh,  this  is  the  fruit  of  my  labour;  yet 
what  I  shall  choose  I  know  not.  For  I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt  two,  having, 
a  desire  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ.  The  Apostle  had  been  a  sinner — a 
great  sinner ;  but  not  immoral,  not  a  drunkard,  not  a  libertine.  Before 
his  conversion  to  Christianity,  he  was  intensely  religious  according  to  his 
convictions,  but  sincerity  was  not  enough.  A  man  may  be  sincere  and 
wrong.  Saul  of  Tarsus  verily  thought  that  he  ought  to  do  many  things 
against  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  was  as  sincere  before  he  became  a  Christian 
as  af  er,  and  probably  as  zealous,  for  he  made  havoc  of  the  Church.  But 
convinced  of  his  error,  and  wishful  to  be  right,  he  sought  Divine  direction, 
and  obtained  it ;  and,  having  been  instructed,  he  trusted  in  Christ.  He 
said,  "  It  is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief."  He 
obtained  mercy,  and  became  an  earnest  worker  in  the  service  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Once  converted,  he  needed  converting  no  more.  He  was 
"  steadfast,  immovable,  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord."  "  By 
the  grace  of  God,  I  am  what  lam."  "  And  His  grace,  which  was  bestowed 
upon  me,  was  not  in  vain  ;  for  I  laboured  more  abundantly  than  they  all ; 
yet  not  I,  but  the  grace  oif  God  which  was  with  me."  His  life  became 
consecrated  thoroughly  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  could  say,  "  I  am 
crucified  with  Christ ;  nevertheless  I  live  :  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in 
me."  "To  me  to  live  is  Christ,"  And  that  man  could  rejoice  in  the  hope 
of  being  with  Christ  after  death.  Is  our  experience  like  his?  Is  there 
any  resemblance  between  our  experience  and  his?  Have  we  reahsed  our 
need  of  pardon?  Have  we  committed  ourselves  to  Him  who  died  for  us  and 
lives  for  us?  Have  we  consecrated  ourselves  to  the  service  of  Christ? 
Are  we  experimentally  and  practically  religious?  Are  we  real  believers — 
true  Christians  ?  Can  we  say,  "  If  I  live  in  the  flesh,  this  is  the  fruit  of  my 
labour  ?  "  If  so,  we  may  cherish  the  conviction  expressed  in  our  text,  that 
to  depart  and  be  with  Christ  is  far  better. 

In  this  service  we  can  scarcely  avoid  reverting  to  our  beloved  brother  (the 
Rev.  J.  Toulson),  who  was  often  with  us  at  our  annual  gatherings,  and  who 
occupied  the  chief  seat  in  our  last  Conference,  and  by  his  wise  conduct 
and  humble  spirit  increased  our  admiration  and  affection  for  him.  He 
was  born  again  of  the  Spirit  in  the  first  month  of  the  year  1839,  while  he 
was  still  a  very  young  man.  Immediately  he  joined  our  society,  and  was 
never  severed  from  it  till  called  to  join  our  fathers  on  the  other  side  the 
liver.  In  1842  he  was  called  into  the  ministry  of  our  churches,  and 
Iai)Oured  in  word  and  doctrine  nearly  forty-eight  years.  He  was  in  labours 
more  abundant  than  many  ;  he  was  rich  in   religious  experience ;  he  was 


With  Chrhi.  117 

evangelical  in  doctrine ;  he  was  earnest  and  persevering  in  his  ministry, 
ever  seeking  the  salvation  of  souls  and  the  edification  of  the  churches  ;  he 
was  a  wise  and  kind  administrator,  and  was  successful  in  his  great  life-work. 
When  I  became  more  intimately  acquainted  with  him,  over  twenty  years 
ago,  I  formed  the  opinion  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  successful,  if  not 
the  most  useful,  minister  we  then  had  in  the  South  of  England.  He 
laboured  in  different  parts  of  the  Connexion  ;  but  much  time  was  spent  in 
the  metropolis,  where  he  did  much  to  extend  Primitive  Methodism,  to 
erect  chapels,  form  churches,  and  save  men.  His  conduct  in  his  official 
capacities  we  all  admire  ;  and  as  the  years  passed  away,  and  we  became 
more  thoroughly  acquainted  with  him,  we  admired  him  more  and  more, 
and  glorified  God  in  him.  He  was  on  his  way  to  fulfil  his  Sabbath  engage- 
ments in  the  Eastern  Counties  when  he  was  suddenly  stricken  down  in  the 
streets  of  London.  He  passed  away  from  the  streets  of  our  crowded 
metropoHs  to  the  streets  of  the  metropolis  in  the  heavens,  the  New 
Jerusalem.  His  sudden  removal  from  us,  through  affliction,  should  also 
ht  instructive.  How  short  is  life  !  How  uncertain  our  stay  on  earth  ! 
Who  can  tell  which  of  us  will  next  be  called  way  ?  Who  can  tell  in  what 
circumstances  we  shall  be  found  when  summoned  to  appear  in  the  ■^^jld  of 
spirits  ?  Let  us  determine  that  whatever  may  be  our  work,  whatever  the 
sphere  of  our  activity,  we  will  live  a  holy  life,  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God 
our  Saviour  by  a  godly  conversation,  do  all  the  good  that  we  possibly  can, 
and  prepare  for  the  life  that  is  to  come.  A  few  brief  years,  or  it  may  be  a 
few  brief  months,  and  our  opportunity  for  service  here  will  be  gone,  our 
work  done,  and  we  shall  pass  away.  One  by  one  our  fathers  have  left  us. 
How  few  there  are  remaining  with  us  who  attended  the  last  Conference 
held  in  this  town  !  How  few  who  will  be  present  at  this  Conference  will 
remain  to  take  part  in  the  next  that  may  be  held  here  !  Oh,  let  us  try  to 
realise  the  shortness  of  life  !  What  are  all  our  interests,  all  our  pleasures, 
all  our  sorrows  ?  They  will  soon  be  in  the  past.  We  are  getting  through 
them.  We  shall  get  through  this  life,  and  into  the  next ;  but  never  through 
that.  Let  us  take  care  that  we  have  a  personal  experience  resembling 
that  of  the  writer  of  our  text,  resembling  that  of  the  dear  brother  who  has 
just  been  taken  from  us.  Let  our  religion  be  experimental.  Let  it  not  be 
a  mere  creed,  or  a  mere  morality  ;  but  a  life,  and  a  power.  Let  us  live  to 
good  purpose — serve  God  with  all  our  powers ;  and  then  whensoe'er  we 
hence  depart,  we  shall  depart  in  peace,  to  be  for  ever  with  the  Lord. 


Well  may  it  be  said  that  "  His  name  is  above  every  name."  Yet  are  there 
not  many  men  capable  of  admirable  fervours  in  practical  and  intellectual  life, 
who  are  asking  now,  What  is  Christianity  to  me,  and  how  in  this  day  is 
the  Gospel  for  real  salvation  ?  We  reply,  Is  this  for  ever-venerated  name 
as  a  sun,  clearly  the  Lord  of  all  luminaries ;  or  is  it  only  as  a  wonderful 
comet,  that  is  disappearing  from  our  sky  and  will  soon  retire  altogether? 

He  was  rewarded  for  His  work  in  the  doing  it ;  as  part  of  His  immediate 
pay,  rewarded  in  the  smiles  of  the  happy,  in  the  love-gifts  of  the  grateful, 
in  the  earnest  looks  of  the  listeners,  in  the  ready  hands  of  the  distributors, 
and  in  the  as  ready  foot  of  the  messenger,  who  went  out  to  sing,  "  The 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 


ii8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


THE  HECKMONDWIKE  LECTURE. 

The  annual  services  in  connection  with  the  128th  celebration  of  the 
"  Heckmondwike  Lecture  "  have  been  held  in  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  that  town.  The  United  Independent  College  at  Bradford  owes  its 
origin  to  Heckmondwike.  At  the  close  of  the  session  distinguished  divines 
were  invited  to  address  the  students  and  their  friends.  On  the  removal  of 
the  college  the  churches  continued  the  fixture,  and  for  over  a  century  and 
a  quarter  it  has  known  no  lapse.  This  year  the  unique  festival  was 
sutcessful  beyond  any  of  recent  years.  The  first  service  was  held  on 
Tuesday  evening  in  Westgate  Chapel,  when  sermons  were  preached  by  the 
Revs.  J.  N.  Knight,  of  Birmingham,  and  J.  B.  Meharry,  of  London.  The: 
chapel  was  crowded.     Below  we  give  brief  reports  of  the  sermons  : — 

The  Rev.  J.  N.  Knight. 

"And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow,  saying,  if  God  will  be  with  me,  and  will  keep  me* 
in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so 
that  I  come  again  to  my  father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God  ; 
and  this  stone,  which  I  have  set  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God's  house  ;  and  of  all 
that  Thou  shalt  give  me  I  will  surely  give  the  tenth  unto  Thee." — Gen.  xxviii. 
20 — 22. 

This  vow  was  occasioned  by  a  dream,  which  in  its  turn  had  been 
occasioned  by  the  circumstances  of  Jacob's  life  and  his  natural  surround- 
ings. Jacob  was  in  a  state  of  terror  and  fear  of  Esau,  and  it  was  therefore 
natural  for  him  to  desire  to  make  of  the  stones  a  natural  staircase,  a  ladder 
of  flight.  How  natural  it  was  for  him,  when  afraid  of  the  vengeance  of  his 
brother  and  of  his  fellow  men,  to  desire  that  on  that  ladder  others  than 
denizens  of  the  earth  might  ascend  and  descend.  He  saw  that  the  only 
way  of  escaping  and  securing  the  true  friendship  of  those  he  had  wronged 
was  to  link  himself  with  God  and  celestial  society.  He  recognised  that  the 
only  way  to  get  on  in  life  was  to  seek  the  blessing  of  God,  and  be  closed  at 
once  with  the  covenant  made  with  him.  He  realised  for  the  first  time  the 
divine  personality  of  God,  and  here  the  preacher  appealed  to  his  hearers, 
asking  if  God  had  so  revealed  Himself  to  them  that  their  whole  life  was 
swayed  by  that  conviction,  or  were  they  breathing  the  name  of  God  and 
quGling  the  articles  of  their  faith  glibly  without  having  any  direct  decisive 
conviction  that  God  was  with  them  and  that  He  was  the  rewarder  of  them 
that  seek  Him  ?  Was  tliere  ever  a  time  when  the  Church  needed  so  much 
to  realise  the  personality  of  God  ?  The  members  of  the  church  were 
feeling  the  need  of  a  more  vivid  realisation  of  the  personality  of  God. 
Despite  the  criticisms  of  many,  most  assuredly  there  was  a  hungering  after 
God,  a  yearning  after  Him;  and  men  who  could  not  be  sure  about  the 
authenticity  of  the  record,  who  were  not  sure  that  the  miracles  were 
sufficient  for  their  faith,  were  testing  their  conclusions  and  saying :  "  If  the 
record  be  true  Christ  lives  and  Christ  loves,  and  I  may  make  my  direct 
appeal  to  Him  independently  of  all  other  sources."  It  was  their  privilege  to 
make  that  personal  appeal,  to  seek  the  inner  chamber  and  there  bow  before 
the  great  Unseen.  In  every  whirlwind  there  was  a  point  of  absolute  rest, 
and,  if  God  invited  them  to  enter  the  whirlwind,  it  was  in  order  that  they 
may  find  that  point.     The  knowledge  of  God  in  Christ  should  give  them 


The  Heckmondwike  Lecture.  119 

courage  for  public  and  private  duty.  They  were  cowards  till  they  had  seen 
God  in  Christ — afraid  of  themselves  and  their  surroundings,  and  of  the 
times  in  which  they  lived.  It  was  only  under  the  inspiration  of  conviction 
that  they  were  enabled  to  fulfil  His  will  and  to  do  daily  the  work  He  had 
given  them.  He  next  referred  to  Jacob's  dedication  of  the  place  to  God, 
and  said  the  stones  were  consecrated  in  order  that  every  other  place  on  earth 
might  be  consecrated.  The  Holy  Land  was  holy  so  that  Ireland,  Scotland, 
England,  and  every  other  land  might  be  holy  also.  Having  spoken  of  the 
beauty  of  a  consecrated  commercial  life,  he  passed  on  to  notice  Jacob's 
vow  to  give  one-tenth  of  all  he  had  to  God,  and  said  this  was  not  sufficient 
for  the  Christian  dispensation.  Viewed  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testament, 
it  meant  that  they  must  give  all  to  God.  In  conclusion,  he  urged  his 
hearers  to  dedicate  their  personality,  their  places,  and  their  property  to 
Him. 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Meharry. 

"  A  man  which  told  me  all  the  things  that  ever  I  did  :  is  not  this  the  Christ  ? " 
— St.  John  iv,  29. 

Mr.  Meharry  prefaced  his  text  by  remarking  that  it  was  to  a  woman  they 
were  indebted  for  the  right  method  of  finding  Christ.  A  great  deal  of 
Christian  doctrine,  he  went  on  to  say,  depended  upon  the  angle  at  which 
men's  minds  struck  it,  just  as  the  brilliance  and  hues  of  a  diamond 
depended  upon  the  angle  at  which  it  was  struck  by  the  light.  No  man  in 
God's  universe  could  read  the  Scripture  for  him  (the  speaker),  neither  could 
he  read  it  for  any  other  man.  Reverting  more  particularly  to  his  text, 
which  was  the  expression  of  a  woman,  he  asked  if  that  congregation  had 
ever  reflected  how  much  womanhood  owed  to  Christ,  or  what  honour  had 
been  paid  to  woman  by  the  incarnation.  Christ  hurled  defiance  at  the 
laws  of  His  day,  and  once  and  for  all  put  his  foot  down  on  the  despicable 
law  which  gave  woman  a  second  place  to  man.  He  was  going  to  discuss 
that  evening  the  subject  the  woman  mentioned  in  the  text — the  right 
method  for  discovering  the  Christ  and  the  right  faculty  whereby  to  discover 
Him.  Allow  him  to  point  out  the  title  which  the  Master  bore  in  the  text. 
He  thought  he  never  bore  a  title  without  an  object.  In  both  the  definite 
and  the  indefinite  title  he  (the  speaker)  thought  he  saw  a  heavenly  design. 
In  the  Old  Testament  they  were  acquainted  with  many  Christs,  but  he 
loved  to  think  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  one  to  whom  alone  the  title  of  the 
Christ  was  applicable.  It  was  very  remarkable  that  He  distinctly  told  this 
woman  He  was  the  Christ,  and  it  was  equally  notorious  that  she  never  said 
so  to  her  fellow  creatures.  Conscience  told  this  woman  that  He  to  whom 
she  had  spoken  was  the  Christ,  and  nothing  else  could  tell  a  man  that. 
He  was  speaking  now  of  the  Christ  in  his  saving  capacity,  not  of  the  Jesus 
Christ  of  history.  He  knew  of  no  way  by  which  a  man  could  assure  Himself 
that  Jesus  Christ  was  the  Christ,  if  he  did  not  do  it  with  his  conscience. 
On  this  point  conscience  was  the  only  faculty  which  could  speak  with 
authority.  Reason  may  confirm,  but  conscience  alone  could  aftirm. 
If  he  was  correct  in  what  he  had  already  said,  they  would  be  prepared  for 
his  next  proposition — that  the  discovery  of  Christ  as  the  Christ  by  the 
conscience  was  the  only  philosophic  method.  As  an  illustration  he 
pointed  out  that  all  branches  of  science  depended  on  some  particular 
faculty  of  the  mind,  and  said  that  just  in  the  same  way  religion  demanded 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


that  conscience  should  be  given  to  foster  it.  Only  the  man  who  made  his 
inquiry  after  Christ  a  ^matter  of  conscience  ever  found  Him.  The  moral 
condition  of  a  man  had  much  more  to  do  with  it  than  some  of  them  were 
disposed  to  own.  A  man  without  morality  had  crippled  and  dwarfed  his 
intellect.  One  of  the  greatest  reasons  why  young  men  should  be  virtuous 
and  pure  was  for  the  sake  of  their  intellects.  If  they  came  to  the  con- 
sideration of  this  question  feeling  that  there  was  sin  in  their  heart,  it  must 
first  of  all  be  rooted  out.  None  who  ever  sought  Christ  in  the  way  he  had 
stated  failed.  He  knew  there  were  saucy  intellects  and  proud  minds  which 
had  failed  in  their  search,  but  they  did  not  take  the  right  method  or 
cultivate  the  right  faculty.  They  were  often  asked  how  it  was  that  so 
many  of  their  scientific  men  were  not  on  the  side  of  Christ.  For 
his  own  part  he  had  never  uttered  a  word  against  them.  He 
fea»ed  nothing  from  science.  When  the  day  came  round  that  religion 
was  afraid  of  science,  then  religion  ought  to  hang  her  head  ;  but  that  day 
had  not  come  yet.  Instead  of  declaiming  against  scientific  men,  let  them 
thank  them  for  their  labours,  though  they  did  not  agree  ^vith  their  conclu- 
sions. He  believed  that  eventually  the  conclusions  of  science  would  bring 
glory  to  the  Lord.  He  believed  that  the  day  would  come  when  the  clash 
of  tongues  should  cease  and  science  and  religion  would  walk  hand  in 
hand  for  the  good  of  the  human  race.  While  urging  them  to  search  as  he 
had  advised,  he  had  no  wish  to  dissuade  them  from  satisfying  themselves 
as  to  the  historical  part ;  but  if  a  man  wanted  truly  to  grasp  the  Christ  he 
must  realise  that  Christ  had  revealed  Himself  to  him  first  by  exposing  his 
sins  and  then  covering  them  with  perfect  righteousness.  In  conclusion  he 
urged  them  to  begin  with  the  heart  and  not  with  the  head.  If  they 
brought  their  sins  to  Christ,  His  gracious  word  of  mercy  and  blessing 
would  scatter  their  fears  and  fill  their  souls  with  eternal  Ught. 

The  Rev.  J.  Monro  Gibson,  D.D. 

"  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,"  &c. — Psalm  xix. 

This  psalm  might  be  divided  into  two  parts — nature  and  the  Bible ;  but 
its  object  was  one,  its  purpose  was  spiritual.  The  glory  of  God  in  nature 
was  presented  as  a  symbol  of  Divine  glory  in  revelation.  The  parallel 
between  nature  and  revelation  would  therefore  be  his  theme.  It  was  a 
characteristic  of  the  Bible,  which  stamped  it  as  not  being  the  outcome  of 
mere  human  intelligence,  that  it  not  only  did  not  get  out  of  date,  but  it 
positively  came  into  date.  The  psalm  was  not  only  as  true  to-day  as  when 
it  was  written,  but  it  was  true  in  a  fuller,  larger,  and  more  obvious  sense. 
The  world  moved  on,  leaving  the  products  of  its  intellect  and  genius 
behind,  mostly  to  be  swallowed  up  in  oblivion,  but  some  few  never  to  be 
submerged — ^monuments  reared  too  high  for  the  waters  of  forgetfulness. 
But  while  even  earth's  greatest  ones  were  left  behind,  instead  of  moving 
from  the  Bible  they  seemed  to  move  into  it.  He  was  now  referring  to  the 
great  spiritual  teaching  of  the  Bible,  which  he  said  was  as  far  in  advance 
of  the  nineteenth  century  as  it  was  of  the  first.  The  first  suggestion  he 
wished  to  make  to  them  was  if  revelation  be  like  nature  it  would  bear  the 
marks  not  of  manufacture,  but  of  growth.  Some  good  people  were  terribly 
afraid  of  this  thought,  especially  if  development  be  the  word  used  instead 
of  growth,  or  worse  still  the  more  formidable  term  evolution.     The  sug- 


The  Heckinondwikc  Lecture.  iei 

gestion  that  different  parts  required  different  treatment  was  often  received 
with  terror,  but  it  was  one  of  the  marks  which  proved  that  it  was  from 
God,  and  should  be  hailed  with  the  greatest  delight.  Revelation  was  not 
a  mere  treatise,  but  a  history  of  God's  dealings  with  men  for  thousands  of 
years.  It  was  full,  not  of  logic,  but  of  light.  If  revelation  be  like  nature, 
it  would  exhibit  endless  variety  on  the  surface,  but  there  would  be  a  wondrous 
harmony  underlying  the  whole.  There  was  a  marvellous  unity  of  purpose  in 
the  Bible  which  became  apparent  to  those  who  studied  it  as  a  whole.  Such 
was  the  unity  of  purpose  and  the  marvellous  development  of  thought  in  the 
Bible  that  to  those  who  had  followed  it  out  it  was  no  mere  matter  of  faith, 
but  as  plain  as  day,  and  as  certain  as  anything  possibly  could  be  that  those 
records  were  not  the  mere  spontaneous  productions  of  different  men  in 
different  ages.  It  was  not  all  a  beautiful  garden.  There  were  rugged 
mountains  as  well  as  smiling  valleys.  It  contained  things  both  ugly  and 
repulsive,  for  which  there  would  have  been  no  necessity  if  it  had  been  the 
work  of  man.  There  was  much  that  was  wild  and  sad  in  the  history  it 
gave  ;  but  how  could  it  be  otherwise  if  it  were  true  ?  From  the  first  God 
had  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming  of  His  Son,  and  the  setting  up  of  a 
reign  of  peace.  It  was  not  the  darkness  of  the  book,  but  the  light  which 
was  the  characteristic.  The  most  frightful  chapters  in  Judges  were  no 
worse  than  similar  chapters  in  the  history  of  the  nations  of  the  ancient 
world  ;  but  side  by  side  with  the  darkness  there  was  always  the  dawning 
light.  This  it  was  which  always  distinguished  Divine  revelation  from  mere 
human  history.  After  speaking  of  the  infinite  suggestiveness  of  the  Word 
of  God  as  the  great  cause  of  maintaining  the  freshness  of  revelation,  he 
went  on  to  say  there  was  a  sad  lack  of  faith  on  the  part  of  those  who 
thought  the  Bible  could  not  speak  for  itself.  It  spoke  in  such  a  variety  of 
ways  that  a  man  could  walk  in  the  light  without  being  able  to  pass  any 
examination  in  the  different  theories.  He  afterwards  enlarged  upon  the 
Psalmist's  descent  from  the  wide  scope  of  the  heavens  to  the  closest  per- 
sonal application,  and  showed  how  it  was  possible  for  men  to  live  in  as 
black  a  state  of  darkness  as  if  they  shut  themselves  up  in  a  cave.  The 
end,  however,  would  be  death.  But  let  God  be  revealed  to  the  soul,  as 
He  was  manifested  in  the  history  of  redemption,  and  in  the  life,  the  death, 
and  the  resurrection  of  His  Son,  and  immediately  the  heavens  were  opened, 
and  the  soul  passed  out  of  darkness  into  marvellous  light. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Garrett. 

"  We  love  Him  because  He  first  loved  us,"— i  St.  John  iv.  19. 

These  words,  the  preacher  said,  were  the  household  words  of  the  family 
of  heaven  and  earth.  It  was  the  point  of  unity.  When  they  talked  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  they  quarrelled,  but  when  they  talked  about  the 
King  they  were  in  perfect  agreement.  In  those  few  words  they  had  the 
whole  philosophy  of  religion.  Instead  of  beginning  at  the  beginning  he 
would  begin  at  the  end  and  finish  at  the  beginning.  God  "  first  loved  us." 
Love  never  originated  in  man.  His  message  to  them  was  that  God  first 
loved  them,  and  His  love  flowed  forward  to  them.  They  had  here  the 
whole  nature  of  rehgion.  There  had  been  controversies  in  the  newspapers 
as  to  what  religion  was.  He  replied  that  it  was  love,  and  if  they  desired 
to  know  whether  they  were  Christians,  all  they  had  to  do  was  to  ask  them- 


122  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

selves  whether  they  loved  Christ.  There  were  plenty  of  people  who  were 
ready  to  fight  for  the  Church  and  for  sects,  and  even  to  get  drunk  for 
them,  but  that  did  not  constitute  religion.  They  must  have  a  personal 
love  for  the  personal  Saviour.  This  love  must  not  only  be  personal,  but 
voluntary.  The  preacher  dwelt  at  length  on  this  head  of  his  discourse, 
and  gave  many  simple  and  beautiful  illustrations  of  his  meaning.  Love, 
he  said,  was  always  a  gift.  They  could  not  buy  it.  The  rich  man  might 
buy  service  and  flattery,  and  get  as  much  of  that  as  he  liked  to  pay  for. 
But  he  could  not  demand  or  enforce  love.  People  loved  that  which  was 
precious  to  them,  and  that  which  of  itself  was  not  precious  to  the  heart 
could  command  no  love.  John  Bright  had  said  that  force  was  no  remedy. 
This  was  true  in  the  matter  of  love.  A  man  might  threaten  to  blow  his 
brains  out  if  he  did  not  give  him  his  love,  but  he  would  only  make  him 
dislike  the  man  the  more,  for  we  could  only  love  that  which  had  lovable 
qualities.  God  used  no  force,  but  He  stooped  and  asked  for  the  love  of 
the  human  race,  and,  thank  God,  He  had  won  many  of  them.  Moreover, 
this  love  was  powerful.  There  was  no  power  like  it.  It  was  the  mightiest 
power  in  the  universe,  and  it  was  Divine.  The  love  in  their  hearts  was 
the  same  in  its  nature  as  the  love  of  God.  As  the  dewdrop  was  composed 
of  the  self-same  elements  as  the  water  in  the  leaping  cataract,  so  did  their 
love  partake  of  the  essence  of  the  boundless  love  of  God.  Further,  love 
was  restraining  in  its  influence,  winning  from  evil  all  those  who  possessed 
it.  And  further,  it  was  an  impelling  love  in  the  direction  of  righteousness. 
Let  the  Church  be  filled  with  it,  and  they  would  no  longer  need  to  talk 
about  the  lack  of  support  to  their  missionary  enterprises,  or  the  leanness 
of  their  resources  necessary  for  carrying  on  the  Christian  work.  The  world 
was  waiting  for  the  Church,  and  the  Church  had  all  the  resources  necessary 
to  fulfil  the  pressing  needs  of  the  world.  There  was  wealth  enough, 
learning  enough,  and  influence  enough  to  satisfy  the  spiritual  requirements 
of  the  world,  but  all  these,  to  make  them  effective,  needed  the  endowment 
of  the  love  of  Christ.  Then  only  would  they  be  effectually  operative. 
The  world  was  crying  come  over  and  help  us,  and  the  only  thing  the 
Church  needed  to  make  her  capable  and  responsive  was  the  love  of  Christ 
in  the  heart.  Lastly,  the  preacher  said  this  love  would  prepare  them  for 
heaven.  He  had  been  thinking  while  he  had  sat  there  where  were  those 
who  had  taken  part  in  the  lecture  anniversaries  of  the  past.  If  they  had 
possessed  the  love  of  God  they  were  with  Him.  But  there  was  no  need 
for  tne  whip.  God  delighted  to  show  His  love,  and  he  asked  all  to  come 
to  Him.  The  preacher  concluded  with  a  very  effective  appeal  to  the 
congregation  to  consecrate  themselves  and  share  the  joys  of  that  freedom 
and  love  which  the  Great  Father  was  anxious  to  bestow. 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Dawson. 

"  There  are,  it  may  be,  so  many  kinds  of  voices  in  the  world,  and  none  of 
them  is  without  significance.'" — i  CoR.  xiv.  lo. 

That  which  was  unintelligible  to  one,  the  preacher  said,  might  be  in- 
telligible to  another,  for  of  necessity  an  educated  man  might  and  would 
understand  words  which  to  an  illiterate  person  would  be  unintelligible. 
When  they  said  a  certain  speaker  was  unintelligible,  it  did  not  follow 
because  he  was  not  understood  by  them  that  he  was  unintelligible  to  others ; 


The  Heckmandwike  Lecture.  123 

that  because  his  teaching  was  obnoxious  to  them,  it  was  to  everyone  ;  and 
that,  because  in  their  judgment  he  was  not  called  upon  to  preach,  he 
had  therefore  no  message  to  man.  What  the  text  pointed  out  was  breadth 
of  view,  and  breadth  of  sympathy.  There  was  nothing  in  the  world  with- 
out meaning,  and  if  a  voice  meant  nothing  to  them  they  might  be  sure  that 
there  were  others  to  whom  the  message  would  appeal.  There  were  two 
ideas  of  Church  life  which  were  always  more  or  less  in  conflict,  and  to  the 
one-sided  these  ideas  seemed  irreconcilably  opposite.  What  possible 
reconciliation  could  be  found  between  the  quiet  worshipper  who  sought  the 
sanctuary  for  its  peace,  and  the  busy,  eager,  Christian  worker  to  whom  the 
sanctuary  was  simply  a  focus  of  intense  activity,  and  a  place  where  strenuous 
labour  found  its  centre  and  encouragement  ?  To  the  one-sided  man  there 
was  no  reconciliation  in  these  cases.  The  cloistral  Christian  saw  only  in 
the  one  case  a  type  of  fussy  zeal,  and  in  turn  the  cloistral  Christian  was 
looked  upon  as  an  idler.  The  one  prayed  little  and  worked  much  ;  the 
other  worked  little  and  prayed  much.  The  one  recognised  the  other,  not 
by  his  qualities,  but  by  his  defects,  and  thus  they  became  one-sided,  each 
being  the  victim  of  his  own  miserable  egotism,  and  incapable  of  under- 
standing any  other  type  of  Christianity  than  that  which  he  himself  repre- 
sented. Both,  however,  were  needed,  and  the  one  could  not  do  without 
the  other.  Each  voice  had  its  own  signification,  and  they  could  rejoice 
that  all  had  only  Christ  to  preach.  What  they  had  to  recollect  was 
that  Christ  was  not  for  man,  but  for  men ;  not  for  a  race,  but  for  races  ; 
not  for  a  nation,  but  for  the  world  ;  and  though  the  message  of  God  might 
be  but  a  confused  and  grating  voice  to  one,  perhaps  it  rang  out  full  and 
clear  to  another.  That  which  a  man  believed  profoundly  he  could  not 
help  impressing  upon  others.  By  many,  however,  to  have  a  sound  faith 
was  held  to  be  higher  than  being  good,  and  a  right  creed  took  the  place  of 
a  right  life.  The  old  order  continually  changed,  and  when  they  departed 
from  the  old  forms  of  speech  and  uttered  their  message  in  fresh,  living 
language,  then  because  it  was  fresh  and  not  stereotyped,  because  the  ancient 
platitudes  had  given  place  to  new  fire  and  thought,  instead  of  counting  it 
God's  mercy  that  man  rises  and  could  not  be  content  with  old  forms,  they 
turned  upon  and  rended  them.  Some  men  refused  to  believe  in  a  God  of 
variety,  who  fulfilled  Himself  in  many  ways ;  they  clung  to  a  God  of 
uniformity,  who  only  fulfilled  Himself  in  one  way.  Then  from  one-sidedness 
there  came  rancour,  and  the  spirit  of  God  was  lost  in  contentions  about 
religion,  and  men  wasted  over  forms  of  faith  a  force  that  should  go  for  the 
cleansing  of  the  human  heart,  and  the  conversion  of  the  world.  It  was  not 
the  theological  dress  that  took  a  man  to  heaven,  but  the  heart  and  the  life. 
He  did  not  say  new  teachers  might  not  become  intolerant,  for  many  a  man 
seeking  to  become  broad  only  succeeded  in  becoming  narrow  ;  but  new 
teaching  sprang  out  of  the  variety  of  human  nature  itself.  The  whole  truth 
was  neither  in  their  creed  nor  in  his,  no  more  than  the  sun  was  his  because 
it  happened  to  shine  in  at  his  window.  Just  as  men  got  one-sided  views  of 
doctrine,  so  they  got  one-sided  views  of  life.  They  narrowed  life  down 
until  it  became  one-roomed,  with  no  space,  no  air,  and  no  outlet ;  and  such 
men's  lives  reminded  him  of  nothing  so  much  as  the  celebrated  symphony 
where  one  by  one  the  instruments  ceased  and  the  players  went  out  silently, 
until  at  length  but  one  was  left  amid  the  darkness,  and  on  the  otherwise 
empty  stage.     There  were  those  who  stood  upon  the  pillar  of  their  solitary 


124  ^^'^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

dogmas  and  judgments,  but  it  was  the  crowd  who  were  right,  and  they  who 
were  wrong.  They  should  not  see  how  miserable  they  could  be  and  make 
others,  but  how  happy  they  could  be,  and  how  happy  they  could  make 
others.  He  looked  back  to  the  early  days  of  the  Gospel,  and  he  heard  the 
voices  of  the  singers  at  the  feast,  and  he  thought  of  Galilee,  where  his 
Master  sat,  not  turning  rivers  into  blood,  but  water  into  wine,  for  the  joy 
and  sociality  of  men.  To  take  the  least  possible  interest  in  hfe  was  to 
reject  the  education  that  God  had  provided,  and  so  far  from  showing 
superior  piety,  it  reflected  an  ungladdened  heart.  Some  of  them  would 
presently  turn  away  perhaps  from  the  smoke  and  grime  and  the  heated 
traffic  of  cities,  for  the  first  touch  of  summer  was  already  upon  us ;  and 
when  they  did  so  let  them  remember  that  there  was  an  eternal  God  waiting 
to  commune  with  them.  Speaking  a  word  in  conclusion  to  young  men, 
he  urged  them  to  profitably  occupy  their  leisure  time.  No  one  could  deny 
that  we  were  on  the  brink  of  a  great  social  change,  for  the  air  vibrated  with 
it.  There  were  two  sorts  of  socialism — the  socialism  of  the  Devil  and  the 
socialism  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  creed  of  the  first  was  that  there  was  no 
God,  and  that  Christianity  was  an  exploded  faith ;  but  the  second  was 
capable  of  solving  every  difficulty  before  us,  and  they  might  depend  upon 
it  that  if  men  could  not  get  the  socialism  of  Christ  they  would  get  the 
sociaUsm  of  the  Devil.  If  they  as  churches  could  not  Christianise  their 
socialism,  they  could  at  least  socialise  their  Christianity.  Let  the  Church 
so  fit  itself  to  grapple  with  the  common  needs  of  a  common  everyday 
world  that  it  might  be  to  the  Church  that  all  men  should  look  for  guidance 
instead  of  to  the  atheist  lecturer. 


THE    ETHIOPIAN   EUNUCH    AND   THE    PROPHECY   OF 

CHRIST. 

By  the  Rev.  George  Adam  Smith,  M.A. 

We  take  the  following  from  a  sermon  by  the  Rev.  George  Adam  Smith, 
M.A.,  in  the  July  number  of  the  Expository  Times  : — 

As  he  returned  from  Jerusalem,  he  continued  to  read,  and  reading  lighted 
on  a  passage,  which,  however  full  of  those  truths  which  we  have  supposed  to 
have  drawn  him  to  Jerusalem,  pointed  beyond  all  that  he  had  found  there 
in  the  temple  or  in  its  system  of  worship.  This  passage  was  the  confession 
of  God's  people,  standing  over  against  not  only  God  Himself,  but  His  Ser- 
vant, with  respect  to  whom  the  confession  was  particularly  made.  It  placed 
all  the  people  on  one  side  in  trespass  and  guilt,  this  Servant  alone  on  the 
other  in  absolute  holiness.  It  owned  that,  though  holy.  He  made  the  people's 
sins  His  conscience  and  His  burden.  He  travailed  in  agony  for  them.  Thus 
in  two  respects  the  servant  was  like  God  Himself:  He  knew  no  sin;  and 
He  made  His  people's  sin  His  concern  and  His  agony.  But  the  confession 
also  declared  that  the  servant  was  to  be  in  place  of  all  those  sacrifices  for 
the  putting  away  of  sin,  which  the  living  God,  in  His  concern  for  men's 
sins,  had  instituted.  His  life  was  to  be  a  guilt-offering.  And  so  by  laying 
it  down  in  death  should  He  pass  to  be  the  people's  champion  and  ruler. 
Of  whom,  said  the  Ethiopian  to  the  teacher  God  had  sent  him  in  his 
difficulty,  of  7u  horn  did  I  he  prophet  write  this^  of  himself  or  of  another? 


The  Life  and  Principle  of  Thought.  125 

Then  Philip  opened  his  mouth,  and  began  at  the  same  Scripture,  and 
preached  unto  him  fesus.  Preached  unto  Him  Jesus  !  It  was,  of  course, 
a  history  he  told  him.  He  told  him  how  there  had  lately  appeared  within 
the  experience  of  men,  One  who  was  the  counterpart  of  the  confession  of 
God's  people  in  this  Scripture :  One  Who  did  give  Himself  out  for  the 
Servant  of  the  Lord  :  One  Who  did  know  Himself  to  be  on  one  side  and 
all  men  on  the  other :  One  Who  did  feel  that  He  lay  under  a  commission 
from  God  to  make  the  sins  of  the  people  His  conscience  and  His  cross. 
Jesus  was  holy  and  sinless,  and  was  so  accredited  of  men.  Like  God's 
own  love,  His  love  was  urgent  with  them  for  righteousness  and  truth. 
With  God's  owri  passion,  He  sorrowed  for  their  sins  and  bent  Himself  to 
bear  on  His  heart  their  misery  and  their  shame.  In  all  points  He  was 
that  living  God  Whom  the  Old  Testament  revealed — that  living  God  in 
His  holiness,  His  love.  His  passion. 

We  cannot  wonder  that  one  who  had  already  come  so  far  to  worship 
Jehovah,  proving  by  the  length  of  his  pilgrimage  and  the  obstacles  he 
overcame,  how  well  he  knew  Jehovah's  character  and  will,  should  recognise 
Jehovah  and  Jehovah's  purpose  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  be  willing  to  be 
baptized  into  Christ's  name. 

THE  LIFE  AN,D  PRINCIPLE  OF  THOUGHT. 

Notes  of  a  SermoJt 

Bv  THE  Rev.  Dr.  Patton, 

Preached  at  the  \\yd  annual '■'■  Com7nencement''''  at  Princeton  University. 

"For  the  letter  killeth,  but  the  spirit  giveth  life."— 2  COR.  iii.  6. 
Thought  is  the  mind  protest  against  materialism.  We  need  no  other. 
Language  is  thought's  portrait,  the  print  of  thought's  finger.  It  is  easy  to 
see,  therefore,  v/hy  the  study  of  language  as  distinguished  from  literature 
should  occupy  such  a  high  place  in  the  academic  curriculum.  You  may 
learn  much  psychology  from  the  Greek  preposition.  If  we  must  ha\  c  less 
grammar,  let  us  have  more  literalism.  Let  us  read  Milton  as  we  love  to 
read  him.  Give  us  the  story  of  Achilles  in  the  pages  of  Derby  and  Bryant, 
if  we  must  choose  between  an  English  translation  and  a  few  outraged 
pages  of  the  Greek  original.  Remember  that  the  thought  is  more  than  the 
word,  that  the  word  is  but  a  symbol,  a  suggestion  of  the  thought,  and 
barely  its  equivalent.  There  are  times  when  we  must  not  only  judge 
what  a  man  intends  to  say  by  what  he  says,  but  what  he  says  by  what  he 
obviously  meant  to  say.  "  Haeret  in  litera,  haeret  in  cortice."  There  is  too 
little  classical  study  of  the  purely  literary  kind  among  us.  We  either  know  as 
specialists  and  know  little  else,  or  we  know  materially  nothing.  It  is  hard 
to  unite  the  functions  of  the  general  and  the  special  scholar.  I  say 
nothing  regarding  letters  which  is  not  true  of  science  also  ;  for  the  facts 
which  a  man  of  science  handles  are  only  the  letters  with  which  he  is  trying 
to  spell  out  the  thought  embodied  in  them.  But  so  long  as  he  is  simply 
engaged  with  facts,  he  is  employed  in  business  no  better  than  solving 
Chinese  puzzles.  It  is  when  he  hits  upon  some  key  to  nature  s  cipher,  it 
is  when  he  is  using  his  facts  in  verification  of  a  hypothesis,  which  stands 
for  thought,  that  he  is  doing  work  worthy  of  scientific  fame.  Otherwise  he 
is  only  a  census  taker  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  a  cataloguer  in  the  library 


126  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

i  truth,  writing  titles  and  reading  the  back  of  books.  Let  not  the 
.  .umanist,  however,  speak  to  the  disparagement  of  science.  Behind  the 
'jnass  of  disorganised  material  there  is  a  thought,  an  idea,  a  generalisation. 
Back  of  the  syllable  of  science,  and  waiting  only  for  the  spirit  of  reverence 
for  its  enjoyment,  lies  fellowship  with  God.  We  niust  study  to  get  the 
spirit  of  the  Bible,  must  understand  the  languages  in  which  it  is  written, 
but  must  be  broad  in  our  consideration  of  it.  We  must  look  at  it  as  it  is 
written,  as  it  was  conceived.  When  I  find  men  treating  metaphor  as  fact, 
reading  poetry  as  they  would  construe  an  act  of  Congress,  seeking  a 
spiritual  sense  in  any  commonplace  expression,  missing  the  point  of  a 
parable,  I  feel  that  Matthew  Arnold  was  right  in  reminding  us  that  the 
Bible  is  literature.  But  we  should  also  remember  the  historical  conditions 
under  which  it  was  written. 

When  men  say  that  they  insist  that  the  Bible  be  taught  without  doctrine, 
I  reply  that  the  doctrines  of  the  Bible  are  often  more  important  than  much 
of  the  Bible  itself.  There  are  men  who  stand  in  our  pulpits  and  preach 
on  the  patience  of  Job  and  the  moral  courage  of  Daniel,  who  find 
material  for  sentimental  sermons  in  the  season,  and  entertaining 
sermons  in  the  serial  folios  of  the  day,  and  practical  sermons 
on  the  importance  of  sleep  or  the  need  of  restraining  the  imagina- 
tion, but  who  are  silent  respecting  the  tremendous  fact  of  sin  and  the 
dogmatic  significance  of  atoning  blood.  I  do  not  say  that  such  men  are 
handling  the  Word  of  God  deceitfully,  for  I  am  willing  to  have  them  plead 
guilty,  if  they  prefer,  of  literary  incapacity  and  an  unscholastic  stupidity 
that  prevents  them  from  seeing  that  the  bleeding  Christ  is  the  central  fact 
of  Scripture.  Let  me  beg  of  you  to  heed  the  lesson  of  the  text.  Cult!- 
vate  discrimination,  seize  upon  master  thoughts,  get  hold  of  the  big  end 
of  all  questions,  rest  your  opinions  in  broad  and  deep  rational  foundations. 

I  turn  now  to  another  distinction  suggested  by  the  text.  It  is  difficult 
to  resist  the  feeling  that  there  was  in  Paul's  mind  the  contrast  between  the 
rigid  fixity  of  the  letter  on  one  hand,  and  the  plastic  spontaneity  of  the 
,£pirit  on  the  other.  Litera  scripta  manet.  We  have  the  fixed  and  the 
variable — unbending  law  and  changing  life.  The  history  of  society,  of 
religious  opinion,  is  to  a  large  extent  the  history  of  these  factors  in  rela- 
tion to  each  other.  We  formulate  our  faith  in  creed  statements,  and  after 
a  century  or  two  find  that  the  church  and  creed  are  not  in  exact  accord. 
There  is  nothing  to  wonder  at.  It  is  the  same  old  question  of  the  letter 
and  the  spirit.  The  science  of  ethics  is  becoming  the  science  of  what  is, 
rather  than  what  ought  to  be,  and  if  a  doctrine  of  right  succeeds  at  all, 
it  is  the  doctrine  that  whatever  is  is  right.  In  the  name  of  reason,  I 
protest  against  this  tendency  in  thought.  I  refuse  to  abdicate  under  the 
terrorism  of  popular  sentiment.  Historic  movement,  as  well  as  the 
actions  of  individuals,  must  be  judged  by  fixed  principles.  We 
cannot  eliminate  doctrines  because  we  do  not  like  them,  nor 
can  we  insert  new  ones  ourselves  because  popular  clamour  calls 
for  them.  What  is  written  is  \\yitten,  but  it  will  read  with  different 
emphasis  in  different  periods,  and  will  be  interpreted  in  the  light 
of  the  burning  questions  of  these  periods,  and  will  be  brought  into  relation 
with  science  and  philosophy.  But  remember  that  if  the  letter  without  the 
life  is  dead,  the  life  needs  the  letter  to  give  law  to  its  movement.  Do  not 
hastily  assume  that  every  great  movement   is  an  inspired  movement.     I 


Enduring  Trial.  127 


have  no  faith  in  the  inspiration  of  large  masses  of  men.  The  letter 
killeth,  the  spirit  giveth  life.  Outward  rule  and  inward  principle  are  the 
two  great  agencies  that  operate  on  human  conduct  as  they  stand  contrasted 
in  the  text.  The  world,  says  Mr.  Lecky,  is  governed  by  its  ideals.  It  is 
wiiat  we  love  that  we  do  well.  I  sometimes  think  that  life  is  made  more 
burdensome  than  necessary  by  the  usual  multiplication  of  rules.  We  make 
wrong-doing  difficult  and  so  think  we  make  men  moral,  and  undoubtedly 
much  of  the  world's  morality  is  of  this  sort.  We  must  protect  the  organism 
and  at  the  same  time  labour  for  the  good  of  the  individual.  We  must 
bend  the  reed,  if  necessary  break  it,  in  order  to  save  the  man. 

ENDURING   TRIAL. 

Outline  SefDwn. 
By  Rev.  Dr.  R.  Whyte,  Edinburgh. 
"  If  thou  hast  run  with  the  footmen,  and  they  have  wearied  thee,  then  how  canst  thou 
contend  with  horses  ?  and  if  in  the  land  of  peace,  wherein  thou  trustedst,  they  wearied 
thee,  then  how  wilt  thou  do  in  the  swelling  of  Jordan?" — ^Jeremiah  xii.  5. 
This  is  Jehovah's  answer  to  Jeremiah's  complaint  of  the  severity  and 
inequality  of  His  judgment.     General  idea  is,  if  we  cannot  endure  a  light 
trial  in  God's  service,  how  shall  we  endure  the  greater  trials  almost  certain 
to  overtake  us  ?     The  argument  applies  : — 

I.  To  the  increasing  cans  and  respoisibilities  of  life. — If  religion  is  a 
weariness  in  youth  when  care  sits  lightly  on  the  brow,  and  you  have  plenty 
of  time  on  your  hands,  how  is  it  likely  to  be  more  favourably  regarded  when 
life's  stream  has  become  a  broad-breasted  river,  brimful  of  serious  care,  and 
often  overflowing  its  banks  like  Jordan  ?  when  in  the  race  with  Time  your 
step  is  ever  getting  less  elastic,  and  that  of  Time  more  swift  and  strong, 
learn  young,  learn  fair.     "  Remember  now  thy  Creator,"  &c. 

II.  To  the  strefigthening  of  evil  habits. — Our  sins  are  at  first  like  slow 
pedestrians,  but  ere  long  they  strike  out  with  the  energy  of  a  horseman.  If 
then  you  thrust  religion  aside  while  your  passions  are  not  altogether  beyond 
control,  how  will  you  be  able  to  attend  to  it  when  they  have  waxed  strong, 
and  are  galloping  with  you  as  in  some  mad  steeple-chase  to  perdition  ? 
Tennyson  speaks  of  one 

' '  That  all  in  later,  sadder  age  begins 
To  war  against  ill  uses  of  a  life, 
But  these  from  all  his  life  arise  and  cry, 
'Thou  hast  made  us  lords,  and  canst  not  put  us  down.'" 

III.  To  the  world^s  opposition. — Persecution  must  come  in  one  form  or 
another.  Look  well  to  your  foundations.  See  what  your  religion  is  worth, 
and  how  far  it  carries  you  in  these  comparatively  peaceful  times ;  for,  if 
you  cannot  endure  a  jibe,  how  could  you  face  a  gibbet? 

IV.  To  affliction. — (i)  If  you  cannot  bear  the  every-day  evils  of  hfe, 
ordinary  couriers  of  Providence,  how  could  you  contend  with  the  strong 
horses  He  holds  in  reserve  for  special  times  and  purposes — as  the  black, 
red,  and  pale  horses  of  prophecy  ?  (2)  If  you  neglect  religion  in  health, 
folly  to  presume  that  you  will  be  better  able  to  attend  to  it  sincerely  and 
thoroughly  in  sickness  ? 

V.  To  death. — The  rider  that  will  overtake  us  all — the  Jordan  all  must 
cross.  Is  that  a  time  for  calm,  collected  thought,  for  undoing  work  of  a 
lifetime,  when  shivering  on  its  brink  or  agonising  in  midst  of  its  Hows 
Christ  has  severed  it  with  His  pierced  feet.     Follow  Him. 


128  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  July  6:  LUKE  xiii.  10—17.     Golden  Text:  Matt.  xii.  12. 
The  Hypocrite  and  the  Suffering  Woman. 

You  can  scarcely  understand  how  terrible  a  burden  the  Sabbath  had 
become  under  the  teaching  of  the  Jewish  Rabbis.  God  intended  His 
Sabbath  to  be  a  rest  and  a  blessing  to  men's  bodies  and  souls.  But  the 
Pharisees  had  made  a  great  many  rules  about  it  which  God  had  never 
made.  Jesus  wanted  to  teach  them  what  it  was  that  His  Father  really 
required.  But  the  Pharisees  did  not  wish  to  be  taught,  and  nothing  made 
them  so  angry  with  our  blessed  Lord  as  to  see  that  He  did  not  approve  of 
their  foolish,  burdensome  Sabbath  laws. 

Some  of  their  laws  were  :  that  no  fire  must  be  lit,  no  food  cooked,  no 
sick  healed  on  the  Sabbath  ;  that  no  tailor  must  have  a  needle  about  him 
on  Sabbath  ;  that  insects  must  not  be  killed  on  that  day ;  and  there  were 
a  great  many  others  besides.  The  Pharisees  were  very  hard  upon  those 
who  did  not  keep  their  rules.  In  to-day's  lesson,  Jesus  loosed  a  poor  suffering 
woman  from  her  illness  on  the  Sabbath.  She  had  curvature  of  the  spine, 
and  had  been  bowed  together  for  eighteen  years.  The  ruler  of  the  syna- 
gogue was  very  angry,  because  this  work  of  love  and  mercy  was  done  on 
the  Sabbath.  Jesus  severely  reproved  this  man,  and  called  him  a 
hypocrite — that  is  a  man  who  was  acting  a  part.  He  was  disguising  secret 
enmity  under  a  pretence  of  zeal  for  the  right  keeping  of  the  Sabbath. 
This  ruler  was  not  a  bit  glad  that  the  poor  woman  was  cured.  He  thought 
nothing  of  the  wonderful  miracle  that  Jesus  wrought,  but  he  was  furious 
because  Jesus  had  not  followed  the  foolish  rules  about  the  Sabbath.  Let 
us  remember  some  things  that  God  has  told  us  about  the  Sabbath  day. 

(i)  It  is  not  our  own,  but  must  be  held  sacred  to  God:  "Ye  shall 
reverence  My  Sabbath." 

(2)  We  are  commanded  to  keep  it:  "  Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to 
keep  it  holy." 

(3)  It  is  a  day  given  for  our  own  profit,  when  we  get  free  of  every-day 
cares  and  occupations,  and  have  time  for  God. 

(4)  It  is  given  to  use  for  the  good  of  others  (Is.  Iviii.  3 — 8). 

(5)  The  keeping  of  this  day  will  bring  with  it  a  blessing  (Is.  Ivi.  2). 
The  settlers  of  New  England  reverenced  the   Sabbath   day,  and   they 

looked  upon  Saturday  as  preparation  day.  The  Lord's  Day  should  be 
looked  forward  to,  and  a  well-spent  Saturday  evening  will  contribute  to  a 
good  Sunday.  Some  Christian  families  lay  aside  secular  music  about 
eight  o'clock  in  favour  of  hymn  singing.  John  Bunyan  tells  us  that 
Christian  and  Hopeful  spent  their  Saturday  night  in  prayer  and  praise,  and 
on  the  morrow  they  were  delivered  out  of  Doubting  Castle. 
Sunday  is  the  golden  clasp  that  binds  the  volume  of  the  week. 


*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  113,  Vol.  III.]  JULY  4,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  PILOT  OF  THE  GALILEAN  LAKE. 

A  ScfJiion  by 

The  Rev.  John  McNeill. 

Preached  in  Exeter  Hall^  London,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  Jini".  i. 

St.  Mark  iv.  35—41. 

Ay,  that  is  a  remarkable  man  !     I  feel  inclined  to  ask  at  the  outset, 

do  you  know  Him  ?     What  manner  of  man  is  this,  that  even  those 

peculiarly  wild  irresponsible  elements,  the  wind  and  the  sea,  obey 

Him  ?     The  wind  ceases,  the  sea,  like  a  dog,  crouches  and  lies  at 

His  feet.     What   manner  of  man  is  this  ?     I  wonder   if   He  is 

living  still.     Is  this  man  anywhere  about  ?  for  if  we  could  only 

get  to  know  Him  and  get  hold  of  Him  what  a  vast  advantage  it 

would  be  for  one's  daily  life. 

According  to  a  great  deal  of  good  prose  and  poetry,  according  to 
actual  fact  and  experience,  life  is  a  voyage ;  life  is  a  journey  in  a 
vessel  over  these  seas  of  time  and  sin,  and  very  often  life  means 
stormy  days  and  still  more  troubled  nights.  What  a  vast 
advantage  it  would  be  if  for  one's  voyage  of  life  he  could  get  hold 
of  this  Man  Whom  even  the  winds  and  the  sea  obey. 

Well,  the  Gospel  is  just  this,  you  know — that  this  Man  still 
lives,  that  He  still  goes  about  both  sea  and  shore.  Wherever 
you  are  you  may  have  Him.  Whatever  your  trial  and  danger  may 
be  He  is  within  hail.  He  will  come  to  you.  He  will  stay  by  you. 
He  will  give  you  peace  in  3-our  heart  that  the  world  cannot  give, 
that  the  world  cannot  take  away,  that  no  storm,  not  even  the  last, 
can  possibly  disturb  if  you  will  only  let  Him  come  to  you  and  stay 
by  you. 

Now  let  us  see  how  that  is  illustrated  for  us — shall  I  say  the 
disciples  of  to-day?  for  He  wants  us  to  be  His  learners,  His 
disciples — as  it  was  illustrated  to  the  disciples  of  the  first  day.  "  Let 
us  pass  over,"  He  said,  "to  the  other  side."  Do  not  forget  that. 
We  shall  come  to  that  in  a  little.  Always  listen.  It  is  not  a  chance 
word  that  He  said.  He  knew  that  storm  was  coming,  He  knew 
that  there  was  to  be  this  blow.  He  knew  the  storm  of  fear  and 
panic  that  the  outward  storm  would  raise  within  th*-  •  breasts. 
And  knowing  all  that  was  coming  He  said,  "  Let  ■  t  to  the 
other  side."     And  they  should  not  have  forgotten  it  t  eir  very 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


sailing  order  to  set  the  boat's  head  by  this  compass — this  point  of> 
the  compass,  "the  other  side,"  and  if  they  had  only  remembered 
for  a  little  Who  He  was  it  would  have  calmed  their  fears  in  the 
midst  of  the  storm.  They  forgot  their  Shipmaster,  Who  He  was, 
and  the  sailing  orders  He  had  given.  "  The  other  side  "—let  us 
remember. 

"And  when  He  had  sent  away  the  multitude  they  took  Him 
even  as  He  was  in  the  ship  ;  and  there  were  also  with  Him 
other  little  ships."  I  would  like  to  rest  a  minute  on  that  ex- 
pression :  "  They  took  Him  even  as  He  was."  It  is  meant  just  to 
bring  Christ  near  to  us.  He  had  been  doing  a  hard  day's  work. 
From  morning  to  evening  He  had  been  toiling  and  moiling  with- 
out ceasing  for  the  best  interests  of  man,  for  their  bodies  and  for 
their  souls,  and  at  the  close  of  a  busy,  restless  day,  in  one  sense 
He  showed  Himself  to  be  just  the  same  heavenly,  homely  Saviour 
as  He  had  been  all  through  it.  He  went  with  them  in  a  boat  to 
the  other  side  just  as  He  was.  He  did  not  stand  on  ceremony. 
He  is  not  a  Saviour  who  needs  a  great  deal  of  attention.  If  He 
had,  He  would  not  have  got  it.  He  is  easy  to  put  up  with. 
Fancy  some  of  us  ministers,  when  we  go  off  on  a  day's  evan- 
gelising we  expect — and  many  times  get  what  we  expect — after 
our  day's  work  is  done.  It  happened  to  myself  last  summer.  I 
had  a  busy  day  evangelising  great  crowds  of  people.  At  the  close 
of  that  busy  day  I  did  not  go  and  stay  with  some  of  the  poor 
people  who  had  been  listening  to  us  in  the  open  air.  No,  there 
was  a  magnificent  carriage  and  a  pair  of  magnificent  horses  wait- 
ing for  me,  and  at  the  close  of  my  work  they  took  me  and  I  sank 
down  into  the  luxuriance  of  cushions  and  rugs,  and  I  don't  know 
what  all,  was  whirled  away  along  a  magnificent  avenue  to  a 
magnificent  house,  where  I  got  the  best  that  love  and  wealth 
could  pile  upon  the  board.  Well,  I  don't  say  that  you  should  not 
do  that  to  us.  I  believe  we  deserve  it,  but  I  do  say  that  if  we 
don't  get  that  kind  of  treatment  we  should  take  it  calmly,  for  our 
Master  did.  Here  was  Jesus,  and  at  the  close  of  a  splendid  day's 
work  nobody  whirled  Him  away  in  a  carriage.  He  stepped  on  to 
a  smelling  old  fishing  boat,  and  He  tottered  along  to  the  stern, 
and  subsided  down  somewhere  in  the  stern-sheets,  and  almost 
quicker  than  I  am  talking  He  was  fast  asleep ;  and  somebody  put 
the  steersman's  cushion  below  His  blessed  head,  and  whatever 
they  had  for  a  tarpaulin  was  flung  over  Him,  and  He  fell  fast 
asleep.  What  a  wonderful  Saviour  He  is.  My  friend,  it  means 
this,  that  He  will  come  to  you  if  you  ask  Him.  You  cannot  be 
too  poor  for  this  Jesus,  you  cannot  be  too  lowly  for  this  Jesus. 
Do  not  hold  j'ourself  aloof  and  "say,  "  He  may  come  to  the 
wealthy.  He  may  come  to  the  great,  He  may  come  to  the  noble, 
those  who  seem  to  be  able  to  treat  Him  as  He  should  be  treated." 
He  will  come  and  live  with  you  in  your  lodging.  He  will  live 
with  you  up  in  your  attic  near  the  stars,  or  down  in  the  sunk  flat. 


The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake. 


It  is  all  the  same  to  Him.     You  can  take  Him  as  He  is,  and  He 

will  take  you  as  you  are.  He  is  a  homely  Saviour  just  because 
He  is  so  truly  heavenly.  Whatever  the  servant  may  be,  that  is 
the  Master.  They  took  Him  even  as  He  was,  and  He  went  even 
as  He  was,  after  a  hard  day's  work,  when  He  deserved  the  very 
best,  the  best  attention  that  earth  could  have  given.  He  stepped 
on  board  that  old  boat,  and,  as  I  have  said,  tottered  along  to  the 
stern,  laid  Himself  down  and  stretched  Himself  as  you  would  do, 
and  fell  fast  asleep.  He  may  be,  and  He  is — He  is  divine  ;  when 
the  storm  blows  we  will  find  that  He  is  as  divine  as  Godhead 
can  make  Him.  But  at  this  point  He  is  as  human  as  we  are 
ourselves. 

"And  there  arose  a  great  storm  of  wind,  and  the  waves  beat 
into  the  ship  so  that  it  was  now  full."  I  like  that.  Do  not  run 
over  that.  "  There  arose  a  great  storm  of  wind,  and  the  waves 
beat  into  the  vessel  so  that  it  was  now  full."  Another  quotation 
says  that  it  was  beginning  to  sink,  and  they  were  in  jeopardy.  Now 
I  like  all  that  because  we  have  a  kind  of  notion,  have  we  not  ?  that 
remembering  Who  was  on  board  this  boat — the  Son  of  God  Who 
is  equal  with  God,  Who  holds  the  winds  in  His  fists  and  the 
waters  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand — that  although  the  storm  arose, 
and  although  the  waves  beat,  that  vessel  should  have  lived  a  kind 
of  charmed,  magical  existence,  should  have  been  as  dry  as  though 
she  had  been  on  fairy  seas,  as  though  there  had  been  no  storm. 
.  We  ought  to  have  read,  we  somehow  expect — we  ought  to  have 
read  something  like  this  :  **  The  winds  went  shrieking  through 
the  rigging,  and  the  sails  were  blown  from  the  ropes,  and  the 
waves  raised  their  crested  heads  and  dashed  themselves  against 
her  both  bow  and  stern,  but  the  vessel  in  which  Christ  and  His 
disciples  were  rode  over  the  waves  and  never  shipped  a  drop." 
We  have  a  notion  of  that  kind.  Now  I  am  glad  that  the  vessel 
did  ship  a  drop — that  she  shipped  heavily  both  bow  and  stern — 
and  was  likely  to  go  under,  because  it  is  far  more  hopeful  to  me. 
If  it  had  been  so  as  I  have  described,  you  could  not  have  got  the 
same  teaching  out  of  it.  My  friend,  we  are  apt  to  make  a  mistake. 
Your  position  and  mine  is  this:  We  have  made  common  cause 
with  Jesus,  we  have  got  to  know  what  manner  of  man  He  is,  that 
He  is  the  God-man  in  human  flesh  ;  we  believe  in  Him,  we  have 
called  on  Him,  we  have  brought  Him  on  board,  we  have  given 
all  things  into  His  hands  ;  He  is  shipmaster,  and  we  are  only 
deck  hands,  and  not  nearly  so  good  ones  as  we  might  be.  But 
we  are  sometimes  disappointed.  We  somehow  expect  that  a 
Christian  ought  to  live  a  magical  kind  of  existence,  that  troubles 
and  worries  and  frets  that  come  to  other  people  ought  not  to  come 
to  us.  Now  let  us  have  all  that  blown  out  of  us  by  the  kindly 
storm  that  is  blowing  in  our  subject,  for  that  is  all  nonsense.  Do 
not  expect  calmness  and  peace  for  evermore  because  you  have 
come  to  Christ.     Do  not  expect   that  your  life  from  the  moment 


132  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


of  your  conversion  will  be  run  along  the  lines  of  a  three-volume 
novel,  especially  at  the  end  of  it,  when  he  got  married  to  her  and 
they  lived  happily  ever  after.  Life  is  not  a  three-volume  novel. 
That  may  do  for  the  story  books,  but  it  is  not  your  life  and  mine. 
Why,  with  many  of  us  our  troubles  only  begin  when  we  become 
Christians.  We  never  had  such  ups  and  downs  as  we  have  got 
now— buffeted,  persecuted,  afflicted,  troubled  from  morning  till 
night,  emptied  from  vessel  to  vessel,  just  seeming  to  be  torn  in 
pieces,  having  far  less  of  a  kind  of  satisfaction  and  tranquillity 
than  we  used  to  have.  Now  don't  misunderstand  the  situation, 
as  I  am  often  saying.  Expect  trouble.  While  you  are  here 
you  must  have  tribulation,  and  just  because  the  world  is  the  world 
it  is  expect  that  the  worst  storms  will  blow  round  about  the 
boat  in  which  Christ  is  sailing.  If  you  are  a  Christian  look  out 
for  squalls,  only  don't  be  troubled  by  the  surliest  and  the  blackest 
of  them.  Be  wakeful,  be  vigilant ;  don't  snap  your  thumbs  and 
indulge  in  recklessness  and  bravado,  but  don't  despair;  don't 
fling  up  your  hands  and  fly  out  against  both  God  and  man.  Not 
a  hair  of  your  head  shall  perish,  so  in  patience  possess  your  souls. 
You  are  identified  with  Him  and  He  cannot  sink,  neither  can  you. 
"  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also."  God  cannot  go  down  in  the 
State  of  Florida,  as  a  little  boy  reminded  his  mother.  She  was 
crying  and  sighing,  for  she  had  left  her  husband  in  that  vessel, 
and  her  little  boy  brought  her  to  her  senses.  '*  Mamma,"  he  said, 
**  did  God  go  down  in  the  State  of  Florida  ?"  That  brought  her 
round.  No,  no,  neither  did  she,  therefore  she  was  as  safe — she 
was  where  she  always  was,  with  Him.  Our  dead  are  there,  I 
trust.     Living  or  dying  we  are  with  Him,  therefore  for  ever  safe. 

But  while  they  had  all  that  to  support  them  they  felt  the  wind,, 
they  saw  the  waves — on  came  those  great  breakers.  It  is  very 
easy  to  talk  about  it  on  a  nice  quiet  summer  afternoon,  sitting  in 
Exeter  Hall.  It  was  a  little  different  then,  when  it  was  wild  and 
bleak  with  the  lightnings  gleaming  and  the  winds  shrieking,  and 
the  cold  waters  breaking  over  them.  So  I  am  speaking  to  some 
soul  to-day  who  is  getting  good  out  of  this.  Some  of  you  people 
are  not  much  troubled,  and  you  are  hardly  in  sympathy  with  the 
subject.  But  there  is  somebody  sitting  beside  you,  and  it  is 
music  to  his  or  her  heart.  For  they  are  in  trouble.  No  small 
tempest  lies  upon  them.  They  came  in  just  in  blackness  and  dark- 
ness and  misery,  and  already— already  your  soul  is  beginning  to 
brighten,  beginning  to  grip  the  Christ,  and  you  are  beginning  to 
feel  that  Christ  is  with  you,  and  that  there  is  no  fear,  that  you 
are  not  to  despair.  Greater  is  He  that  is  for  you  than  all  this 
turmoil  and  stress  that  seems  to  be  against  you. 

Then,  what  did  they  do  ?  "  He  was  in  the  hinder  part  of  the 
ship,  asleep  on  a  pillow :  and  they  awake  Him,  and  say  unto 
Him,  'Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we  perish?'"  Now  look, 
tb.erc  He  was  lying  in  the  hinder  part  of  the  ship  asleep  on   a_ 


The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake.  133 


pillow,  and  they  rushed  upon  Him  and  wakened  Him,  and  said, 
"  Don't  you  care  that  we  perish  ?  "  Now  see  how  foolish  that 
was.  Remember  what  I  said  before.  He  had  said,  "  We  are 
going  to  the  other  side."  That  should  have  been  enough.  When 
He  says  "  the  other  side,"  all  the  winds  that  ever  raged  could 
not  prevent  them  from  reaching  that  destination.  So,  my  believ- 
ing brother,  although  you  may  be  trembling  ;  my  sister,  although 
you  may  be  shaking,  Christ  has  said  to  you  the  moment  He 
stepped  on  board  your  vessel  :  "  To  the  other  side  we  are  going ; 
we  will  cross  the  sea  ;  we  will  not  founder — to  the  other  side, 
to  the  Fair  Havens,  to  the  eternal  shore."  And  we  are  bound  to 
be  there.  Not  all  that  ever  came  out  of  the  gates  of  hell  can 
prevent  the  carrying  out  of  His  sailing  orders,  Whom  winds  and 
seas  are  bound  to  obey.  For  a  little  there  may  be  tossing  and 
heaving  and  head  winds.  That  is  only  meant  to  test  us,  to  try 
us — to  deepen  our  faith,  not  to  destroy  it.  This  is  a  poor,  poor 
story;  when  He  had  said  that  and  lay  down  asleep,  they  came 
and  rushed  upon  Him. 

Now,  I  want  you  to  notice  the  sleeping  Saviour.  Even  Jesus 
sleeping  would  have  saved  them  if  they  would  have  let  Him,  if 
they  had  only  just  calmly  rested  on  this — His  presence,  sleeping 
or  waking.  His  presence  either  in  some  big  display  of  His  power, 
or  in  the  absence  of  any  displa}^  of  His  power;  the  fact  that  He  is 
with  us,  that  is  our  safety.  Blow,  winds  ;  spout,  hurricanes  ;  but 
Christ's  presence  is  our  safety.  We  are  unsinkable— although  we 
are  not  unwettable  we  are  unsinkable  when  He  is  there,  and  the 
most  the  storm  can  do  is  to  wet  our  skins ;  He  will  not  allow  the 
cold  waters  to  go  into  our  souls  and  make  us  shiver  there.  What 
they  ought  to  have  done  was  this — they  ought  to  have  gathered 
round  about  His  sleeping  face,  and  they  ought  to  have  got  strength 
as  they  gazed  upon  Him.  And  Peter  and  John  ought  to  have 
encouraged  the  rest,  and  said,  '•  Look  at  Him,  look  at  Him,  who 
dare  disturb  Him  ?  Look  at  Him,  and  by  our  presence  there  let 
us  encourage  ourselves.  As  long  as  that  face  is  untroubled  our 
hearts  shall  be  untroubled.  Time  enough  for  us  to  rise  and  cry, 
and  tear  our  hair,  and  beat  our  breasts,  when  He  shows  the  first 
quiver  of  alarm."  And  that  would  never  be.  His  very  name  is 
peace,  He  is  our  peace,  and  they  would  have  gotten  salvation  by 
just  gathering  round  about  Him  and  devouring  Him  with  their 
eyes  and  feeding  their  hearts  by  the  sight  of  that  tranquil,  sleep- 
ing face.  Ay,  they  should  have  let  Him  lie.  It  was  sheer  un- 
belief. Your  little  faith  never  looks  well  in  the  Bible.  It  may  be 
partly  excusable,  but  always  in  the  light  of  God's  presence,  and 
God's  promise,  and  God's  power,  it  looks  feeble,  and  witless,  and 
childless.  There  He  was  sleeping,  and  they  ought  to  have  let 
Him  lie.  They  ought  to  have  gathered  round  Him,  and  said, 
*'  He  is  sleeping  because  of  a  good  conscience  ;  He  is  sleeping 
because  before  He  laid  Himself  down  He  resigned  Himself  into 


134  ^/'^  British  Weekly  Ptiipit. 

the  arms  of  His  Almighty  Father ;  and  while  He  sleeps  our  hearts 
shall  go  to  sleep  also  as  regards  fear  and  despair.  I  charge  you 
by  the  roes  and  the  hinds  of  the  field  that  ye  stir  not  up  nor  wake 
this  Christ  until  He  please."  God's  left  hand  was  under  His 
head,  and  His  right  arm  did  embrace  Him,  that  is  why  He  slept. 
My  friend,  if  you  are  sleepless  at  night,  and  troubled  during  the 
day,  maybe  this  is  the  reason,  and  maybe  the  explanation  is 
here  :  How  can  you  bear  to  sleep  at  night,  young  fellow,  if  you 
creep  into  a  Christless  bed  and  lay  your  head  upon  a  Christless 
pillow  ?  It  is  vain  for  you  to  sleep  and  rest  in  peace.  No  drugs, 
no  opiates,  will  ever  give  you  a  sound  sleep — the  sleep  of  the 
heart,  the  sleep  of  the  soul,  the  deep,  blissful,  undisturbed  peace 
that  comes  where  Christ  is,  where  Christ's  presence  is,  where  Christ 
is  trusted,  where  His  promise  is  believed  and  rested  on.  Ah,  let 
us  bring  Christ  into  our  hearts  and  into  our  lives,  and  commit 
everything  into  His  hands,  and  we  may  sing  our  souls  to  sleep.. 
Rest  your  souls  upon  Christ,  and  He  will  give  you  peace.  Take 
things  a  little  easier.  As  Christ  would  say  to  His  disciples,  so 
say  I  to  you.  There  is  no  need  to  be  rushing  upon  Him  in  this 
fashion.  It  is  not  your  faith,  it  is  your  unbelief,  that  is  urging 
you  to  rouse  Him.  If  you  had  more  faith  you  would  let  Him 
lie.  You  would  find,  as  I  said  before,  in  His  very  presence  the 
fact  that  He  lives  and  loves.  Let  us  take  it  literally  and 
physically  for  our  rest  to-night.  My  friend,  if  you  want  a  good, 
sound  sleep  to-night,  in  the  midst  of  London's  din  and  whirl  and 
turmoil,  take  Christ  into  your  heart.  Do  not  doubt,  but  believe 
Him  ;  commit  your  sins,  your  sorrows,  your  business,  your  shop, 
your  work,  your  want  of  work,  your  children  —  take  them  all  into 
His  great  big  bosom,  and  yourself  at  the  end  of  them,  and  lie 
dov,n,'and  you  will  get  rest — you  will  get  peace. 

Of  all  the  thoughts  of  God  that  are 
Borne  onward  into  souls  afar 
Along  the  Psalmist's  music  deep, 
Now  tell  me  if  there  any  is, 
For  gift  and  grace,  surpassing  this  : 
"  He  givcth  His  beloved  sleep"  ? 

It  is  a  gift  from  Christ,  my  friend,  and  you  may  enjoy  it  to-night. 
Do  not  slip  away  into  bed  to-night  without  trying  this  plan  of  a 
night's  sleep.  Close  the  day  with  Him,  and  lie  down  wuth  Him  ; 
make  His  promise  and  His  power  the  bed  on  which  you  stretcl; 
yourself  all  your  length,  and  you  will  sleep  there.  Now  may  this 
ring  into  your  ear,  and  when  you  would  go  to  bed  to-night  like  a 
brute,  may  this  appeal  fetch  you  back  and  send  you  to  rest  like  a 
believer.  I  remember  when  we  were  children  in  Scotland — chil- 
dren in  Scotland,  even  well-to-do  children,  in  the  summ.er  time, 
do  not  wear  boots  and  stockings— we  ran  about  bare-foot,  and 
thus  the  feet  were  hardened.  People  say  it  tells  upon  the  size  of 
our  feet ;  I  don't  know,  but  at  any  rate,  that  is  the  practice.     All. 


The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake.  135 

along,  from  the  month  of  April  until  the  month  of  September, 
Scotch  children — even  children  of  high  degree — many  times  run 
about  barefooted.  It  is  a  glorious  institution,  but  there  is  a  little 
trouble.  I  remember  when  night-time  came  of  course  there  is  a 
little  ceremony — it  is  more  than  a  ceremony,  the  washing  of  the 
children's  feet  before  they  lie  down.  And  I  knew  a  lad  who  used 
to  look  at  his  feet  and  convince  himself  they  were  clean  and  there 
was  no  need  to  wash  them — it  was  so  cold  to  put  them  into  the 
water — and  he  would  creep  away  into  his  bunk,  only  to  have  his 
father  come  after  him  and  haul  him  out  again  and  get  his  feet 
washed.  My  friends,  do  you  see  the  point  ?  Is  it  possible  that 
any  of  you  go  and  lie  down  at  night  unwashed  ?  Do  you  lie  down 
at  night  without  a  prayer,  without  a  word  said  to  God,  without  a 
single  confession  of  sin  or  one  single  request  for  Heaven's  pardon 
and  Heaven's  peace  ?  Be  ashamed  of  yourself  to  go  to  bed  like  a 
dog  among  its  straw !  For  God's  sake  and  your  own  cease  such 
blank  atheism  and  infidelity !  Christ  is  our  example  everywhere, 
and  there  He  is  a  grand  example  in  the  midst  of  trouble  and  trial 
and  turmoil.  Don't  be  looking  ahead,  and  don't  be  casting  up 
troubles  for  yourself,  and  don't  cross  the  bridge  before  you  come 
to  it ;  but  lie  down  there  and  sleep,  and  leave  God  to  look  after 
His  own  universe.  Believe  me,  London  will  not  go  to  the  dogs 
or  the  devil  if  you  sleep.  It  will  walk  alone  without  you,  and  get 
on  first  rate  :  nothing  will  burn  or  boil  over  if  you  take  a  sound 
sleep.     He  did  it,  so  may  we. 

But  look  at  their  prayer,  *'  Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we 
perish  ?  "  Oh  what  an  unbelieving  cry — almost  blasphemy. 
"  Dost  Thou  not  care  ?  "  Now  that  is  what  unbelief  is.  How 
many  hearts  here  think  that,  only  you  would  not  just  put  it  that 
way,  because  there  is  no  actual  storm,  and  you  are  not  in  an 
actual  boat  on  an  actual  lake.  But  does  not  God  sometimes  see 
it  in  our  hearts.  0  God,  dost  Thou  not  care  for  me  ?  With  all 
that  Thou  art,  and  all  that  Thou  hast  said,  and  all  that  Thou  hast 
promised,  and  all  that  Thou  hast  led  me  to  expect  here,  with  the 
great  yawning  gulf  before  me  and  everything  riding  roughshod 
over  me,  it  sometimes  comes  to  that.  The  disciples  thought 
it  had  come  to  that — "  Dost  Thou  not  care  ?  "  Get  up.  Does  it 
look  well  ?  No,  you  say,  it  looks  hideous,  it  looks  ugly,  it  looks 
as  ugly  in  you,  my  friend,  as  it  did  here.  Your  unfaithfulness 
and  mine  have  just  the  same  senseless,  ugly  look.  They  should 
have  come  and  gathered  round  Him  and  said,  "  So  long  as  He 
does  not  waken,  it  is  all  right ;  the  boat  never  was  built  that 
could  sink  along  with  Him,  the  storm  was  never  brewed  that 
could  send  Him  to  the  bottom  ;  and  if  we  should  get  to  the 
bottom,  we  will  walk  along  the  bottom  and  get  to  shore  that 
way."  It  is  bound  to  come  right,  anyway.  No,  my  friends, 
all  is  not  lost,  and  you  ought  not  to  go  and  say,  "  God, 
dost  Thou  not  care  that  I  perish  ?  "     And  may  be  in  the  heart  of 


136  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

some  young  fellow  here,  there  is  a  great  storm  of  lust  and  passion, 
tearing  through  your  flesh  and  tearing  through  your  soul,  and 
your  body  is  like  to  go  to  pieces,  body  and  soul  like  to  be  swallowed 
up  in  the  awful  sea  of  London's  iniquity,  and  sometimes  you  could 
almost  stand,  could  not  you,  and  say,  "  God  has  forgotten  me. 
God  has  gone  to  sleep  and  left  me  to  stand  outside  in  the  city  of 
night,  God  has  shut  me  out  of  His  regard."  My  friend,  it  is  not 
true.  You  will  not  perish.  If  you  are  trusting  in  Him  ever  so 
little,  there  shall  not  a  hair  of  your  head  perish.  Therefore,  trust 
Him  more,  and  no  matter  how  great  may  be  the  storm  that 
whistles  through  your  rigging,  just  say  where  you  sit,  "  The 
preacher's  right.  I  am  going  to  trust  Jesus  Christ,  He  will  see 
me  through.  Sin,  the  world,  devil  and  the  flesh  are  making  a 
tremendous  assault  upon  me,  and  they  have  done  me  a  lot  of 
damage.  This  rope  is  blown  away,  and  this  other  timber  has 
sprung  a  leak,  and  I  am  terribly  water-logged.  I  am  not  at  all 
sound,  but  I  hail  the  great  Pilot  of  the  awful  maze.  0  Christ,  I 
hail  Thee.  I  see  Thee  walking  on  the  seas.  Man  ahoy  !  "  Call  ' 
for  Him.  Do  not  perish  for  lack  of  a  cry,  and  He  will  come  to 
you,  and  He  will  board  your  boat,  and  He  will  rescue.  He  will 
tread  the  waves  into  stiffness  beneath  His  feet,  and  you  and  He 
shall  be  at  the  land  whither  you  go.  Do  not  fear,  brother.  Trust 
Him,  sister.  Trust  Him  young  or  old,  rich  or  poor,  especially  if 
you  are  like  to  go  to  pieces.  Trust  Him,  and  you  will  not  go  to 
pieces.  You  will  be  saved — you  will  be  saved  to-day.  Your  crazy 
bark  is  whirling  like  a  nutshell  in  the  sea,  but  ask  Him  to  be  your 
Saviour,  and  He  will,  and  according  as  you  trust  Him  so  will  be 
your  peace.  According  to  your  faith  in  Him  shall  be  the  peace 
or  dispeace  of  your  heart. 

"And  He  arose,  and  rebuked  the  wind,  and  said  unto  the  sea, 
Peace,  be  still.  And  the  wind  ceased,  and  there  was  a  great 
calm."  Time's  up.  I  want  to  ask  a  question.  That  was  a 
miracle  ;  do  you  believe  it  ?  That  is  what  the  Lord  asked  me 
before  I  began  to  preach.  Before  I  began  to  preach  this  subject 
the  Lord  whispered  in  my  ear,  and  said,  "  Preacher,  you  are 
living  in  the  far  end  of  the  nineteenth  century."  "Yes,  my 
^Master.  What  of  that  ?  "  Then  said  my  Master,  "  The  nine- 
teenth century  says  that  natural  law  would  be  interfered  with, 
that  when  a  storm  begins  to  blow  it  blows  out,  and  when  a  boat 
gets  full  of  water  it  sinks,  and  drowns  the  people,  and  there  is  no 
power^anywhere  to  still  the  tempest  and  to  rescue  perishing  men. 
Now,"  said  my  Master  before  I  preached  it,  "preacher,"  He  said 
to  me,  "  before  beginning  to  preach  that  miracle,  that  story  of 
My  supernatural  self  and  My  supernatural  power,  do  you  believe 
It  ?  "  That  is  the  point.  Just  as  well  to  ask  it  broad  out,  "  Do 
you  believe  it  ?  Do  you  believe  that  there  is  a  Being  living  who 
can  say  to  the  wild,  irresponsible  wind,  *  Peace,  be  still,'  who  can 
say  to  these  ruffian  billows,  curling  their  crests  down  to  swamp 
you,  '  Be  still '  ?  " 


The  Pilot  of  the  Galilean  Lake.  137 

Do  you  believe  it  ?  Well,  there  are  many  whose  names  are 
great  in  science  who  do  not  believe  it  and  other  miracles  like  it. 
They  talk  about  "  the  Gadarean  pig  affair."  Do  you  believe  it  ? 
What  is  the  use  of  standing  here  and  pronouncing  the  bene- 
diction, and  letting  you  off  to  talk  about  my  sermon  and  how  I 
got  on  ?  That  is  not  the  point.  Do  you  believe  it  ?  Do  you 
know  Him  ?  Have  you  believed  Him  ?  Have  you  called  Him 
in  ?  That  is  the  point.  If  He  lives,  do  you  know  where  He 
lives?  Do  you  know  how  to  get  Him  for  all  that  He  is  worth  ? 
That  is  the  point.  Now  some  of  us  know  Him.  "  What 
manner  of  Man  is  this  ?  "  We  can  answer  that  as  the  disciples  at 
a  later  day  answered  it :  "  He  is  the  Lord  Jesus,  the  God  of 
heaven  and  earth,  who  died  for  our  sins  upon  the  cross,  who 
braved  that  tempest,  and  all  other  tempests  are  but  summer  com- 
pared with  that.  He  has  carried  us  through  that  storm  of  dark- 
ness on  Calvary,  and  He  will  carry  us  through  all  others."  What 
manner  of  Man  is  it  ?  He  is  the  God-Man,  Jehovah.  David 
saw  Him  in  spirit  centuries  before,  when  he  sang  the  Psalm, 
"  O  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  who  is  like  unto  Thee,  or  to  Thy  faith- 
fulness round  about  Thee  ?  Thou  rulest  the  raging  of  the  sea ; 
when  the  waves  arise  Thou  stillest  them."  He  is  our  peace  in 
life,  or  death,  or  judgment,  or  eternity — our  peace.  Some  time  > 
ago,  on  the  north-east  coast  of  Scotland,  a  vessel  was  overtaken 
by  the  night  and  the  storm.  She  was  in  danger  of  being  driven 
on  a  spit  of  land  there  on  the  lee  shore.  It  was  seemingly 
impossible  to  weather  that  spit  of  land.  She  must  be  caught  on 
the  rock  there.  All  hope  had  gone.  The  master  of  the  vessel 
was  up  upon  the  top,  and  as  he  kicked  off  his  sea  boots  a  tear 
started  into  his  eye  as  he  thought  of  the  brief  battle  with  the 
waves,  the  drowning,  the  sadness  that  would  be  in  the  little  town 
inland  when  his  battered  corpse  was  taken  to  his  widow  and  his 
orphan  child.  But  just  before  the  vessel  would  strike,  this  old 
story  struck  upon  his  mind,  and  he  thought  he  would  give  it  a 
trial.  He  went  down  into  his  cabin,  and  he  was  heard  crying 
above  the  darkness  and  the  storm  to  this  Pilot  of  the  Galilean 
lake,  "  O  Lord,  give  us  two  points,  only  two  points,  and  we  will 
weather,  we  will  clear."  He  came  up  on  deck.  As  he  prayed  so 
it  happened.  The  wind  had  shifted  two  points.  That  was  all 
that  w^as  needed.  You  may  account  for  it ;  scientists  may  say  it 
was  going  to  shift  anyway.  That  is  very  feeble.  The  wind 
shifted  two  points.  It  was  all  they  needed.  The  boat  cleared 
the  spit  of  land,  and  soon  she  rose  and  fell  on  the  open  sea.  I 
believe  that.  Do  you  believe  this  Christ  ?  Do  you  believe  that 
He  has  all  power,  that  He  is  able  to  calm  the  sea  every  day  ?  i 
believe  more  than  that.  I  believe  that  if  the  prayer  had  not  been 
heard,  if  the  boat  had  struck,  and  if  that  captain  had  been 
drowned,  he  would  only  have  found  the  moment  his  spirit  left  his 
water-logged  boat  he  would  have  found  that  his  prayer  had  been 


138  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

answered  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  he  could  ask  or 
think.  His  soul  would  have  entered  into  a  peace  compared  with 
which  the  peace  of  a  sunlit  air  or  a  moonlit  sea  is  a  poor  symbol 
and  figure  indeed.  And  as  for  the  wife  and  child,  there  is  nothing 
that  God  is  better  acquainted  with  than  looking  after  a  widow  and 
her  children,  is  there  ?  There  would  have  been  no  loss,  take  it 
any  way  you  please.  Commit  things  into  His  hands,  and  then 
good-bye  to  fear.  "  Fear  not,  I  am  with  thee."  When  thou 
walkest  through  the  floods,  and  the  great  storms  come,  in  life,  or 
death,  or  judgment,  or  eternity,  make  common  cause  with  Him., 
and  then  His  destiny  is  your  destiny,  for  ever  and  for  ever.  May 
the  Lord  strengthen  us  by  this  portion  of  His  own  Word.  Amen. 


PULPIT  PRAYERS. 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clifford. 

Opening  Prayer. 

O  God,  Thou  art  glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders. 
Help  us  that  we  may  worship  Thee  in  the  beauty  of  holiness,  that  there 
may  be  perfect  accord  between  our  spirit  and  Thine.  Cleanse,  we  beseech 
Thee,  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts  by  the  inspiration  of  Thy  Spirit,  that  our 
service  may  be  truly  inward,  a  service  of  fahh  and  hope,  affection  and  peni- 
tence, of  yearning,  and  of  aspiration.  Let  the  outgoings  of  our  soul  be 
acceptable  in  Thy  sight,  O  Lord,  our  strength  and  our  Redeemer.  Our 
life  is  a  continual  cry  unto  Thee.  Thou  art  our  soul's  true  refuge.  'Tis 
as  Thou  dost  give  us  Thy  strength  and  quicken  us  by  Thy  power,  and  we 
become  partakers  of  Thy  nature,  that  our  life  has  worth  in  it,  beauty,  noble- 
ness, and  serviceableness.  Come,  then,  we  beseech  Thee,  O  God,  to  each 
one  of  us.  Be  not  strange  to  any  heart.  Let  us  know  Thee,  and  be  so 
perfectly  sure  of  Thee  that  our  life  shall  be  steadfast  with  Thy  calm  and 
heroic  with  Thy  patience.  Hear  us,  O  God  !  Help  us  that  our  worship 
in  all  its  parts  may  be  of  the  heart,  an  acceptable  service  because  inspired 
by  Thyself,  and  made  full  of  the  reality  which  comes  from  Thy  indwelling. 
We  look  for  this.  We  gather  together  so  that  we  may  help  one  another  in 
realising  this  blessedness.     Be  Thou  gracious  to  us,  and  all  will  be  well. 

Amen. 
Prayer  before  Sermon. 

Our  Father,  Thou  hast  made  known  to  us  that  Thy  glory  is  our  delight. 
It  is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  do  honour  to  Thee.  Thou  hast  heard  the  voice 
of  our  supplication,  Thou  hast  granted  unto  us  the  satisfaction  of  our 
purest  and  best  desires,  and  thereby  hast  created  in  Thyself  a  faith  that  is 
unshakable,  a  liope  that  can  never  be  put  out.  We  give  Thee  thanks,  our 
Father,  because  Thou  dost  bring  us  into  Thy  presence  :  sustained  by  this 
expectation  and  confidence,  we  rejoice  that  we  are  not  groping  after  Thee, 
if  haply  we  may  find  Thee,  but  that  in  us  there  is  the  fulf  assurance  of 
understanding,  the  full  assurance  of  faith  that  Thou  art,  and  that  Thou 
art  the  Rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  Thee.  Thou  hast  made  us, 
and  Thou  wilt  not  disappoint  us.  Thou  hast  made  us  to  attain  to  Thine 
image  and  likeness,  and  Thou  wilt  not  be  frustrated  in  Thy  great   and 


Pulpit  Prayers.  139 


glorious  purpose,  but  throughout  the  ages  Thou  wilt  work  at  it  as  Thou  hast 
been  working  in  the  past;  and  though  the  vessel  has  dropped  again  and  again 
out  of  the  Potter's  hands,  yet  Thou  hast  picked  it  up,  and  put  it  once  more 
to  the  wheel.  Thou  art  still  working,  and  shalt  fashion  humanity,  so  that 
on  it  shall  be  chased  all  the  figures  of  Thine  own  beauty  and  loveliness, 
and  in  which  shall  dwell  the  essence  of  Thine  own  Spirit.  Help  us,  our 
Father,  that,  rejoicing  in  that  blessed  anticipation,  we  may  be  steadfast, 
immovable,  doing  the  work  Thou  hast  put  close  to  our  hand  with  a  con- 
fidence that  never  falters,  and  with  a  heroism  that  never  fails  before  the 
foe.  We  give  Thee  thanks,  our  God,  because  Thou  dost  renew  our  faith, 
Thou  restorest  our  soul,  Thou  leadest  us  in  the  paths  of  righteousness  for 
Thy  name's  sake,  because  it  is  a  delight  to  Thee  to  see  men  in  righteous 
paths;  and  Thou  hast  no  greater  joy  than  in  reclaiming  the  fallen, 
in  setting  men  on  their  feet  again,  with  their  faces  Godward  and  their 
hearts  full  of  the  great  hope.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  renewals  we 
have  experienced.  Verily  our  conflicts  between  ourselves  and  our  world 
often  damp  our  ardour  and  make  our  zeal  to  cool,  and  fill  us  now  and 
again  with  despair  :  but  Thou  dost  come  to  us  in  our  darkness  and  gloom, 
and  make  even  the  mockings  of  our  friends  and  enemies  to  become  helps 
into  Thy  presence,  and  impulses  to  seek  the  sight  of  Thy  redeeming,  Thy 
glorious.  Thy  uplifting  countenance.  Our  Father,  we  bless  Thee  that  art 
so  good  to  us.  O  that  we  were  more  grateful,  that  our  hearts  were  truer  in 
their  beat,  that  there  were  in  us  a  greater  trust  in  Thyself,  and  truer  con- 
secration to  Thy  ser\-ice,  assured  that  the  righteous  man  shall  hold  on  his 
way,  and  he  that  hath  clean  hands  must  become  stronger  and  stronger.  O 
God,  speak  to  doubting  and  dejected  men  here  this  morning  the  word  that 
is  new  faith,  the  word  that  is  new  life.  Thou  listenest  to  us  in  our  dejec- 
tion, Thou  comest  to  us  when  we  are  on  the  top  of  our  mounts  of  trans- 
figuration. Thou  wouldst  be  with  us  always,  not  only  in  the  sunnier  moods 
of  our  life,  but  in  the  cold  winter  of  our  discontent.  Help  us,  that  we  may 
not,  by  our  want  of  confidence  in  Thee  and  Thy  redeeming  purpose, 
banish  Thee  from  our  hearts,  but  may  give  Thee  such  free  access  to  our 
souls  that  there  shall  be  no  place  in  us  for  anything  that  is  devihsh.  O 
God,  wilt  Thou  reward  the  work  that  we  offer  to  Thee  this  day  in  other 
hearts  yet,  and  make  our  labour  to  be  fruitful  in  other  souls  ?  Thou  hast 
put  into  us  the  passion  of  the  Cross.  Thou  hast  made  Christ's  inner 
yearning  for  the  redemption  of  mankind  our  own.  We  adore  Thee  for 
this  greatest  gift.  Thou  hast  helped  us  to  arm  ourselves  with  His  mind, 
and  our  deep  desire  is  that  Thy  kingdom  may  come,  that  our  fellow- men 
may  know  Thee  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  Thou  hast  sent,  so  that  they  may 
know  Thee,  that  they  may  through  Him  know  more  of  Thee,  Thy  charac- 
ter and  purpose  concerning  them.  Lord  God,  give  free  course  to  our 
message  and  to  our  life  ;  let  it  enter  the  heart  that  needs  it ;  give  it,  we 
beseech  Thee,  such  potency  Divine  as  that  it  shall  be  felt  to  come  with  the 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit,  and  therefore  with  the  power  that  saves.  We 
thank  Thee  that  Thou  dost  give  unto  us  Thy  Son  Jesus  Christ,  that  He  is 
with  us  to-day  as  in  all  the  past,  and  that  we  may  be  as  sure  of  Him  as 
Paul  was.  Wilt  Thou  accomplish  this  in  any  heart  that  has  misgiving  and 
doubt  to-day  ?  O  divinest  Preacher,  preach  Thou.  O  Thou,  whose  Word 
is  Light,  always  Light,  O  let  Thy  ^Vord  have  full  play  upon  any  heart  and 
mind  that  has  doubting  and  misgiving  concerning  Thee,  so  that  the  rest 
which  Thou  offerest  to  those  who  sincerely  seek  Thee  may  be  obtained, 


140  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

and  that  strength,  without  which  life  cannot  be  thoroughly  and  nobly 
lived,  may  now  come. 

Remember  the  desolate  :  be  Thou  their  companion.  Sit  Thou  by  the 
bedside  of  the  weary  and  sad-hearted.  Minister  Thou  of  Thy  sweet  con- 
solation to  those  in  acutest  pain.  Let  hearts  that  are  bereft  of  earth's  joys 
fmd  the  cup  of  Thy  benediction  fuller  than  ever.  May  those  who  are 
wayward  and  wilful,  and  will  not  surrender  themselves  to  Thine  authority,  see 
how  blessed  it  is  to  accept  the  highest  and  the  best  ruling  of  life,  and  what 
peace,  what  power,  what  heavenliness,  come  to  such  as  are  in  Thy  king- 
dom and  Thy  kingdom  in  them. 

Remember,  we  beseech  Thee,  those  who  utter  no  prayer  for  themselves, 
whose  thoughts  about  God,  if  ever  they  come  to  them,  come  as  something 
strange,  and  perplexing,  and  irritating,  to  be  got  rid  of  as  soon  as  possible. 
Father,  we  beseech  Thee,  help,  so  that  everywhere  man  may  welcome  no 
thought  with  so  much  heartiness  as  the  thought  of  his  God,  his  Father  in 
heaven  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ.  O  hasten  the  day  when  all  evil  and 
misleading  and  mischievous  conceptions  of  Thy  character  and  work  shall 
be  banished  from  our  earth,  and  when  nothing  but  the  light  which  shines 
from  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  which  is  in  accord  therewith,  shall  beam 
through  the  eyes  of  man  into  his  inmost  soul. 

We  beg  this  for  the  sake  of  lost  men,  and  in  the  name  of  Him  who 
came  to  be  the  Redeemer  of  the  whole  human  race.     Amen. 

Concluding  Prayer. 

O  God,  our  God,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  who  didst  speak  unto  men  in 
times  past  by  prophets,  who  has  spoken  unto  us  in  these  later  days  by  the 
clear,  strong,  helpful  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  speak  now  !  speak,  Lord,  for 
Thy  servant  heareth  !  Thou  didst  speak  to  Samuel,  speak  to  us,  to  any  heart 
that  is  saying,  O  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  Him,  O  that  I  might  be 
sure  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  thus  be  sure  of  God.  Father,  Thou  art  our 
Teacher,  we  open  heart  and  mind  to  Thee.  Give  us  Thy  blessing : 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


There  is  no  possible  harmony  for  a  man  till  there  is  union  between  him 
and  the  Lord  God.  The  great  heaven  will  be  like  a  vast  orchestra — many 
instruments,  and  of  various  kinds,  but  one  great  harmony. 

God  has  made  all  things  in  the  communion  of  reciprocal  use ;  all  things 
help  one  another.  It  is  so  with  "  spirits  made  perfect ;  "  were  it  so  here, 
there  would  be  a  commonwealth  of  happiness. 

"  They  crucified  the  Son  of  God  afresh."  And  so  it  is  that  if  any  one 
is  doing  what  Christ  did,  and  the  people  around  are  all  ill-treating  him, 
they  are  crucifying  afresh  the  Son  of  God. 

Has  not  Christ  been  thus  crucified  ever  since  the  world  began  ;  crucified 
when  Isaiah  was  sawn  asunder ;  crucified  in  London  to-day  ;  crucified  all 
the  world  over  ? 

Do  we  ask,  What  kind  of  a  world  is  this?  The  answer  is.  It  crucified 
Christ? 

The  crucifixion  of  Christ  is  a  grand  expression  of  two  things  :  the  deadly 
opposedness  of  sin  to  goodness  ;  and  of  God's  love  to  the  uttermost. 


Fragments.  141 


PRAISEWORTHY    DISCONTENT. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  Alisert  Lee. 

"  These  all  died  in  faith,"  &c. — Hi:i:.  xi.  13— 16. 

An  unambitious  world  an  undesirable  spectacle,  e.g.,  the  African  Central 
States,  &c.  The  mischief  of  indifference  to  this  world's  affairs.  Still  more 
to  things  of  godliness. 

I.  There  is  a  prnisrioorihy  discontent. — A  sin  to  be  spiritual,  mental, 
or  moral  lotus-eaters.  Instances  of  what  the  world  owes  to  a  right  discon- 
tent :  improvements  in  science,  &c.,  &:c.  No  impiety  to  attempt  to  better 
our  lot.  Bad  to  be  a  spiritual  "  hanger-on."  Noble  mission  of  ambition. 
Caution  :  not  to  scowl  on  world  and  want  to  be  away. 

II.  T/ie  true  Christian  ambition. — Perfect,  like  Christ.  Therefore  to 
go  through  this  world  to  better  country. 

III.  What  -ivill  the  better  country  be  ? — (i )  A  place  of  completion  of  un- 
finished earthly  work,  "The  New  Jerusalem  will  absorb  all  that  was 
excellent  and  heaven-like  in  the  Old."  There  we  reach  our  best — perfected 
in  Christ.     (2)  There  we  regain  all  that  was  lost  by  fall. 

IV.  The  spirit  needed  in  looking  for ivard. — (i)  Discontent  with  short- 
comings. (2)  Discontent  to  merely  gain  entrance.  Think  of  an  artist  of 
first-rate  ability  content  with  mediocrity.  (3)  Spirit  of  courage.  Courage 
wanted  here  for  business,  &c.,  especially  for  Christian  fight.  "  And  I  must 
fight,  if  I  would  conquer." 

FRAGMENTS. 

Outlifte  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  Seward. 

"  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." — St.  John'  vi.  12. 

Worthy  of  Son  of  God?  (John  {,3;  Heb.  i.  2,3),  of  Christ?  of  "unsearch- 
able riches?"  able  to  feed  5,000?  Yes!  For  two  poles  of  Creative 
Providence  : — limitless  supply — impossibility  of  waste.  Shuddering  dread 
of  loss  makes  Him  Saviour.  Spirit  of  His  Tvhole  work,  "  Gather  up,"  &c. 
His  words,  vital  principles.  Then,  gather  up— (i)  Fragments  of  time  and 
powers  for  service.  (2)  Of  Divine  Image  in  own  souls  and  others.  (3)  Of 
own  Church's  agencies  and  influence.     (4 )  Of  Bread  of  Life. 

I.  [a)  Time. — Increasing,  inexorable  demands  of  material  side  of  life, 
leave  time  fragmentary.  But  He  accepted  widow's  mite.  Encourages 
even  the  most  aged  to  consecrate  remainder,  [b)  Powers,  dwarfed  by 
great  givers,  preachers,  workers,  societies,  "  forward  movements,"  &c. 
But  Christ,  and  world,  need  ever-present  eyes,  hearts,  tongues,  hands, 
good  Samaritans,  anointing  Magdalens,  expounding  Philips. 

II.  0/ Divine  Image. — {a)  In  own  souls.  Evidenced  by  will,  purpose, 
achievement,  lo\-e,  indignation  at  wickedness,  sympathies  with  right, 
truth,  beauty,  goodness.     Soul  hunger,  instinct  of  sonship,  "I  will  arise,' 


142  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


&c.  (Cf.  iii.  3  with  text.)  {b)  In  others.  Scathing  world.  All  with 
histories,  yearnings,  struggles,  failures.  Some  backsliders,  doubters,  many 
sick  of  sin,  all  needing  help,  example.  Some  will  never  be  gathered,  prob- 
ably, if  not  by  ourselves.  Would  be  better  workers  than  we,  e.g.,  comparison 
of  Peter  and  Andrew. 

III.  Church  Agencies.— Qn  the  one  hand,  proportion  of  non-attendants 
and  lukewarm  hearers  to  faithful  few  on  the  other.  "  Fre€  lances."  Are 
individual  time  and  talents.  Fragments,  Church  will  "  gather  them  up," 
discover,  develop,  afford  field. 

IV.  OJ  Bread  of  Life, — Comment  briefly  on  verses  27,  33,  35,  38—40, 
56>S7- 


MAKING  LIGHT  OF  THE  GOSPEL. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  R.  Brewin. 

"  But  they  made  light  of  it,  and  went  their  ways." — St.  IMatt.  xxii.  5. 

In  the  parable  from  which  these  words  are  taken,  we  have  a  very  pleasant 
picture  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  It  is  compared  to  a  Royal  Marriage 
Festival,  not  to:  [a)  A  funeral,  where  the  real  sorrow  of  the  few  overshadows 
all  with  gloom,  {h)  A  famine,  where  possibly  some  food,  but  scarce. 
Illus. — Long  voyage ;  last  biscuits  served  out.  Besieged  city  :  poor 
family ;  thin  slices,  (r)  A  common  meal,  with  merely  plain  and  sufficient 
food.  But  to  :  (i)  A  feast :  food  rich,  various,  and  more  than  abundant. 
{2)  A  marriage  feast.  Christ  gives  joy  as  well  as  satisfaction.  Christ  at 
Cana  of  Galilee.  (3)  A  royal  marriage  feast ;  "a  certain  king,"  difference 
in  food,  servants,  company,  accessories — music,  &c.,  cost.  Caligula's  great 
banquef.  Coronation  of  English  sovereigns.  (4)  For  us.  Crowd  round 
doors  of  banqueting  hall.  No  invitation  to  enter.  We  are  all  .invited. 
(5)  It  isready,  seeProv.  ix.  I,  2.  London  banquet.  Hundreds  assembled. 
Caterer  had  forgotten  the  day  ;  nothing  ready.  No  disappointment  here. 
Notwithstanding  all  this  great  provision,  however — 

Proposition  I. — Many  persons  to  whom  the  Gospel  invitation  is  sent 
make  light  of  it,  and  go  their  v/ays.  Even  to-day.  Who  are  they  ? 
(i)  Those  who  will  not  listen  to  the  message  (Matt.  xiii.  15).  Letters 
returned,  "Refused."  Ancient  steel  armour  in  Tower.  Arrows  of  truth 
blunted:  sword  of  the  Spirit  glances  off.  Inattentive  hearers.  {2) 
Those  who  hear  the  Gospel  with  attention,  and  then  treat  it  as  though 
ihey  had  not  heard  it.  "Is  it  nothing  to  you?"  An  Indian  heard 
Gospel  thirteen  times.  Cut  notch  in  tree.  Self-reproach.  "Not  yet 
saved."  If  twenty-one  years  old,  liave  had  three  years  of  sabbaths,  42  six 
years.  (3)  Those  who  promise  to  come,  but  never  come,  see  Matt.  xxi. 
28 — 31.  "  I  go,  sir,  but  went  not"  :  some  hearers'  lives  one  life-long  pro- 
mise— broken.  (4)  Those  who  make  excuses  for  their  absence;  an  ex- 
cuse is  a  polite  lie.  God  is  not  deceived.  They  said  they  could  not 
come  ;  He  wrote  (ver.  3)  "  They  would  not  come."  You  do  not  want  to 
come.  (5)  Those  who  intend  to  fill  themselves  with  the  pleasures  of  sin 
first,  and  come  to  Christ  last  of  all.     Felix:  Lord  convert  me,  but  not 


Christ  Our  Life.  143 


now.     All  these  persons  make  light  of  Christ,  and  of  His  great  salvation. 
Are  we  among  them  ? 

Proposition  II. — To  make  light  of  Christ  and  of  His  salvation  is  unwise, 
unkind,  and  unsafe,  (i)  It  is  unwise;  are  the  blessings  of  salvation 
worthless  ;  are  they  not  of  infinite  value  ;  is  Christ  a  friend  to  be  refused, 
despised;  is  there  any  other  way  of  salvation?  (2)  It  is  unkind;  has 
Christ  thus  made  light  of  you?  Ye  know  the  grace,  &c.  A  prodigal  son 
robs  his  employers  ^5,000.  To  save  him,  his  father  sells  all  he  has,  be- 
comes poor  to  pay  the  debt.  Is  such  self-sacrifice  a  thing  to  be  made 
light  of?  Love  of  Christ.  (3)  It  is  unsafe,  Heb.  iii.  3  ;  no  other  name. 
Conclusion.     What  will  you  do  ?     Message  waits.     Will  you  come  in  ? 


CHRIST   OUR   LIFE. 

Outline  Sermon. 
By  the  Rev.  P.  MeArns. 

"To  me  to  live  is  Christ." — PliiL.  i.  21. 

Paul  looked  at  both  worlds.  On  his  way  to  Damascus,  the  Lord  appointed 
his  mission.  Suddenly  his  eyes  were  opened  to  see  the  littleness  of  time 
and  the  greatness  of  eternity ;  and  from  that  time  his  whole  soul  was  bent 
on  the  accomplishment  of  his  mission.  Christ's  will  must  rule.  "  What 
wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do?  " 

I.  Christ  is  the  source  of  our  life. — John  (i.  4)  said,  "  In  Him  was  life, 
and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men."  We  are  quickened  by  his  grace — in- 
strument His  Word  and  Spirit. 

II.  The  support  of  our  life. — "  I  live,"  said  Paul,  "  and  yet  no  longer  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me."  He  is  the  vine  from  which  the  vital  sap  circu- 
lates to  all  the  branches.  He  who  drinks  of  water  from  Christ  shall  never 
thirst. 

III.  The  rule  of  our  life. — Good  men  set  example,  not  perfect.  Jesus 
said,  "  I  have  set  example,  do  as  I  have  done."  Holiness  is  attractive  in 
His  life,  as  even  unrenewed  men  own  His  life  a  moral  wonder  in  a  sinful 
vi'orld.  We  are  sanctified  by  the  Spirit,  but  Jesus  is  our  pattern.  By  His 
atonement  He  opened  the  way  to  life,  and  by  His  example  He  has  shown 
us  the  Divine  attributes  which  we  are  to  imitate,  if  we  would  enter  into  holy 
happiness.     Run,  "looking  to  Jesus." 

IV.  The  motive  of  our  life. — Jesus  said,  "I,  if  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  Me."  The  cross  moves  as  nothing  else  does.  It 
has  stirred  the  depths  of  emotion  in  the  human  heart,  and  has  moved  even 
feeble  women  to  daring  and  self-denial. 

V.  Christ  is  the  aim  of  our  life. — Wc  yield  to  the  motive,  and  make  His 
honour  and  advancement  of  his  cause  our  aim.  Not  rapture  of  hour — 
record  of  life.     Praise  by  lives — a  daily  psalm.     Do  all  in  His  name. 


144  T^he  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  July  13  :  LuKE  xiv.  15—24.     Golcic7i  Text:  Luke  xiv.  15. 

The  Great  Supper. 

Jesus  was  in  a  Pharisee's  house,  and  it  was  the  Sabbath  Day,  when  He 
told  this  parable.  He  tells  them  that  a  certian  man — (God  Himself)— 
made  a  great  supper.  The  great  supper  was  the  offer  of  salvation  through 
Christ ;  and  the  servants  who  were  to  bid  men  come  in  to  supper  were 
apostles  and  now  ministers.  Their  message  was  :  "  Come,  for  all  things 
are  now  ready."  All  the  invited  guests  with  one  consent  began  to  make 
excuses.  These  excuses  were  very  untrue  and  foolish.  Two  of  the  men 
made  their  worldly  possessions  an  excuse.  One  made  his  wife  the  excuse. 
The  real  reason  was,  they  were  indifferent  about  this  great  supper.  All 
these  people  refused  the  offer  of  salvation  ;  they  put  the  world  first  of  all. 
Then  the  parable  tells  how  the  host  sent  out  to  the  hedges  and  highways 
for  the  poor  and  the  maimed  and  the  blind,  so  that  He  might  have  guests.. 
They  accepted  the  invitation.  This  means  that  the  general  Gospel  invitation 
came  first  to  the  Jews,  because  they  were  God's  chosen  people  ;  and  when 
they  refused  to  accept  it,  it  was  preached  to  [the  Gentiles.  Do  you  think 
people  have  done  with  making  excuses  to  our  Lord's  invitation.  The  Lord 
has  invited  every  one  of  us  to  come  to  His  supper.  His  attitude  is  continually 
one  of  invitation.  ''Come,  come,  for  all  things  are  now  ready."  There 
is  nothing  lacking  that  any  hungry,  thirsty  soul  can  need.  But  how  often 
does  His  kind  invitation  meet  with  excuses.  Some  children  think  that  if 
they  became  Christians  it  would  make  them  gloomy,  and  they  would  have 
to  give  up  all  life's  pleasures.  So  they  give  that  as  their  excuse.  But  it 
is  a  false  one,  for  none  is  so  happy  as  a  Christian.  There  is  no  true, 
lasting  happiness  at  all  away  from  God. 

Another  excuse  is  that  at  some  other  time  this  invitation  will  be  accepted, 
but  not  just  now.  Mr.  Moody  tells  us  that  when  he  was  a  boy  he  thought 
he  would  put  off  being  a  Christian  till  he  came  to  die.  He  thought  if  he 
had  consumption,  or  some  lingering  disease,  he  would  have  plenty  of  time 
to  become  one,  and  in  the  meantime  he  would  enjoy  the  best  of  the 
pleasures  of  the  world.  But,  he  says,  that  was  one  of  the  devil's  lies. 
Make  not  delay  in  accepting  salvation.  Another  excuse  is  that  "  time  is 
precious,  and  we  have  no  time  to  spare."  But  to  accept  this  invitation  is 
more  important  than  anything  else  in  the  world.  What  has  to  be  done 
with  all  the  excuses  is  to  bundle  them  up  and  label  them  "Satan's  lies." 
If  you  want  an  excuse,  Satan  will  always  find  one  ready  for  you.  But  do 
not  make  light  of  God's  loving  invitation,  but  hasten  to  accept  it. 

These  SermoncUes  arc  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  114,  Vol.  III.]  JULY  II,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  ARROW  OF  THE  LORD'S  DELIVERANCE. 

A  Ser7non  by 

The  Right  Rev.  the  Bishop  of  Ripon. 

"  And  he  said,  Open  the  window  eastward.  And  he  opened  it.  Then  Elisha 
said,  Shoot.  And  he  shot.  And  he  said,  The  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance, 
and  the  arrow  of  deliverance  from  Syria." — 2  Kings  xiii   17. 

Elisha  was  a  prophet,  and  as  a  prophet  there  fell  to  him  the  duty,  as  it 
has  been  the  duty  of  prophets  in  all  ages,  of  witnessing  to  the  Divine 
order.  And  he  might  bear  witness  to  that  order  either  by  prophetic 
utterances  or  by  the  stronger  and  wider  utterances  of  a  life  lived  according 
to  that  order,  and  this  I  think  is  pre-eminently  one  of  the  characteristics  of 
Elisha's  life,  that  he  is  a  constant  witness  to  the  people  of  his  age,  that  it  is 
possible  for  man  to  live  a  life  animated  by  and  under  the  government  of 
that  lived  by  Divine  order.  But  there  is  a  natural  result  to  all  this.  Any 
man  who  witnesses  to  a  higher  order  oflife  than  those  around  him  becomes 
a  test  to  his  contemporaries.  You  cannot  meet  with  a  man,  for  example, 
who  lives  up  to  a  higher  order  than  your  own,  without  feeling  a  conscious- 
ness of  shame ;  as  you  meet  with  him  his  very  life  seems  to  rebuke  the  low 
level  of  your  own  ;  "I  feel  ashamed  of  myself  when  I  meet  him."  That 
is  to  say  it  is  in  the  very  nature  of  lives  so  lived  to  put  other  men's  lives  to 
the  test.  This,  I  think,  is  the  interest  of  the  scene  before  us.  Elisha  is 
seen  as  a  prophet  now  passing  away,  but  as  a  prophet  exercising  his  func- 
tions to  the  last,  teaching  and  testing  the  new  generation.  It  is  perfectly 
true,  of  course,  that  the  scene  has  an  interest  and  picturesqueness  of  its 
own.  It  is  always  interesting  to  watch  the  point  at  which  the  old  and  the 
new  meet — the  old  generation  coming  into  contact  with  the  new,  like  the 
meeting  of  the  morning  of  the  new  day  with  the  evening  of  the  old ;  east 
and  west  are  mingling  their  breath,  but  the  question  arises  whether  this 
mingling  will  bring  about  the  dawning  of  a  new  day.  How  does  the  old 
appear  in  the  light  of  the  new  ?  It  is  the  new  and  the  old  day  meeting, 
but  it  is  more  :  it  is  hke  a  planet  seen  when  it  crosses  the  face  of  the  sun, 
bright  in  itself  when  seen  against  the  dark,  but  now  when  tested  by  the 
brilliant  light  of  the  sunshine,  appearing  itself  to  be  dark. 

We  have  a  picture  of  the  old  generation  in  contact  with  the  new. 
In  it  we  see  the  old  t^§.§ting  the  new,  and  the  old  also  teaching  the 
new.      What  about  the  "test  ?      It  is   always   interesting  to    watch   the 


146  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

attitude  with  which  the  new  confronts  the  old.  It  is  a  hard  thing 
for  a  young  life  to  feel  that  the  energy  of  life  and  its  new  throbbing 
thought  is  a  thing  that  is  to  be  cast  away,  out  of  deference  to  what 
seems  to  be  the  somewhat  fossilised  opinions  of  those  who  are  pass- 
ing away,  but  for  that  reason  it  is  a  grand  thmg  still  to  see  that  young  life 
is  capable  of  fastening  itself  on  to  the  old.  It  is  never  good  when  a  man 
believes  that  he  starts  his  own  life  de  710V0.  It  is  perfectly  true,  as  has  been 
said  by  one  who  has  been  the  leader  of  a  certain  kind  of  thought,  that  the 
new  generation  must  always  be  treated  as  independent,  coming  in  fresh,  and 
by  no  means  the  prisoner  of  the  past.  Of  course,  there  is  truth  in  that. 
Every  man  must  in  one  sense  measure  his  existence  from  the  hour  of  his 
birth,  but  no  man  is  wise  and  no  man  will  fulfil  his  function  in  the  world, 
and  the  highest  destiny  which  is  possible  for  him,  unless  he  beUeves  that 
his  life  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  past.  Continuity  is,  after  all,  to  be  pre- 
served ;  and  as  continuity  is  to  be  preserved  it  is  so  because  the  true  law 
of  all  progress  is  the  law,  not  of  added  increments,  but  of  growth  of  living 
things  that  make  progress,  growing  from  stage  to  stage  ;  growth  is  the  pro- 
tection and  preservation  of  vitality.  Therefore,  it  is  never  well  when  we  see 
the  new  shaking  itself  too  quickly  from  the  old,  and  failing  to  view  with 
reverence  the  law  of  life  and  growth,  for  this  is  a  law  which  we  can  under- 
stand. Science  teaches  us  in  the  slow  growth  of  all  things  around  us 
that  we  must  hold  by  continuity  with  the  past.  It  is  the  same  also,  I 
think,  with  nations  as  it  is  with  individuals.  For  it  is  wise  that  the  growth 
of  races,  and  the  growth  of  nations  should  have  their  days  and  their  years, 
bound  each  to  each  by  a  kind  of  natural  piety.  In  that  light  the  fifth 
commandment  comes  to  have  a  deep  signifiance.  It  is  no  passing 
homage  of  a  few  acts  of  reverence  and  honour  done  to  parents,  but  the 
spirit  of  the  commandment  reminds  us  that  we  cannot  really  outwork  the 
full  measure  of  our  strength,  but  in  proportion  as  we  gather  into  ourselves 
the  powers  of  the  past,  and  enter  upon  our  own  life  with  reverence  to  it. 

This  comes  before  us  in  the  scene,  and,  if  you  were  to  measure  the 
hopes  of  Joash's  life  from  the  attitude  which  he  holds  towards  the  old  man, 
I  think  you  will  say  that  everything  promises  well.  Here  is  one  in  whose 
heart  and  mind  the  instinct  of  hero-worship  is  very  strong.  When  he 
comes  into  the  old  man's  presence,  it  is  not  simply  a  frail,  dying  man  he 
sees  before  him,  but  he  reads  behind  that  frail  form  all  the  history  and 
heroisms  of  the  past.  Elisha  is  to  him  the  man  whose  energy  has  quickened 
the  hopes  of  Israel,  rescued  her  from  defeat,  and  driven  back  her  foes. 
Behind  him  he  sees  far  more  than  the  mere  life  that  is  passing  away ;  he 
sees  energy  which,  if  it  can  be  preserved,  would  be  the  salvation  of  Israel, 
and  therefore  he  breaks  out  in  the  utterance,  "My  father,  my  father,  the 
chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof ! " 

This  man,  then,  you  will  say,  is  not  a  man  who  is  likely  to  enter  upon 
his  duties  in  life,  and  recklessly  and  hastily  destroy  all  memory  of  the  past. 
His  instinct  of  hero-worship  is  strong  enough  to  enable  him  to  preserve 
the  continuous  life  of  the  people,  and  gently  to  nourish  it  into  new  vigour. 
But  the  old  prophet  was  not  satisfied.  He  knows  very  well  that  some  of 
the  highest  instincts  of  life  may  proceed  from  faulty  sentiments  within. 
This  thing,  this  hero-worship,  for  instance,  glorious  and  good  when  it 
means  a  door  of  entering  in  with  reverence  into  the  past  deeds  of  great 
men,  may  of  itself  be  a  mere  sentiment.    Joash's  pride  may  be  born  of  a 


The  Arrow  of  the  Lord's  Deliverance.  147 

kind  of  nebulous  sentiment  towards  great  men  and  their  works,  or  it  may 
be  that  it  springs  out  of  a  weakness  which  shrinks  from  its  own  personal 
responsibiUty,  and  would  fain  keep  Elisha  with  him  to  save  him  the  trouble 
of  asserting  himself ;  or  it  might  spring  from  cowardice,  as  that  a  man 
should  be  willing  enough  to  admire,  but  not  willing  enough  to  act ;  or  it 
might  spring  from  something  deeper  still,  from  a  total  absence  of  all  power 
of  spiritual  insight,  as  that  he  was  relying  upon  Elisha  and  saw  not  the 
heavenly  light  and  the  heavenly  power  of  which  Elisha  was  the  manifesta- 
tion, and  therefore  the  misgiving  is  in  the  heart  of  Elisha,  and  he  would  fain 
test  this  young  man's  ardour  and  would  see  of  what  metal  he  was  ;  in  his 
hand  was  the  full  direction  of  the  destinies  of  Israel,  and  he  would  put 
him  to  the  test.  And  the  scene  is  the  test.  When  the  cry  has  gone  from 
Joash's  lips,  "  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horse- 
men thereof!"  the  old  prophet  waives  aside  all  compliment,  and  bids  him 
"  seize  the  bow  and  arrow,  to  open  the  window,  the  foes  lie  to  the  east- 
ward ;  to  grasp  the  bow  and  let  fly  the  arrow"  ;  and  you  know  what  hap- 
pened. After  letting  fly  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance  from  the  open 
window  eastward  towards  Syria,  he  was  to  prove  his  metal  by  striking  upon 
the  ground.  Having  struck  thrice,  he  stayed  with  a  hesitating  self-con- 
sciousness, waiting  for  some  gesture  or  fresh  directions  from  the  prophet, 
and  the  old  man  was  wroth.  He  had  applied  the  test,  and  the  king  had 
failed  to  bear  it,  and  he  saw  weakness  written  there. 

But  you  may  be  tempted  to  say,  that  is  hard,  what  a  trifling  thing  this 
that  a  man  should  take  up  a  single  incident  in  a  room,  and  make  it  the 
test  of  a  man's  life  and  character,  and  try  to  forecast  his  destiny  by  what 
he  had  done  with  it.  Nay,  nay,  but  surely  you  will  agree  with  me  that 
triflesdo_test  character,  nothing  is  a  greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  that 
~a  thingTs  little  Decaiis'e  it  is  little  in  its  circumstances.  Things  are  very 
seldom  little,  because  nearly  all  our  actions,  and  nearly  all  our  conduct  is 
a  signification  of  character,  and  small  things  test,  because  it  is  not  experi- 
ence, not  knowledge  which  is  being  tested,  but  just  this,  character.  You 
may  see  a  man's  character  by  the  way  he  walks  down  the  street,  by  the 
manner  of  his  answering  a  question,  by  his  way  of  commenting  on  a  picture. 
There  is  something  which  is  bringing  the  character  to  the  test,  and  we  hear 
and  see  that  these  do  reveal  a  man's  character,  for  what  was  it  that  was 
brought  out  ?  There  are  two  things,  which  the  old  prophet  knew  well  were 
absolutely  essential  as  characteristics  and  qualifications,  if  Joash  was  to  fulfil 
the  high  destiny  which  was  before  him.  There  was  waiting  for  him  a  great  and 
glorious  work.  Israel's  condition  was  one  of  distress ;  the  enemy  had 
thrust  back  the  frontiers  of  the  kingdom,  the  army  had  been  reduced  at 
the  imperious  command  of  the  foe ;  everything  pointed  to  this,  the  weaken- 
ing of  Israel's  forces.  The  prophetic  guidance  which  Elisha  was  thrusting 
upon  Joash  was  to  confront  the  difficulties  and  out-work  the  kingdom's 
salvation,  and  two  things  were  absolutely  necessary.  There  mingles  in  all 
great  men's  characters  who  are  capable  of  achieving  high  things  two  elements 
— the  one  prosaic,  the  other  poetic.  If  a  man  has  not  the  prosaic  element 
of  determination  to  do  everything  thoroughly  down  to  the  minutest  details, 
all  his  imagination  will  wither  in  his  hand.  He  needs  to  have  another 
thing,  a  certain  poetical  disposition,  the  gift  of  a  divinely-wrought  imagina- 
tion, that  sees  that  his  work  is  a  glorious  one,  that  does  not  treat  it  as 
though  it  were  commonplace,  but  watches  beyond  the  work  he  has  to  do 


148  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

and  sees  the  splendid  significance  of  its  import.  In  the  general  history  of 
the  world,  in  acts  and  purposes,  these  two  things  have  always  mingled.  In 
really  the  highest  of  men,  in  the  world's  great  men,  you  can  see  a  spirit  of 
thoroughness,  for  that  after  all  may  be  tested  by  the  most  earthly  considera- 
tions. Trifles  are  trifles,  but  they  may  test  a  man's  thoroughness.  "  What 
have  you  done  to  your  statue  since  I  saw  it  last?"  said  one  to  Michael 
Angelo.  "  I  have  given  a  fuller  curve  to  this  limb,  greater  flexibility  to  the 
mouth,  and  greater  fire  to  the  eye,"  was  the  reply.  *'  But  these  are  trifles," 
said  the  other ;  "  Trifles  they  are,"  was  the  old  man's  answer;  "but  in 
trifles  lie  perfection,  and  perfection  is  no  trifle."  It  is  the  spirit  of  through- 
ness  in  going  down  to  the  minutest  detail  which  gives  a  man  the  power  ot 
bringing  his  work  to  this  perfection.  "  You  have  finished  your  work,"  said 
one  to  Gibson;  "No,  I  shall  work  two  months  more  upon  it."  Two 
months  more  was  the  sculptor's  answer.  It  lies  upon  the  surface  of  things 
that  a  man  cannot  achieve  practical  work  unless  he  has  the  prosaic  instinct 
that  does  not  shrink  from  the  drudgery  of  it.  This  Joash  has  not.  Is 
there  thoroughness  in  this  man  who  draws  the  bow  feebly  thrice,  and  looks 
round  for  instruction.  But  he  lacks  more ;  he  lacks  the  glorious  power  of 
imagination;  he  does  not  see  what  his  work  means;  he  does  not  realise  all 
that  the  old  prophet  has  put  before  him.  A  man  who  can  only  look  at 
his  life  and  see  only  its  dry  details  from  day  to  day,  and  see  no  glory,  no 
sanctity,  no  divinity  in  it  will  never  do  work  with  that  high  spirit  which 
carries  him  by  the  very  rapture  of  its  intensity  through  the  world.  Like 
Thorwaldsen,  forgetful  of  his  night's  rest  because  he  is  absorbed  in  the  glory 
which  is  glowing  not  merely  before  his  imagination,  but  his  imagination 
working  itself  out  in  this  form  ;  like  Newton,  forgetful  of  his  food  in  the 
thrill  of  delight  with  which  he  watches  the  unfolding  of  the  problems  before 
him ;  there  is  always  a  touch  of  this  rapture,  or,  to  put  it  more  truly,  this 
spirituality  about  great  men's  works. 

This  Joash  had  not.  Conspicuously  he  failed  here,  for  do  you  not 
mark,"  there  never  could  have  been  a  moment  in  a  man's  life  when  circum- 
stances were  more  calculated  to  stimulate  this  high  imagination,  and  to 
draw  him  into  a  rapturous  thought  of  the  glorious  work  he  had  to  do. 
Death  was  at  his  side.  There  is  a  solemnity  about  death  at  all  times,  and 
it  was  death  looking  out  from  those  eyes  that  had  made  the  foes  of  Israel 
to  quail  before.  And  so,  here,  with  the  old  hero  taking  the  strong  healthy 
hands  of  the  king  into  his  pale  trembling  ones,  and  selecting  him  there  in 
the  hour  of  death  for  that  glorious  work,  what  young  mind  would  not  have 
taken  fire  at  the  thought  that  he  was  selected  to  cany  on  a  work  which  was 
so  great  and  so  noble  ?  But  more  than  that,  patriot  at  heart,  he  felt  that 
the  kingdom  was  in  strait ;  her  frontiers  were  pushed  back,  her  resources 
had  been  attenuated.  But  now,  as  the  prophet  consecrates  him  to  the 
work  of  deliverance,  there  will  surely  rush  upon  him  the  vision  of  his  work, 
and  fill  him  full  of  a  kind  of  strong  rapture  and  interest  in  it.  But  more ; 
here  the  old  man  touches  the  true  divine  thought,  and  he  tells  that  in  his 
hand — in  Joash's,  not  Elisha's — there  is  an  arrow  which  carries  victory  with 
It,  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance.  And  as  these  words  fall  upon  his 
ears,  there  will  rise  up  before  his  imagination,  the  glories  that  were  still 
possible  to  Israel.  "  The  Lord's  deliverance  " — this  God  who  lifted  Israel 
in  His  arms  and  carried  Him  out  of  Egypt,  this  God  who  struck  a  way 
through  the  Red  Sea  for  His  chosen ;  who  lifted  high  the  Shekinah  before 


The  Arrow  of  the  Lord's  Deliverance.  149 

the  eyes  of  the  people  in  the  wilderness,  who  broke  down  the  strong  walls 
of  Jericho,  who  enabled  David  to  overcome  Goliath  with  the  sling  and  the 
stone,  and  encompassed  His  prophet  Elijah  with  the  flaming  chariots  of 
His  heavenly  protection,  inspired  with  terror  and  put  to  flight  the  Syrians, 
or  darkened  their  eyes  and  set  them  as  captives  in  the  streets  of  Samaria 
against  their  will — this  God  is  to  be  my  God  with  me  at  this  moment.  He 
must  have  had  a  feeble  imagination  who  did  not  feel  that  he  was  driven 
into  a  high  and  rapturous  vision  of  the  work  that  lay  before  him,  and  who, 
oblivious  of  the  circumstances  around  him,  grasped  the  arrow  and  smote 
it  upon  the  ground  as  though  his  foes  were  at  his  feet,  not  pausing  till  the 
voice  that  bade  him  smite  called  to  him  to  stay.  But  there  was  no  rapture 
in  that  man's  character,  no  po  ver  of  investing  his  work  with  a  splendid  and 
spiritual-born  imagination,  and,  therefore,  the  old  man  was  wroth.  Self- 
consciousness,  ajveak_dependence  upon  others,  the  eye  askance  to  see 
how  far  he  may  go,  a  feebleness  within  the  mind,  are  his,  and  no  power  of 
living  by  the  power  of  individual  heroism  and  individual  devotion.  Such 
is  the  test,  and  he  failed.  Every  hour  of  our  life  is  tested  like  this.  The 
test  was  not  merely  a  test,  remember,  which  ended  its  significance  in  the 
prophet's  dying  chamber,  it  is  the  forecast  of  his  life.  There  was  a  certain 
self-restraint,  a  certain  decorous  energy,  shall  I  say,  about  Joash.  But  he 
never  attained  to  the  dignity  of  kingly  greatness  ;  he  was  never  to  be  written 
among  the  large  men  of  Israel ;  only  a  kind  oLsecond-rate  power  breathed 
through  him.  His  hfe  was  tested,  and  the  drama  of  it  forewritten  from  that 
scene  of  rehearsal,  and  there  comes  a  time  to  all  of  us  when  we  are  so  tested, 
when  we  are  brought  face  to  face  and  in  close  contact  with  some  spiritual 
powers,  some  glowing  imagination  which  rises  out  of  the  past  glorious 
deeds  of  others,  which  bring  us  to  the  test.  You  have  all  felt  it.  Pardon 
me  if  I  say  you  cannot  come  into  this  city,  instinct  with  so  many  memories 
of  the  past,  and  not  feel  that  your  imagination  is  stirred,  and  that  you  see 
it  peopled  with  the  glorious  men  of  old,  that  you  hear,  as  it  were,  from 
these  very  stones,  of  those  who  were  in  their  day  the  chariots  of  our  Israel 
and  the  horsemen  thereof.  If  so,  this  very  place  and  its  memories  and 
associations  is  putting  your  power  to  the  test ;  here,  where  perchance  the 
feet  of  Dante  have  trod,  where  honest  Latimer  glorified  God  in  flames, 
where  Keble  and  Ker  have  sung  their  songs,  where  Arnold  and  Mozley 
have  lectured  ;  here,  you  might  see  there  are  visions  for  your  eyes,  voices 
for  your  ears,  and  if  you  have  seen  these  things,  and  felt  in  the  hour  when 
_you  are  called  upon  to  enter  into  contact  with  them,  that  your  heart  has 
taken  fire  with  a  glowing  imagination,  has  set  before  you  that  grand  past 
that  you  all  have  been  inclined  to  cry,  "  the  chariots  of  Israel,  and  the 
horsemen  thereof,"  then  you  too  have  been  brought  to  the  test,  and  your 
character  here  is  being  tested  and  out  of  it  may  be  written  largely  the  fore- 
cast of  your  life.  The  chamber  wherein  inspirations  come  and  high 
imaginations  are  born,  is  the  testing  chamber  to  everyone.  You  may  say, 
as  men  do  say,  well,  trifles  again ;  may  not  a  man  fail  in  the  rehearsal  who 
may  do  well  when  the  real  life  of  activity  comes  ?  He  may  do  so,  but  I 
beg  you  to  remember  that  Macready  set  himself  against  all  such  opinions 
as  that.  "  You  are  wrong,"  he  said  to  the  actors,  "  if  you  fail  in  rehearsal, 
you  will  hardly  do  well  when  the  play  night  comes.''  You  are  tested  in 
rehearsal  here.  The  sword  may  snap  when  it  is  tested  at  Woolwich.  I 
think  you  would  not  have  liked  to  have  trusted  such  a  sword  in  the  day  of 


150  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

battle.  A  place  like  this  where  every  wall  and  every  stone  speaks  of  those 
who  are  gone  is  calling  you  to  the  test,  the  test  whether  your  admiration 
of  the  great  and  good  which  is  undoubtedly  there  is  the  admiration  of 
sentiment,  or  the  admiration  of  imitation.  I  can  imagine  that  some  may 
like  to  decorate  their  rooms  with  the  busts  of  heroes,  and  doubtless  the 
portrait  of  warrior  and  saint  look  well  upon  the  walls,  but  unless  he  hears 
their  voices  calling  him  to  act,  unless  the  old  prophet's  power  comes,  and 
makes  him  seize  the  bow  and  arrow,  with  energy  and  glorious  imitation,  I 
think  their  voices  and  their  faces  have  called  and  looked  in  vain.  Would 
you  not  rather  be  Philistines,  who  knew  no  power  of  response  to  such 
voices  as  these,  than  a  mere  aesthetic  admirer  of  past  heroisms,  without 
having  the  spirit  and  energy  to  follow  in  the  way  in  which  they  led  ?  For, 
believe  me,  the  saints  would  start  out  of  their  graves  and  reproach  you  if 
you  only  gave  them  the  homage  of  your  tears,  and  did  not  rise  up  at  their 
bidding,  and  seize  whatever  was  at  hand  and,  let  fly  against  the  foes,  the 
real  sins,  the  vices  of  a  real  world. 

But  the  prophet  is  not  merely  one  to  test,  but  also  one  to  teach.  It  is 
an  easy  thing,  perhaps,  for  us  to  look  'wiFli  a  certain  amounr^of  interest 
upon  the  point  of  contact  between  the  old  and  the  new.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  see  the  spirit  of  hero-worship,  reverence,  regard,  and  admiration 
on  the  part  of  the  young  generation  for  the  old.  It  is  also  something  to 
watch  what  is  the  attitude  of  the  old  towards  the  young.  How  does  the 
old  generation  look  towards  the  coming  one,  for  it  is  a  very  hard  thing,  I 
take  it,  to  grow  old  gracefully,  and  none  altogether  welcome  those  who 
must  occupy  their  seats  and  discharge  their  duties  when  they  are  gone.  It 
is  so  easy,  and  so  tempting  also,  to  treat  the  young  generation  with  cynical 
remarks  and  disparaging  comparisons,  and  to  damp  their  young  ardour  by 
telling  them  that  the  new  generation  have  not  got  either  the  persistency  or 
the  power  of  the  old.  It  is  so  easy  to  make  a  merit  of  our  past  services, 
and  to  throw  contempt  upon  the  efforts  of  the  young.  There  is  nothing 
of  that  sort  in  Elisha's  reception  of  Joash.  There  is  the  deepest  and 
strongest  sympathy.  He  enters  with  interest  into  the  new  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  those  who  are  left  behind,  though  he  will  never  see  these 
things.  His  heart,  his  God-stirred  heart,  his  patriot  heart  is  alive  to  the 
duties  and  responsibilities  which  are  falling  upon  Joash.  He  does  not 
treat  Joash  to  a  grumble  or  a  snarl  at  the  world  he  is  leaving.  He  does 
not  thrust  his  withered  hand  under  the  pillow  and  bring  out  some  MS.  of 
memoirs  which  are  instinct  with  cynical  and  disappointed  egotism,  but  he 
rather  turns  with  warmest  sympathy  and  interest  to  the  young  Joash. 
"  Take  arrows."  What  memories  are  strong  in  his  mind.?  You  cannot 
understand  his  teaching,  you  cannot  understand  his  interest  in  Joash,  unless 
you  remember  that  the  words  with  which  he  greeted  him  are  just  the  words 
to  stir  up  a  thousand  memories  and  associations  of  the  past.  His 
sympathy  is  revealed  in  the  fact  that  these  words  he  now  hears  are  the 
words  with  which  he  once  addressed  Elijah ;  to  hear  them  again  wakened 
his  sympathy ;  he  knew  what  it  was  to  come  face  to  face  with  the  day 
when  the  man  that  he  had  looked  upon  as  the  champion  and  saviour  of 
Israel  was  about  to  be  taker  away.  He  knew  the  blank  despair  with 
which  he  was  tempted  to  contemplate  the  departure  of  Elijah,  and  he,  too, 
had  said  :  There  is  passed  from  us  to-day  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the 
horseman  thereof.    Therefore,  when  he  hears  the  young  man  come  to  him 


The  Arrow  of  the  Lord's  Deliverance.  151 

with  the  cry  he  uttered  in  his  young  days,  hisjheart  is  aglow  with  sympathy. 
His  is  no  vanity  which  is  pleased  with  being  so  treated  as  the  defender  of 
Israel,  he  has  nothing  like  the  mere  vanity  of  old  age  in  his  mind,  but  he 
has  this  :  "  How  shall  I  teach  this  young  man  the  lessons  which  I  learned 
after  I  had  gone  through  the  like  experience,  and  had  felt  the  dark 
despair  come  upon  my  heart  ?  " 

He  teaches  him,  and  what  is  the  lesson  he  teaches  ?  It  is  this  simple 
one,  to  realise  himself  and  to  realise  God.  If  you  will  have  it  so,  I  will 
put  it  in  the  other  form — realise  your  life  and  your  power,  his  life  and 
power  in  God.  There  are  only  three  important  things,  and  the  way  in 
which  you  bring  these  into  contact  will  be  the  way  in  which  your  life  will 
be  marked  and  measured — one  is  yourself,  another  is  the  world  with  its 
duties,  the  third  is  God  overhead.  The  world  has  to  be  faced.  Face  it 
as  a  man,  and  as  a  man  conscious  of  your  responsibility.  Take  up 
arrows,  and  shoot  against  the  foe  that  lies  before  you  ;  but  as  man,  show 
that  man's  strength  is  only  perfected  in  consciousness  of  your  God.  How 
does  he  teach  him  that  ?  He  teaches  him  the  duty  of  becoming  conscious 
of  himself  by  simply  ignoring  the  cry,  "  Thou  art  the  chariot  of  Israel  and 
the  horseman  thereof,"  and  saying  in  effect,  "Take  arrows,"  do  not  regret 
the  past,  do  not  mourn  over  those  who  are  gone,  be  like  a  man,  set  to  your 
work  and  grasp  these  arrows,  think  no  more  of  flowers  which  are  fading, 
but  of  duties  which  are  coming.  Take  arrows,  and  think  of  the  God  who 
can  make  all  your  efforts  strong,  for  the  power  of  God  which  rested  upon 
me  is  in  your  hand  ;  though  I  be  a  prophet  and  you  a  warrior  king,  this 
arrow  which  is  in  your  hand,  this  arrow  which  I  consecrate  to  Him,  shall 
be  to  you  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance.  Realise  God,  realise  your- 
self with  your  duty,  and  your  duties  towards  the  world.  Realish  God  as 
the  Power  with  which  those  duties  shall  be  fulfilled."  That,  after  all,  is 
the  simple  lesson  of  almost  the  whole  of  religion.  I  open  the  Bible,  and 
I  find  it  there.  What  is  it  that  this  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
tells  me  ?  He  tells  me  the  power  with  which  men  obtained  victories,  and 
achieved  exploits  in  the  world  was  this,  the  faith  which  had  the  insight  to 
understand  that  God  was  with  them,  and  faith  that  had  also  the  activity 
of  personal  energy  and  personal  self-assertion.  The  heroes  of  faith,  as  we 
know  from  the  glory-roll,  in  the  12th  of  Hebrews  were  men  of  insight ; 
they  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,  they  were  men  of  action  and 
obedience,  they  went  out,  not  knowing  whither  they  went,  they  scorned 
death,  and  obeyed  God.  The  man  that  can  see  God  in  his  life,  and  do 
duty  in  God's  strength,  is  the  man  who  has  laid  hold  of  the  arrow  of  the 
Lord's  deliverance,  and  that  man  is  strong.  What  says  our  Master  Him- 
self? If  ye  abide  in  Me,  if  your  hearts  are  open  to  the  heavenly  vision, 
and  My  words  abide  in  you,  you  realise  the  active  duties  of  life,  and  a  life 
which  is  a  life  of  obedience  and  faith  is  also  a  life  of  power.  Ye  shall  ask 
what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done.  And  in  doing  that,  the  prophet  sets 
before  him  these  two  things,  the  insight  to  see  the  power  of  God,  and 
action  to  discharge  the_duties.^Ufe,  and  in  doing  that  he  lays  his  hand 
upon  two  errors  which  tremble  in  the  heart  of  Joash.  These  are  two 
mistakes  we  are  constantly  tempted  to  make.  We  believe  the  world  will 
be  regenerated  by  a  resuscitation  of  the  past,  or  we  fondly  hope  it  may  be 
regenerated  by  the  development  of  novelties  in  the  future.  Both  are  mis- 
takes.    If  your  instinct  is  what  I  would  call  an  antiquarian  instinct,  you 


152  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

often  stand  and  look  regretfully  upon  the  past,  and  say  as  Joash  did. — Oh 
that  these  men  who  were  the  chariots  of  Israel  and  horsemen  thereof  were 
alive  with  us  to-day.  Would— so  we  fondly  cry — would  that  when  men's 
minds  are  upset  that  we  had  something  like  the  mother-wit  of  a  Paley, 
would  that  we  had  the  profundity  and  the  observing  genius  of  a  Butler, 
would  that  we  had  the  splendid  piety  and  marvellous  eloquence  of  men 
like  Lancelot  Andrews  and  Jeremy  Taylor.  We  are  always  standing  in  the 
■chamber  of  death,  and  wishing  that  these  heroes  were  back  again.  We 
believe  somehow  that  the  resuscitation  of  the  past  would  be  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  present.  It  is  a  mistake.  Elisha  waives  the  man  away  from 
that  thought.  It  is.  not  in  heroes,  but  in  God — for  no  man  was  heroic  in 
his  age.  We  calTthem  heroes,  we  look  back  as  we  understand  the  circum- 
stances ;  they  were  but  men  and  women  struggling  in  the  contest  and 
winning  even  in  the  very  feelings  of  despair.  Why,  what  was  it  that  one 
of  our  own  prophets  told  us  ?  What  is  wanted  to  make  a  hero  is  not  a 
great  soul,  but  simply  a  God-begotten  soul  that  is  true  to  its  own  origin. 

That  is  what  Elisha  is  teaching  him.  Do  not  mourn  and  regret  over 
the  past,  live  in  the  present,  seize  your  duties,  don't  wish  for  the  prophets 
to  be  back  again,  but  be  yourself  prophetic  in  the  way  you  face  life  ;  don't 
ask  that  other  men  shall  come  back  and  do  the  work  God  has  put  into 
your  hands  to  do,  but  do  it  yourself.  There  is  no  victory,  no  regeneration 
of  the  present  in  the  mere  resuscitation  of  the  past,  for  the  world  is  re- 
generated not  by  the  things  either  of  the  past,  or  present,  or  future,  but  by 
the  things  which  are  neither  past,  present,  nor  future,  but  all  of  these, 
because  it  is  only  regenerated  by  things  which  are  eternal.  Therefore  he 
waives  him  away  from  the  thought  also  that  the  world  can  be  regenerated 
by  some  novelty  within  the  future.  How  does  he  do  that  ?  If  you  look 
you  will  see  that  the  two  lessons  which  he  teaches,  the  realising  of  self  and 
the  realising  of  God,  are  exactly  the  lessons  which  he  himself  learnt  in  the 
day  when  he  was  baptized  in  the  vision  of  God  for  his  ministry.  The  con- 
dition by  which  he  was  told  he  would  be  called  to  a  prophet's  office  was 
this, — If  .thou  hast  the  power  of  insight  thou  shalt  be  a  prophet,  if  thou 
seest  Me  and  the  vision  of  flaming  chariots  that  surround  Me,  then  it  shall 
be  so,  and  a  double  portion  of  My  spirit  shall  fall  upon  thee.  And  when 
he  came  to  the  Jordan,  he  asserted  himself  by  smiting  the  waters  into 
action.  These  two  things  were  borne  into  his  memory,  the  key  of  insight 
which  is  the  consciousness  of  God,  and  the  key  of  power  which  is  the 
assertion  of  self  in  action.  And  here  was  the  old  man  on  his  death-bed 
communicating  to  the  young  man  of  the  new  generation  the  old  things  that 
he  had  learnt  at  the  outset.  Nothing  comes  to  alter  the  eternal  laws  or 
the  eternal  principles  of  life.  It  is  a  fond  thing  when  we  imagine  that  dis- 
coveries that  will  appeal  to  the  intellect  will  come  and  regenerate  the  life 
and  heart  of  human  kind.  I  do  not  believe  it.  You  never  transcend  the 
past  and  commonplace  things  of  life.  The  mathematician  never  goes 
beyond  the  axioms  which  he  learnt  in  the  first  book  of  Euclid,  and  neither 
do  men  ever  go  beyond  the  simple  things  which  lie  at  the  plot  of  all  life — 
whether  the  life  of  a  Moses,  or  the  life  of  a  Socrates,  or  the  life  of  the  pre- 
sent day — I  mean  the  sweet  laws  of  love  and  sympathy,  and  friendship 
and  kindness.  These  are  eternal  things,  because  they  flourish  with  beauty 
over  every  age  and  every  generation  of  mankind.  And  therefore  it  is  true 
also  with  moral  and  spiritual  things.     You  cannot  transcend  the  ten  co.ti- 


The  Arrow  of  the  Lord's^  Deliverance.  153 


mandments.  Do  as  you  will  with  your  theology,  you  will  hardly  get 
beyond  the  creed,  the  Lord's  prayer,  and  the  ten  commandments.  These 
things  will  abide,  and  they  are  powers.  This  consciousness  of  God  which 
we  grasp  when  we  understand  our  creed,  and  this  duty  towards  the  world, 
and  towards  ourselves — the  duty  of  being  something  and  doing  something 
in  the  world  which  we  grasp  when  we  understand  the  ten  commandments, 
these  remain  and  these  abide  with  us,  and  it  is  in  the  vigorous  living  up  to 
what  we  possess  in  the  present  that  we  shall  be  able  best  to  regenerate 
that  present,  for  by  thus  doing  you  bring  the  eternal  to  bear  upon  the  pre- 
sent crises  and  the  present  difficulties  of  life.  So  sang  those  men  who 
understood,  who  were  gifted  with  the  power  of  insight : — 

As  the  bird  trims  her  to  the  gale, 

So  I  trim  myself  to  the  storm  of  time  ; 

I  man  the  rudder  and  reef  the  sail. 

Obey  the  voice  at  eve  obeyed  at  prime. 

That  is  his  lesson,  that  the  power  of  life  lies  in  grasping  the  eternal 
realities,  not  in  a  vague  and  vagrant  way  whimpering  over  departed  and 
past  glories,  nor  in  an  indolent  way,  looking  for  new  revelations  and 
deliverance  from  some  unknown  source. 

What  then  is  the  lesson  to  be  drawn  ?  I  think  it  is  this,  that  we  often 
live  in  sore  straits  because  we  will  forget  God.  If  our  minds  grow  con- 
fused, if  often  the  things  which  seem  to  be  most  sacred,  are  stripped  and 
reft  of  their  power,  is  it  not  because  we  have  allowed  the  power  to  go  out 
of  them  ?  You  look  at  these  things  as  if  they  were  dying  Elishas,  and  you 
cry  for  chariots  and  horsemen.  But  remember  the  power  of  God  alone  can 
make  them  life  to  your  souls.  You  look  at  the  churches  and  say  they  are 
disintegrating  and  dissolving  about  us.  And  so  they  may.  They  may 
dissolve  and  disintegrate  to  the  man  who  merely  looks  upon  them  from  the 
point  of  view  of  what  I  shall  call  history,  but  to  the  man  who  looks  upon 
them  from  the  vital  side,  and  sees  eternal  elements  in  them,  these  things 
will  live  ;  you  must  bring  God  into  all  these  things,  or  they  will  not  live. 
And  therefore  it  is  that  His  curse  goes  out  even  against  the  most  sacred 
things,  because  we  have  erected  them  into  substitutes  for  Himself.  The 
brazen  serpent  was  the  symbol  of  deliverance  till  the  day  came  when  they 
made  it  a  substitute  for  God,  then  it  was  taken  and  bruised  under  foot,  and 
called  but  a  thing  of  brass.  The  heroes  and  the  saints  of  old,  and  all  those 
who  in  their  past  work  or  writings  have  left  us  glorious  legacies,  were  great, 
but  you  and  I  must  remember  that  the  power  which  made  them  great  was 
God's  Spirit  which  was  within. 

Therefore,  let  me  leave  this  last  word  with  you.  When  men  say,  and  say 
perhaps  in  a  tone  which  provokes  an  echo  in  your  own  heart,  "  Your  creeds 
are  dead,  your  churches  are  dying,  and  your  social  order  is  passing  away," 
my  answer  is,  "  Yes,  your  creeds  may  be  dead  to  the  man  who  cannot  see, 
as  I  have  said,  God's  light  streaming  through  it ;  they  are  dead  to  the  man 
who  treats  it  as  a  thing  to  be  cavilled  at  or  criticised,  or  a  man  who  de- 
grades it  to  the  level  of  a  fetish."  It  is  dead,  but  to  the  man  who  sees  God 
in  it,  it  lives,  for  creeds  are  methinks  like  windows,  only  good  when  the 
light  of  heaven  is  passing  through  them.  And  if  you  say  your  churches  are 
dying,  I  say  they  may  be  dying  to  those  who  have  no  power  of  insight,  but 
to  those  who  see  one  moving  amidst  the  candlesticks  they  know  that  they 
may  yet  live  and  burn  with  a  quenchless  flame.     If  you  say  your  social 


154  T^he  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

order  is  disintegrating  and  mthering,  I  say  it  may  be  so  to  those  who  cannot 
see  how  over  the  chaos  of  all  time  the  divine  Spirit  moves  to  bring  forth 
fresh  order  and  new  life. 

Therefore  unto  your  hands  to-day,  as  I  speak  these  final  words,  I  would 
fain  give  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance.  The  God  who  made  Moses 
and  Elisha  strong  is  your  God  also.  "  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  " — this 
is  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance.  The  creeds  which  nourished  the 
heart  of  St.  Paul,  of  St.  Athanasius,  of  St.  Augustine  and  St.  Bernard  are 
with  us  to-day,  and  there  is  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance  to  men 
who  can  use  them  aright.  The  same  Spirit  which  breathed  into  the  hearts 
of  men  and  made  them  strong,  who  unfolded,  for  instance,  to  John  the 
glorious  vision  of  the  future  and  the  triumphs  of  the  Church,  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Divine  order,  the  Spirit  which  unfolded  to  John  Bunyan 
the  progress  of  the  pilgrim  and  his  rest  in  the  heavenly  city,  the  Spirit 
which  gave  sanctity  to  the  lives  of  Bishop  Jackson  and  Bishop  Wordsworth, 
and  by  its  indwelling  power  transformed  the  life  of  Gordon  into  a  splendid 
poem  of  the  nineteenth  century,  is  with  us  to-day.  This  is  the  arrow  of 
the  Lord's  deliverance ;  take  it  in  your  hands,  no  more  let  idle  regrets 
enter  into  your  minds,  throw  open  the  window,  let  in  all  light,  face  the  foe, 
let  fly  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deliverance,  and  behold,  though  the  foes 
may  be  gathering  never  so  darkly,  there  in  the  East-ward,  behind  all,  you 
will  be  able  to  see  the  streaks  coming  down  of  God's  ampler  and  more 
glorious  day,  seen  only  by  those  who  grasp  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's 
deliverance. 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

Sunday,  July  13,  1890. 

THE   GREAT   SUPPER. 

ST.  LUKE  XIV.    15—24. 

"A  Great  Supper." — To  understand  the  ideas  and  arrangements  of  an 
Oriental  feast,  such  as  is  here  described,  we  must  banish  altogether  any 
notions  derived  from  a  Western  entertainment.  A  feast  in  the  East  is  really 
a  public,  not  a  private  and  social,  gathering.  It  is  rarely  given,  excepting 
on  some  special  occasion,  such  as  a  marriage,  or  the  birth  of  a  son,  or  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  harvest  or  the  vintage.  It  is  quite  distinct  from  the 
entertainment  of  strangers  or  friends,  when  a  kid  or  a  lamb  sufiftces  for  the 
feast,  and  the  host  waits  on  his  guests,  as  Abraham  did  when  he  received 
the  angels  at  Mamre.  On  the  greater  occasion,  when  a  calf  or  a  bullock  is 
to  be  slain,  the  number  of  the  guests  is  very  large,  since  the  whole  of  the  food 
must  be  consumed  on  the  day  when  the  animal  is  killed,  the  Orientals  never 
attempting  to  keep  any  flesh  over  night.  Preparations  are  made  some  days  in 
advance,  and  the  coming  feast  is  announced  to  the  whole  neighbourhood. 
The  Arab  or  the  Syrian  to-day  strictly  observes  the  Mosaic  injunction, 
"  Thou  shalt  not  .  .  .  shut  thine  hand  from  thy  poor  brother,"  and  takes 
care  to  feed  the  hungry. 


From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  155 

'*  He  Sent  Forth  His  Servant." — No  distinction  of  social  rank  is  re- 
garded in  the  invitations ;  but  very  marked  distinctions  are  made  in  the 
relative  position  of  the  guests  when  they  arrive,  and  the  placing  of  them  in 
their  proper  places  is  one  of  the  most  important  duties  of  the  host.  The 
intending  guests  having  been  apprised,  some  days  before,  of  the  coming 
feast,  servants  are  again  sent,  on  the  morning  of  the  day,  to  remind  those 
who  have  been  invited  ;  and  the  omission  of  this  second  summons  would 
be  a  grievous  breach  of  etiquette,  equivalent  to  a  cancelling  of  the  previous 
more  general  invitation.  To  refuse  the  second  summons  would  be  an 
insult,  which  among  the  Arab  tribes  is  equivalent  to  a  declaration  of  war. 
I  may  give  an  illustration  of  this  feeling.  I  had  been  travelling  under  the 
escort  of  the  Adwan,  and,  arriving  at  the  frontier  of  their  territory,  had  to 
pass  to  the  Beni  Sakk'r,  with  whom  I  was  already  on  very  friendly  terms. 
A  portion  of  their  tribe  was  encamped  very  near  the  boundary  line.  The 
Adwan  declined  to  cross,  but  sent  me  alone  to  their  old  rivals,  with  whom 
they  were  then  on  terms  which  may  be  called  an  armed  neutrality.  They  sent 
with  me  a  sheep,  which  I  was  told  was  for  my  own  use  only.  The  sheikh 
of  the  Beni  Sakk'r,  when  he  saw  it,  quietly  observed,  "I  shall  kill  this 
sheep,  and  bid  the  Adwan  feast  with  us  to-night.  If  they  do  not  come, 
they  wish  for  war,  and  they  shall  soon  have  it."  A  messenger  was 
accordingly  despatched  at  once,  and  a  second  at  nightfall.  Happily, 
peaceful  counsels  prevailed,  and  the  old  foes  feasted  together  in  my  honour. 

"Go  .  .  .  INTO  .  .  .  Highways  and  Hedges,  and  Constrain 
Them." — At  such  a  feast  nothing  could  be  more  dishonouring  than  that 
the  place  of  entertainment  should  not  be  filled.  Hence  the  summons  was 
sent  out  into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  and  then  into  the  highways 
and  hedges,  to  those  who,  having  no  settled  home,  wanderers  and  outcasts, 
could  not  have  previously  received  an  invitation.  These  would,  of  course, 
be  provided,  on  entering,  with  an  upper  garment,  or  white  cloak,  which 
would  conceal  their  rags,  and  enable  them  to  present  themselves  without 
humiliation.  The  provision  of  an  upper  garment  for  each  guest  is  now 
rarely  practised.  I  only  once  met  with  an  instance,  and  that  was  at  a  Jewish 
wedding  feast  in  Hebron,  where  the  father  of  the  bride,  a  wealthy  man,  sup- 
plied a  cloak  to  each  guest  as  he  passed  the  threshold.  We  accepted  one, 
to  conceal  the  peculiarity  of  our  European  costume,  but  the  better  dressed 
friends  simply  expressed  their  thanks  and  passed  on. 


The  most  powerful  things  are  invisible  things.  Many  believe  in  a 
cannon  which  they  can  see ;  but  they  do  not  believe  in  a  principle  which 
is  ten  thousand  times  more  powerful  than  a  cannon.  They  cannot  believe 
in  the  spirit  of  being  crucified  ;  of  doing  good  with  no  immediate  prospect 
of  getting  gain. 

The  world  is  one,  and  every  atom  is  a  kinsman  to  every  other  atom. 
Every  plant  has  its  diversities  in  unity.  Every  rock  has  a  lesson  about 
itself;  and  it  has  a  lesson  about  the  structure  of  the  globe. 

*•  Whom  resist  stedfast  in  the  faith."  Though  there  were  no  devil,  this 
we  know,  evil  is  ;  and  it  is  in  you  and  in  me.  And  it  is  a  dastardly,  proud, 
and  cruel  spirit ;  yes,  evil  is  real  and  deadly.  But  let  us  rejoice  that  in 
our  fight  against  evil  we  have  a  Champion  in  the  fight  through  whom  we 
may  overcome. 


156  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

THE  ASCENSION. 

Outline  Sermon. 
By  the  Rev.  H.  J.  Foster,  Liverpool. 
"And  when  He  had  spoken  these  things,  while  they  beheld,  He  was  taken 
up  ;  and  a  cloud  received  Him  out  of  their  sight," — ACTS  i.  9. 

(1)  Seen  from  heaven,  what  a  spectacle  (Ps.  xxiv.).  Seen  from  earth, 
how  quietly  done.  "  That  the  finish  of  the  most  important  episode  of  earth's 
history,  the  sojourn  of  God  incarnate." 

(2)  Apostles,  in  their  teaching,  make  as  little  of  the  Ascension;  Resurrection 
— almost  evcrythino.  Why  }  Because,  as  in  our  life  "  in  Christ,"  character 
of  new  life  fixed  at  resurrection.  Heavenly,  "on  its  way  ro  God,"  from 
that  point.     Then  change  of  residence  a  very  little  matter. 

(3)  Visible  departure,  not  vanishing,  or  simple  non-return  after  last  visit. 
Why  ?  To  make  vivid  all  truths  dependent  on  His  presence  in  heaven, 
e.g.:— 

{a)  Heaven  real  and  interesting.  Cf.  An  Indian  town,  mere  name 
before  ;  but  real  and  interesting  now  that  elder  brother  gone  to  live  there. 

{b)  Man  may  enter  heaven,  where  God-Man  led  way.  {c)  Pledge  of  His 
return,  for  us.  [d)  High  priest  seen  to  pass  within  the  veil,  {e)  Gift  of 
Spirit. 

PATCHES. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Richards,  Farnham,  Surrey. 

"No  man  also  seweth  a  piece  of  new  cloth  on  an  old  garment :  else  the  new 
piece  that  filled  it  up  taketh  away  from  the  old,  and  the  rent  is  made  worse." — 
Mark  ii.  21. 

Introduction. — By  this  homely  illustration  Christ  teaches  a  great  truth  as 
to  the  purpose  of  His  coming,  and  the  nature  of  His  religion.  He  came, 
not  to  patch  up,  but  to  re-create.     This  truth  applies : — 

I.  To  those  who  would  patch  up  the  old  sy  stein  of  the  law,  with  the  neiu 
moral  truth  in  the  Gospel: — (i)  The  Pharisees,  &^c.,  in  Chris fs  time  would 
gladly  have  done  this.  But  new  truth,  as  new  Hfe,  must  create  its  own 
new  forms  and  channels.  (2)  I)i  Faults  time  his  Galatian  converts  were 
tempted  to  make  this  mistake.  (3)  In  our  time,  Roman  Catholics, 
Ritualists,  and  all  who  trust  partly  in  forms  and  ceremonies,  and  partly  in 
Christ. 

II.  To  those  who  ivould  patch  2ip  systems  of  human  philosophy  or  of 
heathen  religion,  by  iiuorporating  sofne  of  Christ's  teaching. 

III.  To  those  who  would  patch  up  humanity,  by  means  of  improved  socidl 
arrangements. 

IV.  To  those  who  are  seeking  to  find  salvation  through  patching  up  their 
own  righteoustiess.  (i)  Those  who  try  to  improve  their  reputation,  remain- 
ing at  heart  as  bad  as  ever.  (2)  Those  who  depend  on  self-improvement. 
(3)  Those  who  expect  Christ  to  improve  them,  not  to  regenerate  them.  (4) 
Those  who  try  to  improve  themselves  first,  intending  to  come  to  Christ 
afterwards. 


Pulpit  Prayers.  157 


PULPIT  PRAYERS. 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Pulsford. 

O  God,  the  Father  of  our  spirits — not  the  Creator,  the  Father,  for  Thou 
hast  begotten  our  spirits,  our  spirits  are  offspring  of  Thy  Spirit,  and  the 
children  should  know  the  Father,  and,  because  they  are  children,  they  are 
capable  of  knowing  Him ;  for,  being  from  Him,  He  is  in  their  spirits,  the 
intelligence  and  the  life  of  their  spirits — O  God,  our  Father,  Thou  hast 
been  fearfully  hidden  and  disguised  and  caricatured  by  men  who  only 
think  of  Thee  through  their  sins  and  unworthinesses,  as  though  we  judged 
of  the  sun  when  the  sun  is  all  hidden  and  the  light  only  comes  struggling 
through  dark  and  angry  clouds.  O  Lord,  it  is  joy  to  us  that  Thou  hast 
revealed  Thyself,  which  Moses  did  not  do,  nor  the  prophets,  for  they  were 
not  able.  There  was  too  much  of  the  lurid  sun-cloud  about  their  souls  to 
know  Thee  or  to  see  Thee.  Only  Thy  Son,  Thy  perfect  Son,  in  our 
nature,  Jesus  Christ — He  has  braught  Thee  out  to  view,  and  the  clouds 
are  gone  and  the  darkness  is  gone.  We  are  round  about  Thee,  and  we 
see  Thy  face  in  beauty,  and  we  feel  Thy  love,  and  Thou  art  become  to  us 
our  utmost  attraction,  and,  lo  !  by  attracting  us  Thou  changest  us.  We 
put  off  our  own  follies,  we  get  ashamed  of  ourselves  in  our  natural  condi- 
tion with  a  real  shame.  We  are  able  to  loathe  ourselves  because  of  the 
beauty,  and  the  glory,  and  the  excellency  of  Thy  divine  humanity,  which 
must  also  be  our  humanity,  if  we  are  to  stand  before  Thee  and  live  in  Thy 
house  for  ever.  O  God,  now,  now,  we  call  Thee  beautiful  and  blessed  ; 
now  we  enter  into  familiarity  with  Thee,  in  and  through  Thy  Son  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  O  God,  we  thank  Thee  that  the  mystery  of  Thy  love 
moves  through  everything,  that  it  moves  through  our  frailties,  that  it  moves 
through  our  sun-clouds,  and  because  the  mystery  of  Thy  life  comes 
playing  upon  us.  Through  our  sins  and  unworthinesses  we  become 
contrite.  It  is  not  our  doing,  it  is  God's  doing.  We  repent — it 
is  God's  doing.  And  we  come  before  God  our  Father  and  confess  our- 
selves that  we  are  ashamed  in  ourselves,  but  that  we  long  to  put  on  His 
beauty  as  it  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  O  Lord,  when  Thy  love  comes  raging  into 
the  centre  of  our  souls  through  our  unworthiness,  let  us  welcome  it,  let  us 
co-operate  with  it,  and  let  us  long  that  it  may  linger  with  us  and  abide  with 
us.  P'or  it  is  only  by  abiding  that  the  structure  of  our  souls  is  changed 
and  we  are  qualified  and  prepared  for  the  vision  of  the  Lord's  glory. 
O  Lord,  receive  the  thanksgivings,  the  loves,  the  tender  affections  of  Thy 
children  before  Thee  for  all  Thy  goodness  towards  them  in  their  houses' 
We  thank  Thee,  O  Lord  God,  for  permitting  us  so  far  to  be  like  Thee  as 
to  become  parents  ourselves.  These  are  our  most  precious  lessons,  what 
Thou  teachest  us  when  we  become  mothers,  when  we  become  fathers ;  for 
through  our  own  affections  to  our  children,  although  we  are  evil,  we  learn 
somewhat  of  what  Thou  art  to  Thy  children — all  Thy  children ;  and  mothers 
learn  when  they  find  that  their  hearts  cannot  be  drawn  from  the  son  when 
he  is  guilty,  and  that  she  would  detest  the  idea  of  anyone  supposing  her 
mercy  needs  to  be  bought  and  paid  for — she  learns  what  God  is  to  the 
guilty,  how  that  He  cannot  withdraw  His  heart.  Oh  let  the  guilty  every- 
where, wherever  they  are,  on  board  hulks,  in  prisons,  in  gaols,  especially  in 
lonely  places— oh  let  the  knowledge  of  Thine  unchanged  love  come  to 


158  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

them,  that  Thy  love  may  break  their  hearts  and  bring  them  home,  bring 
them  home ;  home  to  God,  home  to  the  Father,  that  runs  to  meet  the 
returning  one,  and  fills  His  house  with  joy  and  rejoicing  that  His  lost  are 
found,  that  His  dead  are  alive.  Glory  be  to  God,  glory  be  to  Jesus,  glory 
to  the  everlasting  Spirit,  world  without  end.     Amen. 

(z)  By  the  Rev.  Principal  Cave,  D.D. 

We  bless  Thy  name,  O  Lord  our  God,  that  Thou  hast  spoken  to  us  by 
the  words  of  the  prophets.  We  bless  Thee  for  these  oracles  that  are  now 
on  record.  We  would  have  praised  Thee,  if  it  had  been  our  lot  in  the 
ancient  time  to  hear  the  great  men  whom  Thou  didst  move  by  Thy  Spirit. 
But  we  bless  Thee,  oh  how  much  more ,  that  it  has  been  our  lot  to  listen 
to  the  words  of  the  Son,  and  that  we  know  in  these  days  this  revelation 
that  Thou  hast  given  to  us  by  Thy  Son. 

O  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Father,  Thou  Who  wast  before  the  world, 
Thou  Who  didst  take  part  in  the  creation  of  the  earth  and  of  man.  Thou 
Who  hast  been  interested  in  us  from  the  very  first  moment  of  our 
creation,  we  thank  Thee  also  for  this  revelation  which  Thou  hast  given  unto 
us — this  revelation  of  Thyself.  Help  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  this  morning, 
that  we  may  live  in  the  consciousness  of  this  truth  which  Thou  hast  given. 
We  thank  Thee  for  the  words  that  Thou  didst  speak,  we  thank  Thee  for  the 
life  that  Thou  didst  live,  we  bless  Thee  for  the  death  that  Thou  didst  die, 
we  bless  Thee  that  the  grave  could  not  contain  Thee,  and  that  Thou  didst 
burst  its  bonds. 

And  now  as  we  come  into  Thy  presence,  Thou  living  God,  we  would 
ask  that  Thou  wouldst  graciously  speak  unto  us  the  words  of  life  and  of 
truth.  For  there  is  a  yearning  in  ourselves  for  the  Divine.  We  feel  that 
we  have  not  been  made  for  the  life  that  perisheth.  There  is  something 
within  us  that  cries  out  for  God,  for  the  living  God.  We  are  sure  that 
Thou  hast  made  us  that  we  may  have  fellowship  with  Thee,  and  that  Thou 
mayest  have  fellowship  with  us.  Our  high  destiny  sometimes  surprises  us, 
but  we  are  sure  that  Thou  hast  made  us  for  fellowship  with  Thyself.  But 
O  Thou  gracious  God  and  Father  of  us  all,  how  dim  our  vision  is,  how 
little  we  realise  that  Thou  didst  speak  to  us.  Thou  hast  Thy  words  ever 
and  anon,  but  oh,  how  little  we  know,  how  little  we  feel.  We  come  to 
Thee  with  our  small  knowledge,  we  come  to  Thee  with  our  slight  feeling, 
this  morning,  that  Thou  mayest  inspire  us  and^give  us  greater  thoughts,  and 
give  us  a  larger  heart. 

O  Thou  everlasting  God,  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit,  we  ask  that  Thou 
wouldst  graciously  come  into  our  hearts  this  morning,  that  we  may  feel 
as  we  have  said,  even  though  we  feel  surprised,  the  certainty  of  our  destiny. 
Blessed  be  Thy  name,  we  have  the  assurance  that  we  are  reconciled,  and 
may  be  reconciled  to  Thee.  Blessed  be  Thy  name  for  the  music  in  this 
word,  reconciliation. 

We  know  the  barriers  that  stand  between  ourselves  and  Thee.  We 
know  only  too  well  these  things  which  have  stood  in  the  pathway  of  our  up- 
ward progress.  We  feel  with  our  heart  of  hearts  that  there  are  obstacles 
that  Thou  must  remove  if  we  r.re  to  come  to  a  full  sense  of  our  birthright. 
But,  Lord  God,  Thou  knowest  that  in  our  truest  moments  there  is  a 
call  for  Thee,  that  there  is  a  yearning  after  Thee,  that  there  is  a  sense  that 


Pulpit  Prayers.  159 


these  things  of  the  world  that  are  around  us  and  that  perish  are  not  of  our 
inmost  natures,  there  is  a  something  in  us  that  cries  out  for  God,  for  the 
Uving  God.  Blessed  be  Thy  name  that  we  know,  that  Thou  hast  made  it 
possible  that  we  may  come  to  Thee.  Graciously  come  to  us  ;  then  we 
know  that  our  hearts  shall  rest.  If  we  have  not  realised  sin  as  we  should, 
graciously  come  to  us.  If  only  Thou  art  here  we  must  say,  "  Unclean, 
unclean."  If  we  have  realised  but  insufficiently  this  high  destiny  of  ours, 
graciously  come  unto  us,  for  if  we  only  feel  we  are  near  Thee,  if  only  we 
feel  that  there  are  bonds  between  our  nature  and  Thine,  if  only  we  learn 
to  stammer  the  word,  "  Father "  in  Thy  presence,  we  know  that  our  hearts 
must  be  enlarged.  If  we  are  bound  by  the  fetters  of  selfishness ;  if  we 
cannot  do  what  we  would ;  if  it  seems  to  us  that  the  world  is  almost  too 
much  for  us,  and  that  the  ordinary  lines  of  the  world's  action  are  those 
that  we  must  obey,  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  to  come  unto  us  ;  so  may  it 
be  that  in  fellowship  with  Thee  we  may  know  that  ours  is  a  larger  life,  ours 
is  a  God-life,  that  ours  is  to  be  the  sense  of  self-forgetfulness  that  Thou 
didst  show  unto  us. 

We  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  as  for  a  revelation  of  Thyself  this  morning 
so  as  Thou  wilt  take  many  of  us  to  sit  at  Thy  table  that  Thou  hast  insti- 
tuted, that  so  thou  wouldst  also  prepare  our  minds  for  the  reception  of  Thy 
truth,  and  for  the  greatest  blessing  that  this  service  can  bring  to  us.  We 
make  it  our  earnest  prayer  that  as  Thou  hast  given  unto  us  this  revelation 
of  Thyself  in  Jesus ;  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord  Christ,  that  as  Thou  hast 
died  to  reveal  Deity  unto  us ;  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Thou  Mighty  Spirit,  that 
as  Thou  canst  take  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  show  them  unto  us  :  that  so 
this  morning  we  may  ourselves  be  prepared  for  this  service.  Give  the 
preacher  wise  words,  give  the  people  intelligent  hearts,  and  if  there  are 
those  who  know  nothing  of  this  mystery  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  we  ask  Thee 
that  Thou  wouldst,  O  Lord  Christ,  open  the  mystery  of  Thy  Word  to  them. 
So  may  it  be  that  as  we  are  gathered  together  in  Thy  name  we  may  feel 
that  Thou  art  here,  and  that  we  are  glad  to  be  acknowledged  as  Thy  near 
brothers  and  as  Thy  near  sisters.  Grant  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  the  sense 
that  Thou  art  near,  and  that  therefore  Thy  blessing  is  upon  us. 

We  blend  our  prayers  again  for  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  Thou 
dost  not  hear  us  for  our  much  speaking.  We  ask  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst 
graciously  cause  Thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  wide  world.  We  do  not 
believe  that  Thou  art  at  the  end  of  Thy  purposes.  We  see  that  Thou  art 
already  only  perhaps  at  the  commencement  of  Thy  mighty  heart.  Thou 
art  showing  us  a  little  in  some  nations  of  the  world  what  Thou  canst  be. 
We  ask  Thee  that  these  may  know  more  and  more  of  Thee,  and  in  all 
relationships  of  life  may  carry  out  Thy  Gospel. 

We  ask  Thee  that  upon  all  the  dark  places  of  the  earth  Thou  wouldst 
also  cause  Thy  Spirit  to  rest,  that  so  it  may  be  that  the  whole  world  may 
soon  offtr  tribute  in  the  train  of  the  new  King  Jesus.  Hear  us  as  we  pray 
for  all  Christian  workers,  for  all  those  who  in  any  way,  to-day  especially, 
shall  be  occupied  in  any  sphere  of  Christian  work.  Give  them  the  sense 
of  Thy  presence  and  Thy  strength. 

Now  graciously  answer  our  prayers,  and  in  Thy  mercy  answer  those 
things  which  we  have  failed  to  ask,  seeing  we  present  all  for  Jesus'  sake. 
Amen. 


i6o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE    FOR    CHILDREN    ON    THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  July  20  :  Luke  xiv.  25—33.     Golden  Text :  Verse  27. 

Taking  up  the  Cross. 

We  read  that  "  there  went  great  multitudes "  with  Jesus.  This  was 
evidently  a  scene  of  the  journey,  when  numbers  of  the  Galilean  pilgrims 
were  accompanying  Him  on  their  way  to  one  of  the  great  Jewish  feasts. 
Jesus  wants  to  show  that  those  who  would  follow  Him  must  be  whole- 
hearted in  their  following.  Those  who  would  follow  Jesus  must  count  the 
cost.  Things  cannot  just  go  on  in  the  old  way  when  we  become  His 
followers.  Home  and  friends  must  take  a  second  place  in  our  hearts. 
Christ  gives  in  this  lesson  three  illustrations  of  the  seriousness  of  becoming 
His  follower,  (i)  The  man  who  builds  a  tower  counts  the  cost,  to  see  if 
he  has  enough  money  to  carry  out  his  plans.  On  the  south  coast  of 
England  there  is  a  great  castellated  building  standing  unfinished  because 
the  owner  did  not  wisely  count  the  cost.  It  is  called  "  Brownlow's  Folly." 
It  is  our  '•  folly  "  if,  having  named  the  name  of  Christ,  and  having  put  our 
hand  to  the  plough,  we  look  back.  (2)  The  king  going  forth  to  battle 
against  a  stronger  king,  who  sends  to  sue  for  peace.  He  should  not  have 
undertaken  what  he  had  not  strength  to  achieve,  (3)  Believers  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth,  but  they  must  keep  their  freshness,  for  salt  without  savour 
is  worse  than  none  at  all.  So  professing  Christians  who  do  not  live  up  to 
their  profession  cause  the  world  to  despise  Christ  and  His  followers.  Such 
Christians  are  like  the  mirage  of  the  desert,  which  looks  well  in  the  distance 
with  its  limpid,  glassy  waters,  but  when  the  traveller  goes  down  to  the 
place  to  cool  his  thirst,  there  is  nothing  but  the  hot,  yellow  ground  shim- 
mering in  the  scorching  sunlight.  So  there  is  not  refreshment,  no  useful- 
ness, in  a  Christian  who  has  only  a  name  to  live.  As  Jesus  says  in  the 
lesson,  •'  Whosoever  doth  not  bear  his  cross,  and  come  after  Me,  cannot 
be  My  disciple."  Who  among  you  is  willing  to  become  a  cross-bearer 
for  Christ.  The  only  cross  now  is  a  cross  for  the  soul — some  suffering  to 
bear  for  His  sake,  some  denial  of  self.  Thomas  a  Kempis  says  :  "  Jesus 
hath  now  many  lovers  of  His  heavenly  kingdom,  but  few  bearers  of  His 
cross.  Many  reverence  His  miracles ;  iew  follow  the  ignominy  of  His 
cross.  Many  love  Jesus  so  long  as  no  adversities  befall  them ;  few  are 
willing  to  endure  anything  for  Him,"  But  all  Christ's  true  followers  are 
cross-bearers  who  suffer  something  sharp,  bear  something  heavy,  for  His 
name's  sake.  Jesus  is  the  great  Cross-bearer,  He  goes  first  with  His 
mighty  burden,  and  all  His  followers,  with  their  Uttle  ones,  go  after  Him. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  115,  Vol.  III.]  TULY  18,  1890.  One  Penny, 


THE  POWER  OF  CHRIST'S  NAiME. 

A  Sermon 

By  The  Rev.  Charles  New. 

Preached  in  Robertson- street  Congregatio7ial  Churchy  Hastings^  on  Simd.iy 
Evening^  June  29,  1890. 

"  His  name  through  faith  in  His  name  hath  made  this  man  strong." 

Acts  iii.  16. 

Ages  ago  the  prophet  was  bidden  to  say  unto  them  that  were  of 
a  fearful  heart  "  Be  strong."  And,  strange  though  the  command 
seemed,  implying  that  we  may  be  strong  if  we  will,  that  it  is  a 
command  shows  that  it  is  even  so,  that  the  acquisition  of  spiritual 
strength  is  in  our  own  hands.  To  many  the  possibility  of  strength 
is  good  news  indeed.  Once  it  was  not  strength  they  wanted,  but 
life — bare  life.  Spiritual  death  reigned  within  them,  and  the 
death  sentence  was  uttered  over  them  ;  they  wanted  life.  Then 
they  accepted  Christ  and  found  that  life  in  Him  ;  the  life  of  God, 
with  new  affections,  and  capacities,  and  hopes,  and  powers,  the 
undying  life  maintained  by  the  mediation,  and  fed  from  the  ful- 
ness of  God's  Son.  That  they  have  and  shall  have  for  ever.  But 
they  want  more  of  it ;  that  is,  now  they  want  strength.  Do  we 
not  lament,  many  of  us,  that  our  Christian  life  is  feeble,  that  it 
hardly  holds  its  own  against  indwelling  evil,  that  it  is  often  beaten 
down  by  besetment,  that  the  current  of  the  world  often  brushes 
aside  its  opposition,  that  its  faculties  are  dwarfed  and  its  achieve- 
ments hardly  worth  the  name  ?  We  have  life,  we  Christians,  but 
how  often  is  it  rather  the  life  of  the  sick  man — existence,  rather 
than  life ;  and  perhaps  the  very  best  news  we  can  hear  is  that  in 
the  Gospel  of  strength.  "Tell  me,"  says  the  soul,  "how  my 
feebleness,  my  spiritual  feebleness,  may  yield  to  vigour;  tell  me 
how  to  gain  a  robust  piety,  one  that  conquers  sin,  and  that  goes 
gloriously  forward  in  the  Saviour's  service  and  to  His  likeness — I 
would  have  that."  That  want  is  met  in  the  text — the  teaching  of 
the  text  is  that  strength  comes  through  faith  in  Christ. 

Here,  on  the  one  hand,  was  the  Apostle,  a  man  with  no  more 


1 62  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


power  in  himself  than  any  other  who  walked  the  streets  of 
Jerusalem  that  day,  able  to  work  a  miracle  which  startled  the  city  ; 
by  a  word,  sending  to  his  home,  walking  and  leaping  and  praismg 
God,  the  cripple  whom  they  had  laid  daily  at  the  gate  of  the  temple, 
a  wonderful  instance  of  strength  for  service.  On  the  other  hand, 
here  was  a  man  lame  from  his  birth— hopelessly  lame,  I  suppose— 
able  to  receive  the  healing  then  surprisingly  offered  him.  We 
know  not  which  to  wonder  at  the  more,  Peter's  confident  command 
to  him  to  rise  up  and  walk,  or  the  man's  confident  obedience.  The 
strength  which  gave  the  blessing  was  the  strength  which  took  it. 
It  is  a  wonderful  instance  of  strength  for  reception,  reception  of 
what  God  would  grant.  ,  .  ^,  .  ,     rr.  .    .     ^i,- 

Now,  whence  came  this  strength?  This  strength  of  Peters,  this 
strength  of  the  lame  man,  and  is  it  available  to  us  ?     Can  we  in 
our  infirmity,  our  infirmity  for  everything  we  ought  to  do  or  to  be, 
can  we  be  strengthened  as  they  were  ?  The  answer  tells  of  a  source 
open  to  us  as  to  them,  and  of  means  at  our  disposal  as  at  theirs. 
"  His  name  through  faith  in  His  name  hath  made  this  man  strong.' 
Let  us  think  for  a  moment  of  the  strength  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 
For  you  observe  that  the  strength  did  not  come  from  faith,  but 
through  it.     The  strength  was  in  the  name  of  Jesus.     "  His  name 
hath  made  this  man  strong."     Dear  friends,  it  is  well  to  remember 
the    distinction,   for    we    get    sadly     misleading-  ideas   of    the 
Christian  faith— sometimes  exalting  it  to  a  good  work  which  we 
suppose  God   rewards,  sometimes  regarding   it   as  having  some 
inherent  virtue  of  which  really  it  is  destitute.     Faith,  what  is 
it  ?     Faith  is  simply  the  hand  that  receives,  the  medium  through 
which  what  is  in  Christ  passes  to  us,  the  pipe  that  conveys  the 
water  Of  the  reservoir  to  the  thirsty  city.     You  remember  these 
words  :  *'  It  pleased  the  Father  that  in  Him  should  all  the  fulness 
dwell."    Our  portion  is  want  and  emptiness.  God  gives  us  nothing. 
It  is  His  will  that  we  in  ourselves  should  have  nothing.     Every- 
thing is  stored  in  Christ  for  us,  and  it  has  to  be  taken  from  Him; 
and  faith  is  the  hand  that  takes.     The  Apostle  had  no  strength  in 
himself,  no  more  strength  to  work  that  miracle  than  we  have.     It 
is  a  figure  of  speech  to  say  that  the  Apostles  wrought  miracles- 
Christ  wrought  them,  not  they.     "  Ye  men  of  Israel,"  said  Peter, 
"  why  marvel  ye  at  this,  or  why  look  ye   so  earnestly  at  us  as 
though  by  our  power  or  holiness  we  had  made  this  man  walk  ? 
God  hath  glorified    His  Son  Jesus  Whom  ye   delivered  up.     Ye 
killed  the  Prince  of  life  Whom  God  hath  raised   from  the  dead, 
whereof  we  are  witnesses  and  His  name — His  name  hath  made 
this  man  strong." 

I  say,  think  of  the  strength  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  Well,  His 
name  stands  for  Himself,  reveals  Himself.  Peter,  for  example, 
says  here  that  it  is  the  Son  of  God.  "  God  hath  glorified  His 
Son."  Well,  that  is  His  name— the  co-equal  Son  of  the  Father. 
What  a  vision  of  strength  that  opens  to  us  !     You  remember,  for 


The  Power  of  Christ's  Name.  163 

instance,  such  words  as  these,  "  His  dear  Son,  by  Whom  were  all 

things  created  that  are  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  visible  and  invi- 
sible, whether  thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers, 
all  things  were  created  by  Him  and  for  Him,  and  He  is  before  all 
things,  and  by  Him  all  things  subsist."  If  we  speak  of  strength, 
then,  lo,  He  is  strong.  It  was  His  strength  that  called  the  worlds 
into  being,  and  that  maintains  them  in  their  place.  It  is  His 
strength  that  made  man  from  the  dust,  breathing  life  into  the 
clay.  It  is  His  strength  that  works  through  the  forces  of  nature, 
now  robing  the  land  with  beauty,  then  making  it  tremble  at  their 
voice,  and  always  supplying  the  need  of  every  living  thing.  It  is 
His  strength  that  inspires  and  controls  the  armies  of  heaven. 
The  Lord  of  Hosts  is  His  name.  His  name,  the  name  of  God 
the  Son,  is  nothing  less — and  oh  what  strength  it  means — than 
the  Lord  God  Almighty. 

And  His  name  describes  His  work.  "  Thou  shalt  call  His  name 
Jesus — that  is.  Saviour — for  He  shall  save."  By  giving  Him  that 
name,  what  strength  God  implies  in  Him  !  For  He  is  the  only 
Saviour.  As  the  Apostle  says,  after  this  very  occasion,  "  Neither 
is  there  any  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men  whereby 
we  must  be  saved."  All  hope,  even  God's  hope,  of  the  world's 
redemption  is  in  Christ. 

Then  we  feel  how  strong  He  must  be  to  maintain  a  spotless 
life  amid  earth's  defilement  and  temptation,  and  then  to  bear  in 
His  own  body  on  the  tree  the  sins  of  the  world,  and  then  to  bring 
many  sons  unto  glory,  deliver  them  from  sin,  granting  them  the 
Divine  nature,  supplying  their  need,  enabling  them  to  conquer 
their  foes,  and  at  last  raising  them  to  His  own  right  hand,  yea, 
undertaking  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God 
by  Him.  Think  of  the  strength  that  must  be  in  Him  who  under- 
takes, who  is  responsible  for  all  that,  think  of  the  strength  that 
must  be  in  Him,  the  accumulated  strength  which  has  animated 
and  will  animate  the  saints  of  God ;  for  their  strength  was  the 
strength  of  Jesus,  the  strength  to  which  alone  is  due  the  multi- 
tude whom  no  man  can  number  before  the  throne,  who,  when 
their  number  shall  be  complete,  asked  the  reason  that  they  were 
there,  will  unitedly  exclaim,  "  The  Lord  Jesus  has  done  it  all." 

And  His  name  is  the  availing  plea  with  the  Father ;  as  He 
said,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the 
Father  in  My  name,  He  will  give  it.  Hitherto  have  ye  asked 
nothing  in  My  name.  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may 
be  full."  And  that  gives  us  another  aspect  of  our  Lord's  strength 
— His  strength  God-ward  as  well  as  man-ward.  All  other  power 
combined  could  secure  nothing  from  the  Most  High,  but  the  soul 
in  prayer  breathes  the  name  of  Jesus,  and  at  once  the  doors  of 
God's  treasure-house  fly  open  and  His  resources  are  laid  at  the 
suppliant's  feet.  Nothing  can  prevail  with  God — neither  tears, 
nor  prayers,  nor  good  deeds,  nor  all  combined.     The  violent  storm 


i64  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


heaven's  gate  in  vain;  but  then,  then  the  Redeemer  s  name  avails 
At  its  utterance  God  gives  all.  We  speak  all  this  vvith  deep 
reverence  and  in  human  language,  but  does  it  not  seem  brethren 
as  if  bv  the  Father's  will  Jesus  has  dominion  over  all  that  the 
FalherM  and  has.  He  asks  the  Father,  and  the  Father  forthwith 
crives  We  use  His  name  in  asking,  and,  so  potent  is  that  name, 
?he  Father  gives  to  us.  I  think,  perhaps  nothing  so  reveals  the 
strength  of  Sur  Lord  as  that  does.  It  is  high,  we  cannot  attain 
unto  it.  The  measures  we  apply  to  strength  fail  us  here.  God 
only  knows  the  strength  of  God.  ^u      n^^ 

But  now  we  pass  to  this:     We  have  here  this  strength      Can 
we  keep  the  thought  up  of  its  greatness  ?     This  strength  of  which 
we  have  spoken  iS  available  to  men.     The  strength  that  healed 
the  cripple  was  Christ's  strength.     Peter  emphasises  that.     He 
not  only  says  here  ^  His  name,"  that  is  Himself  mark  you,  for 
?he  name  stands  for  the  person.     '/His  name-that  is    Jesus- 
hath  made  this  man  strong ;"  but  in  the  next  chapter  he  lepeats 
it      "  Be  it  known  unto  you  that  by  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  ot 
Nazareth  Whom  ye  crucified.  Whom  God  raised  from  the  dead,eyen 
bv  Him  doth  this  man  stand  here  before  you  whole.       it  was  tne 
strength  of  Christ,  but  that  strength  was  exercised  through  human 
instrumentality.     It  came  down  into  the  Apostle  and  wrought  the 
cure  ;  through  him  it  came  down  to  the  cripple  and  enabled  him 
to  receive  the  cure.     The  energy-oh,  it  is  a  subhme  thought- 
the  energy  of  the  Son  of  God  passed  into  these  men.     I  say,  what 
a  truth  that  is-Christ's  strength  available  to  you  and  me,  the 
self-same  strength  with  which  He  lived  His  holy  life,  conquering 
sin  and  bearing  peacefully  His  woe ;  the  strength  with  wh^ch  He 
wrought  His  works,  making  the  blind  to  see  and  the  deaf  to  hear 
and  the  lame  to  walk,  and  raising  the  dead  ,^  the  strength  with 
which  He  broke  from  the  grave  and  ascended  on  high,  leading 
Taptivity  captive;  yea,  the    strength  by  which    He  creates  all 
things  and  re-creates  mankind,  that  strength  as  we  need  it   as  vye 
will  use  it  according  to  His  will  and  for  His  glory,  that  strength 
is  available  to  His  people. 

Now.  so  great,  and  if  it  were  not  familiar,  so  striking  a  doctrine 
is  not  based  on  a  mere  incident  which  we  might  perhaps  mis- 
understand. It  is  based  on  great  fundamental  truths.  For  in- 
stance, Christ's  mission  is  to  give  life,  and  more  of  it.  That  was 
the  end  of  the  incarnation  and  the  atonement— life.  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  whoso- 
ever believeth  on  Him  should  have  everlasting  life  ;  and  not, 
mark  you,  everlasting  safety,  but  much  more  than  that— ever- 
lastin-  life ;  life,  not  simply  spiritual  nature,  for  that  might  be 
half  dead,  but  spiritual  vitality,  capable  of  everlasting  increase,  as 
He  said,  "  I  am  come  that  ye  might  have  life,  and  have  it  more 
abundantly."  That  is  just  what  we  want-spiritual  vitahty. 
Our  spiritual  nature  which  we  already  have  through  the  new  birth 


The  Power  of  Christ's  Name.  165 

— we  want  that  vitalised.  Well,  then,  dear  friends,  our  tasks  will 
be  wrought  easily  and  our  burdens  borne  patiently,  and  our  be- 
setments  conquered.  It  is  more  life,  and  fuller,  that  we  want,  we 
Christians.  Let  us  have  that,  and  we  shall  achieve  what  is  im- 
possible now.  And  if  we  doubt  whether  we  can  have  it,  we  have 
but  to  remember  this  strong  fact  that  to  give  it  is  the  end  of 
Christ's  work.  It  is  for  that  He  descended  to  the  cross,  and  for 
that  He  lives  upon  the  throne,  to  give  us  more  and  more  life ; 
and  what  is  that  but  to  make  us  strong  ?  These  are  the  pledges 
that  we  can  have  the  strength  we  need ;  for  Jesus  cannot  deny 
Himself. 

And  then  we  remember  another  fact,  that  His  people  are  His 
body  through  whom  He  will  exert  His  strength.  '*  Ye  are  the 
body  of  Christ,"  says  the  Scripture.  As  for  the  members  of  the 
body,  our  head  fulfils  its  will,  so  does  Christ  fulfil  His  will 
through  His  people.  They  are  to  be  the  instruments  by  which 
He  carries  out  what  is  in  His  heart.  He  no  longer  walks  the 
earth  in  the  person  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  but  He  walks  it  still  in 
the  person  of  His  Church,  and  by  His  Church  He  would  con- 
tinue now  what  He  began  before — His  will.  Now  it  is  the  will 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  execute  His  will  through  His  people.  What 
is  His  will  ?  To  conquer  sin  wherever  it  is  in  us  or  in  the  world. 
He  is  its  foe,  and  cannot  rest  till  Satan  is  trodden  underfoot.  It 
is  His  will  that  we  should  be  holy — holy  not  merely  in  freedom 
from  evil,  but  in  possessing  His  character  and  His  joy.  It  is  His 
will  to  redeem  the  world  from  woe,  to  rectify  its  ills,  to  assuage 
its  griefs,  to  restore  the  blessedness  of  Paradise  and  more.  And, 
dear  friends,  it  is  His  will  to  do  all  this  by  us — by  us.  He  is 
prepared  therefore  to  send  His  own  vital  force  down  into  our  re- 
solve, and  our  effort,  and  our  speech,  and  work  through  us,  and 
conquer  through  us,  and  through  us  bring  the  world  to  God.  Oh, 
there  is  no  telling  the  strength,  therefore.  He  is  prepared  to  put 
into  our  feeble  arm  ;  our  arm — nay,  it  is  Jesus  Christ's  arm. 
Truly,  Paul  was  right  when  he  said  :  "  The  power  of  Christ  may 
rest  upon  me.  I  can  do  all  things  through  Christ,  who  streng- 
theneth  me." 

We  remember  another  strong  truth.  He  holds  His  strength 
on  behalf  of  redemption.  We  remember  that  the  risen  Christ 
holds  nothing  for  Himself.  That  is  one  of  the  cardinal  articles 
of  our  creed,  one  of  the  great  cardinal  truths  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. The  risen  Christ  holds  nothing  for  Himself.  He  has 
received  all  for  us.  God  gave  Him  to  be  head  over  all  things  to 
the  Church.  Then  the  strength  He  has  in  His  risen  state  is  ours. 
He  is  keeping  it  for  us.  He  has  received  it  for  us.  And  Jesus  is 
a  faithful  trustee,  and  will  not  fail  to  dispense  His  trust  as  we 
need,  and  will  receive  and  use  it. 

Ah,  brethren,  we  have  not  received  more  of  it  because 
we   would    not,    or    because   we    kept    ourselves    to  such  small 


1 66  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

attainments  that  we  needed  but  little.  "  All  power  is  given 
unto  Me,"  He  said ;  but,  as  though  He  meant,  "  It  is  for 
you — I  am  about  to  give  it  back  to  you " — He  added, 
"  Tarry  ye  in  Jerusalem  till  ye  be  endowed  with  power  from  on 
high."  And  as  they  tarried  the  power  came,  the  very  power  of 
Christ,  in  which  they  so  continued  His  ministry  that  positively 
their  mighty  works  could  not  be  distinguished  from  His  own. 
Cling  to  this,  brethren,  Christ's  strength  is  ours  if  we  will  have  it. 
The  exceeding  greatness  of  God's  power  to  usward  who  believe  is 
according  to  the  working  of  His  mighty  power  which  He  wrought 
in  Christ  when  He  raised  Him  from  the  dead  and  set  Him  at  His 
own  right  hand. 

Well,  then,  we  have  this  last  truth  :  this  strength  blessing  the 
man  through  faith.  There  is  Christ's  strength,  here  is  my 
weakness.  How  can  that  strength  pass  into  me  ?  By  faith. 
Faith  is  the  channel  through  which  His  fulness  passes  to  my 
emptiness.  Or,  if  you  will,  as  I  said,  faith  is  the  hand  by  which  I 
just  take,  by  which  I  just  receive  what  He  holds  to  me,  what  He 
would  give  to  me.  "  His  name  through  faith  in  His  name  " — or 
rather,  as  I  said,  because  His  name  stands  for  Himself,  it  is  through 
faith  in  Him—"  hath  made  this  man  strong.  We  receive  life  from 
Christ  from  beginning  to  end  in  the  same  way.  It  was  by  faith 
we  first  received  it.  It  is  by  faith  to  the  very  last  that  we  receive 
each  augmentation  of  it.  "That  believing  ye  might  have  life 
through  His  name"  is  the  Gospel  for  the  sinner  who  has  none  of 
that  life.  It  is  no  less  the  Gospel  for  the  saint  who  has  life  but 
wants  more. 

Now,  just  see  as  we  close  how  this  faith  makes  us  strong. 
Well,  for  one  thing,  it  removes — and,  oh,  that  is  not  a  little  thing 
— it  removes  the  weakening  burden.  "  I  should  be  well  and 
strong,"  said  an  invalid,  "but  for  this  pain  I  feel."  And  many  a 
Christian  could  say,  "  I  should  be  strong  but  for  the  pain  I  feel, 
the  pain  of  an  uneasy  conscience."  Till  that  is  removed  there  is 
no  chance  of  strength.  It  is  sometimes,  as  you  know,  a  surprise 
to  the  sick  man  and  his  friends  that,  nourish  him  as  they  may, 
his  strength,  undermined  by  a  secret  disease,  makes  no  advance. 
A  restless  conscience  is  such  a  secret  disease  in  spiritual  life,  and 
its  removal  is  the  very  first  step  to  increased  vitality.  That 
removal  is  effected  only  by  faith  in  Christ. 

Have  you  a  guilty  conscience  to-night  ?  Have  you  been  yielding 
to  sin,  been  overcome  by  the  tempter  ?  Has  he  almost  overcome 
you  in  the  dust  ?  Do  you  want  to  come  back  to  the  strength  you 
have  lost  ?  Do  you  want  strength  to  conquer  him  as  you  have 
never  conquered  him  ?  Dear  friend,  the  very  first  thing  for  you 
to  do  is  to  get  rid  of  that  past  guilt,  to  get  rid  of  that  burden  of 
pain  on  your  conscience  ;  and,  oh,  I  say,  how  can  you  get  rid  of 
that  but  through  faith,  through  faith  in  the  Saviour,  Whose  blood 
cleanseth  us  from  all  sin,  and  Who  is  exalted  to  give  remission  ? 


The  Power  of  Christ's  Name.  167 

Ay,  when  through  faith  in  Him  that  weakening  burden  is  gone, 
that  sense  of  guilt,  then  the  soul  will  begin  to  rise  and  strength 
will  return,  and  it  will  be  strength  through  faith. 

Then  faith  awakens  the  inspiring  memory,  another  way  through 
which  it  strengthens  us.  Dull  and  heavy  hosts  shrink  from  the 
impending  battle,  till  the  commander  speaks  of  a  nation's  eye  upon 
them,  and  that  they  uphold  a  nation's  cause  and  fight  for  hearth 
and  home.  Hearth  and  home,  the  words  touch  a  magic  spring  at 
which  a  tender  vision  rises  in  the  hearts  of  many  and  a  sudden 
energy  inspires  them.  Eyes  brighten,  lips  cheer,  swords  iiash, 
and  arms  are  nerved  to  conquer.  Oh  the  strength  that  comes 
from  one  swift  memory.  Such  a  memory  comes  through  faith  in 
Christ,  the  memory  of  One  who  gave  Himself  for  us,  One  to 
Whom  we  owe  all  we  have  and  hope  for,  the  memory  of  a  Saviour 
Whose  cross  has  brought  us  pardon  and  peace  and  help,  and  of  a 
dear  friend  Whose  love  cannot  change.  We  cannot  estimate  the 
power  of  that  memory  on  the  sluggish  soul.  If  this  thought  of 
Christ  is  an  inspiration — an  inspiration  to  resist  any  sin,  to  bear 
any  burden,  to  undertake  any  right  task,  "  yea,"  it  exclaims  with 
Peter's  ardour,  "  Lord,  I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  Thy  sake." 
Ah  !  that  is  strength  through  faith. 

Faith,  moreover,  reveals  an  animating  presence.  For  loneliness 
is  often  the  source  of  our  weakness.  The  grasp  of  a  friendly  hand, 
the  glance  of  a  friendly  eye  will  often  make  a  weak  man  strong, 
will  often  make  a  waverer  stedfast.  You  may  know  that  Lady 
Augusta  Stanley,  the  wife  of  the  late  Dean  of  Westminster,  was 
much  interested  in  the  poor  of  that  neighbourhood ;  and  one  day 
a  poor,  suffering  woman  in  one  of  the  London  hospitals  said  :  "  I 
could  go  through  this  operation  if  Lady  Augusta  Stanley  would 
only  come  and  take  hold  of  my  hand."  We  understand  that  quite 
well.  With  one  by  our  side  we  care  for  and  trust,  we  can  do  and 
bear  what  alone  we  cannot.  Faith  in  Christ  just  means  that  on 
the  highest  scale.  Why,  He  says,  "  I  will  never  leave  thee  nor 
forsake  thee."  He  says,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway."  Oh, 
faith  grasps  His  hand  then  and  whispers,  "  Thou  art  near,  O 
Lord.  When  others  have  left  me,  Thou,  my  Friend,  my  Helper, 
my  All-sufficient  One,  art  here."  And  with  that  the  loneliness  of 
the  soul  flies  away  and  the  weakness  of  it,  and  strength  comes,  and 
it  is  strong  through  faith. 

And  this  is,  most  of  all,  because  faith  relies  on  Him  who 
cannot  deceive.  A  dozen — less,  eleven — Galilean  fishermen  went 
forth  to  conquer  the  world  by  a  message.  And  what  was  the 
secret  of  such  mysterious  victory  falling  to  such  utter  weakness, 
but  that  they  knew  that  power  was  given  to  their  Divine  Head, 
and  that  in  doing  His  will  He  would  supply  the  power  as  they 
needed  it  ?  And  He  did.  And  we — you  and  I,  brethren — come 
within  the  same  promise,  for  we  are  His  people,  and  are  equally 
members  of  His  body,  and  for  what  He  requires  of  us  He  will 
supply  the  strength. 


1 68  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


And  then,  faith  seizes  on  that  fact,  which  is  the  great  head- 
fact — that  all  the  strength  we  need  for  what  Christ  gives  us  to  do 
He  will  supply.     And  faith  seizes  on  that.     Faith  says  :— 

"  Weaker  than  a  bruised  reed, 
Help  I  every  moment  need  ; 
But  He,  according  to  His  Word, 
Will  put  strength  into  me." 

And  He  does.  He  must.  He  cannot  fail.  He  has  undertaken 
to  do  it.  He  loves  to  be  trusted.  "  They  that  honour  Me,"  says 
He,  *'  1  will  honour."  '*  None  of  them  that  trust  in  Him  shall 
be  ashamed."     And  so,  once  more,  it  is  strength  through  faith. 

Dear  brethren,  why  then  should  we  do  ourselves  this  wrong, 
of  all  others,  that  we  are  not  always  strong  ?  Have  faith  in 
Christ,  meditate  on  Him,  commune  with  Him,  study  Him,  and 
faith  will  grow,  and  with  the  faith  strength  in  weakness  and  in 
fear.  When  the  task  is  more  than  you  can  fulfil,  and  the  burden 
more  than  you  can  bear,  and  the  heart  sinks  within  you,  whisper 
to  yourselves  the  name  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  rare  talisman.  Think 
for  a  moment  of  Him  of  whom  it  tells,  and  in  the  selfsame 
moment  trust  Him,  and  you  shall  find  His  name,  like  ointment 
poured  forth,  in  the  soul  reviving,  strength-giving.  And  to 
His  glory  wondering  angels  will  at  length  utter,  as  the  ex- 
planation of  the  achievements  which  before  for  you  were  all 
impossible,  "  His  name  through  faith  in  His  name  hath  made 
this  man,  this  woman,  this  sufferer,  this  seeker,  strong." 


THE  SYMPATHY  OF  GOD. 

A  Sernioii  by 
The  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Vaughan,  Dean  of  Llandaff  and  Master  of  the  Temple. 

"  Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we  perish  ? " — St.  Mark  iv.  38. 

In  a  dangerous  storm  on  the  capricious  inland  sea  of  Gennesaret,  a  little 
boat,  occupied  by  thirteen  persons,  is  crossing  from  the  western  to  the 
eastern  shore — the  waves  are  breaking  into  the  ship,  so  that  it  is  now  full 
of  water — and  one,  evidently  the  leaner  of  the  little  company,  is  in  the 
hinder  part  of  the  vessel,  not  helping,  not  cheering,  not  sympathising  with 
the  rest — no,  asleep.  It  is  He  who  suggested  the  crossing ;  He  who, 
when  the  evening  of  a  long,  toilsome  day  was  come,  had  said  :  "  Let  us 
pass  over  unto  the  other  side."  In  some  sense,  then,  He  was  to  blame 
for  the  peril ;  why  had  He  not  foreseen  the  winds  and  the  waves,  and  post- 
poned the  voyage,  at  least  to  the  morning  ?  They  had  trusted  Him — not 
wisely,  but  too  well — and  now,  instead  of  feeling  for  them  in  their  distress. 
He  lies  there  taking  His  rest :  lies  there  asleep.  The  sting  of  the  danger 
is  in  that  sleep.  If  He  were  awake,  and  alive  to  their  trouble,  they  could 
have  borne  it;  they  were  always  ready  to  follow  Him — sometimes  they 
thought  they  could  die  with  Him ;  but  that  He  should  be  indifferent  to 
their  alarm,  that  He  should  be  able  to  sleep  through  it,  this  was  unkind, 


The  Sympathy  of  God.  169 


this  was  unlike  Him ;  half  in  astonishment,  half  in  reproach,  they 
at  last  awaken  Him  with  the  question,  "  Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we 
perish  ?  " 

Miracle  and  parable  are  but  differences  of  name  in  many  places  of  the 
Gospel — and  it  is  so  here.  The  crossing,  that  storm,  that  sleep,  that 
awakening,  all  were  typical ;  real  as  facts,  significant  as  emblems.  They 
have  all  been  acted  again  and  again  in  human  lives,  in  spiritual  histories  ; 
redemption  itself  is  just  that — a  world's  misery,  a  world's  sense  of  neglect, 
a  Divine  sleep,  a  Divine  awakening — the  times  of  that  ignorance  God 
winked  at,  at  last  He  interposed  for  deliverance,  rebuked  the  wind  and  the 
sea,  and  would  have  all  men  everywhere  to  be  saved. 

"  Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we  perish  ?  "  is  one  of  those  graphic  and 
pathetic  touches  which  we  owe  to  this  second  Gospel.  The  other  Evange- 
lists are  contented  to  say,  "  Master,  master,  we  perish,"  or,  "  Lord,  save  us, 
we  perish."  St.  Mark,  preserving  (it  may  be)  a  reminiscence  of  St.  Peter 
— himself  present  at  the  event — gives  that  which  we  seem  to  recognise  at 
once  as  the  exact  expression  ;  represents,  at  all  events,  the  exact  point  of 
the  feeling,  in  this  "  Carest  Thou  not  ?  "  Is  it  nothing  to  Thee  whether  we 
live  or  die  ?     Hast  Thou  no  thought  for  us  who  have  left  all  for  Thee  ? 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  even  amongst  human  beings,  it  is  an  im- 
mense aggravation  of  any  calamity  to  feel  that  it  is  not  cared  for.  To 
suffer  unregarded,  neglected,  unloved,  with  cold  careless  eyes  looking  on,  or 
closed  in  idle  sleep,  which  one  touch  of  sympathy  would  have  prevented, 
is  a  thing  differing  in  kind  as  well  as  degree  from  any  suffering  which  has 
love,  or  even  pity,  as  its  companion.  The  expostulation  of  Gethsemane 
"  Couldest  not  thou  watch  with  me  one  hour  ?  "  was  the  utterance  (in  part 
at  least)  of  a  human  distress.  Made  in  all  thinks  like  unto  His  brethren, 
the  Man  of  Sorrows  was  expressing  in  that  pathetic  interrogation  the  very 
thought  breathed  once,  with  apparent  reason  to  Him,  "  Carest  Thou  not 
that  we  perish  ?  "  Even  He — proving  in  all  things  His  Deity  by  His 
Humanity — was  human  also  in  this — that  He  accepted,  that  He  even 
yearned  for  sympathy,  and  could  say,  in  the  agony  of  the  sin-bearing,  to 
one  from  whom  He  might  have  looked  for  compassion,  carest  thou  not  for 
this  "  horror  of  great  darkness,"  for  this  fear  of  death  which  is  fallen 
upon  me? 

All  have  known  at  some  time  the  double  sadness  of  a  bereavement 
which,  for  any  reason  or  for  none,  has  lacked  sympathy.  Sometimes 
there  has  been  a  character  veiled  from  all  but  its  very  nearest  and  dearest 
— surrounding  friends,  even  friends  near  as  a  brother,  have  not  been 
admitted  to  the  privacy,  or  have  not  been  congenial  to  the  disposition  of 
the  person  whose  departure  has  created,  just  for  one  heart,  a  perpetual 
desolation — how  has  it  jarred  upon  that  one  ear  to  hear  the  vague  con- 
dolences, to  receive  the  inadequate,  the  half  unreal  lamentations  of  those 
who,  compassionate  indeed,  but  cannot  (as  we  say)  enter  into  the  in- 
dividuality of  the  orphanage  or  the  widowhood  which  must  go  with  him 
to  the  grave. 

Thus  is  it  in  all  experiences — we  see  it  even  in  the  vilest.  The  hisses 
and  execrations,  even  the  curses  not  loud  but  deep,  of  a  condemning  mob, 
have  had  power  to  add  bitterness  to  the  last  horrors  of  a  public  execution  ; 
these  have  been  the  clenching  evidences  that  no  man  compassionates,  that 
over  those  fathomless,  those  gloomy  waters,  there  flies  no  vessel  of  com- 


170  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


miseration;  these  have  brought  home  to  the  dying  criminal  the  awful 
conviction — more  awful  than  death — that  no  man  cares  that  he  perishes. 
On  the  other  hand  there  is  no  fear,  and  no  anguish,  and  no  form  of  death 
which  may  not  be  soothed  and  mitigated  by  the  presence  of  a  generous, 
heart  deep,  self-less  sympathy.  It  is  no  stretch  of  imagination  to  hope 
that  some  softening  influence  may  have  communicated  itself  to  the  hearts 
of  those  ship-wrecked  mariners  of  yesterday,  in  the  sight  of  pier  and  beach, 
swarming  with  agonised  beholders,  powerless,  indeed,  to  help,  but  strong 
to  feel,  and  assuring  them  by  look  or  sign  that  there  were  those  who 
cared  if  they  perished. 

It  is  this  known  instinct  of  nature  which  makes  the  last  offices  of  nurse 
and  physician,  of  pastor  and  friend,  so  powerfully  ministerial  to  the  bed 
of  inevitable,  inexorable  death  ;  it  is  this  which  has  added  the  last  touch 
of  misery  to  deaths  died  in  abandonment  or  exile,  where  there  has  been 
none  to  catch  the  last  sigh,  to  breathe  the  name  of  home,  or  to  point  the 
eye  and  the  heart  upward  to  that  opening  heaven  where  the  Son  of  Man 
standeth  at  the  right  hand  of  God. 

But  in  the  instance  before  us  there  was  a  more  than  human  sympathy 
missed  and  craved  for.  And  thus  it  carries  our  thoughts  into  a  region 
above  that  of  earthly  brotherhood,  and  suggests  some  reflections,  not  un- 
suitable (I  trust)  to  the  occasion,  upon  the  complaints  and  expostulations 
of  humanity  itself  in  the  ear  of  "  a  God  that  hideth  himself,"  and  a  Saviour 
seeming  to  slumber. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  many  facts  and  many  experiences  in 
the  life  of  this  world,  which  irresistibly  suggest  the  question  whether  God 
can  be  waking,  or,  if  wakeful,  caring.  To  try  to  enumerate  such  pheno- 
mena is  as  needless  as  it  is  painful.  We  cannot  but  read  this  sleep  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  the  boat  tossed  by  the  wave,  with  His  disciples  standing 
by,  wondering  and  half  murmuring,  as  intending  to  represent  the  world- 
wide, age-long  mystery  to  which  we  are  pointing.  It  does  seem  wonderful, 
not  only  or  chiefly,  that  there  should  be  pain,  disease,  and  death  in  the 
earth — ^earth  being  what  it  is  in  the  matter  of  sin,  for  we  cannot  but  feel 
that  it  would  be  more  wonderful  still,  a  real  offence  to  faith,  a  real 
stumbling-block  to  virtue,  if  a  sinful  were  not  also  a  suffering  creation — 
but  how,  in  the  confession  of  the  Book  of  God  itself,  all  the  foundations 
of  the  earth  are  thrown  out  of  course  by  the  existence  of  sin  upon  it,  and 
by  the  perversenesses,  mismanagements,  and  self-contradictions,  which 
are  the  growth  and  fruit  of  that  primary  fact  of  evil.  "  Carest  thou  not," 
we  are  tempted  to  say  to  the  Divine  Ruler  Himself,  "  that,  whether  it  be 
by  a  moral  murder  or  a  moral  suicide,  we,  Thy  creatures,  are  all 
perishing  !  " 

And  even  if  this  mystery  of  the  existence  of  evil  were  explained  or 
palliated,  it  would  still  be  wonderful  how  evil  should  be  allowed  to  spread 
and  diffuse  itself,  where  there  was  either  no  freedom  of  choice  on  the  part 
of  its  victim,  or  even  a  will  to  resist  if  the  strength  were  but  present.  We 
see  the  ancestry  of  evil,  tainting,  to  remote  generations,  an  offspring  which 
had  nothing  left  for  its  inheritance  but  the  memory  of  crime  and  sorrow. 
We  see  a  leprosy  of  shame  and  vice  corroding  the  very  walls  of  houses, 
in  which,  nevertheless,  women  and  children  must  carry  on  their  miserable 
being,  though  to  do  so  is  to  be  involved  in  consequences  of  which  they 
are  not   originators,  but  victims.     Nay,  we  see,  here  and  there,  efforts 


The  Sympathy  of  God.  171 


made,  difficulties  encountered,  battles  waged,  in  the  vain  endeavour  of 
some  helplessly  entangled  life  to  rid  itself  of  those  fetters  of  evil  which  it 
had  no  share  in  riveting.  How  can  all  this  be — we  vex  ourselves  with  the 
question — if  indeed  there  is  a  God  at  once  of  holiness,  love,  and  power, 
superintending,  ruling,  or  even  overruling,  a  world  which  He  caused  to  be 
and  which  He  keeps  in  being.  "  Carest  Thou  not,"  we  find  ourselves 
asking,  as  we  suffer,  or  as  we  look  on,  "  Carest  Thou  not  that  we  perish  ?" 
Is  it  possible  that  neither  the  violence,  nor  the  malignity,  nor  the  lust,  nor 
the  blasphemy,  of  wicked  men  should  evoke  the  interference,  were  it  but 
for  the  protection  of  the  innocent,  of  a  God  living  and  walking,  a  God  on 
the  side  of  right,  and  a  God  resistless  in  power? 

These  questions  are  as  old  as  the  Fall,  and  we  have  learned  in  some 
measure  the  lesson  of  patience  concerning  them.  But  when  the  experi- 
ence comes  into  a  man's  own  life,  he  finds  himself  still  asking,  "  Carest 
Thou  not  that  I  perish  ? "  Painful  it  might  still  be  to  suffer — pain  and 
suffering  are  but  names  for  each  other — painful  it  must  be  to  live  uneasy 
days,  in  body  or  spirit,  through  poverty  and  its  circumstances,  through 
disease  and  loneliness,  through  fears  and  fightings  on  spiritual  subjects, 
through  cavils  of  doubters,  and  taunts  of  scoffers,  and  all  the  thousand 
tortures  of  a  busy  and  inventive  infidelity — painful  this  must  be,  whatever 
be  its  shape  and  form — yet  even  this  is  not  the  worst  thing.  If  I  could 
see  in  all  this  a  kindly  purpose — an  end  and  an  aim,  like  that  spoken  of 
by  the  Patriarch — "  When  He  hath  tried  me,  I  shall  come  forth  as  gold  " 
— I  could  bear  anything.  I  know  that  I  want  chastening,  to  beat  down 
my  self-will.  I  know  that  I  want  sharp  discipline,  of  scourge  and  cross,  to 
cure  me  of  my  vanity  and  my  levity.  I  know  that  I  want  a  darkening, 
one  by  one,  of  the  false  lights  of  earth,  to  make  the  light  of  heaven 
precious  or  even  visible.  But  surely  it  is  not  necessary,  it  is  not  beneficial, 
that  I  should  be  so  utterly  left  without  one  sign  of  a  gracious  motive,  or 
even  of  a  personal  dealing,  that  I  could  quite  easily  imagine  myself  the 
mere  creature  of  chance,  the  mere  sport  and  plaything  of  destiny,  in  all 
that  happens  to  me,  mental  as  much  as  physical,  and  can  only  keep  alive 
in  myself  an  opposite  idea,  by  a  sort  of  dogged  adherence  to  principles 
which  it  would  be  death,  and  worse  than  death,  to  abandon  ?  I  feel  that 
I  could  bear  almost  anything  if  I  knew  that  God  held  me  in  His  hand, 
that  I  could  bear  quite  anything  if  I  were  sure  that  He  was  only,  and  of 
set  purpose,  refining  and  purifying  me.  The  dreadful,  the  intolerable, 
•^^hing  is  that  I  cannot  see  this,  cannot  know  this  except  in  theory  and  by 
rote,  and  am  therefore  constantly  driven,  by  stress  of  searching  winds  and 
ashing  waves,  to  look  towards  the  unseen  Presence,  and  say,  "Carest 
Thou  not  that  I  perish  ?  " 

We  might  still  go  further,  and  say,  that  the  sympathy  of  God  is  more 
dtal  to  us  even  than  His  Omnipotence.  The  disciples  accepted  the 
''oerishing" — in  other  words,  the  non-intervention  of  Christ  to  save  :  what 
th^y  could  not  accept  was  His  "not  caring."  In  its  influence  upon  the 
he.rt  to  care  is  more  than  to  save.  Love  is  more  than  power,  even  in  the 
Div'ne.  We  are  not  making  light  of  any  one  of  God's  attributes ;  it  is  the 
combination  of  all  the  attributes  which  indeed  forms  our  conception  of 
Him  To  suppose  God  all  else,  and  yet  limited  in  point  of  power,  cannot 
serioisly  be  allowed  without  robbing  ourselves  of  His  Ueity.  But  it  is 
pern:  ssible  to  go  all  lengths  in  pressing,  one  by  one,  upon  our  hearts  all 


172  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

His  perfections.  And  to-day  we  have  before  us  His  sympathy.  We  are 
dweUing  upon  the  thought,  how  essential  it  is  that  He  should  care  for  us. 
How  absolutely  nothing  can  make  up  to  us  for  the  absence  of  that  care. 
Far  better  would  it  be  for  us,  as  spiritual  and  immortal  beings,  to  imagine 
that  there  might  be  some  opposing  and  thwarting  impediment  in  the  way  of 
the  present  exercise  of  God's  attribute  of  Omnipotence,  than  that  there 
should  be  any  defect  or  any  coldness  in  His  love.  If  we  could  believe  that 
the  true  explanation  of  the  present  confusion  was  this— that  the  power  of 
evil,  though  doomed,  is  not  yet  actually  subdued  and  subjugated  to  the 
might  of  God — that  there  is  a  real  warfare  going  on  between  two  empires  of 
light  and  darkness— that,  so  far  from  being  asleep  or  being  indifferent,  God 
is  conducting  a  campaign,  as  for  defeat  or  victory,  against  the  united  rebel 
forces  of  dragon,  beast,  and  false  prophet — and  that,  tho  ugh  the  final  issue 
is  certain,  the  last  field  is  not  yet  fought,  nor  captivity  yet  led  captive — this 
would  go  far  to  reconcile  us  to  the  conditions  and  the  exp  eriences  of  the 
present — for  it  would  at  least  secure  to  us  His  lively  wakefu'  sympathy  with 
every  soul's  struggle  and  every  life's  agony  of  our  own — it  would  explain  to 
us,  as  far  more  than  a  parable,  that  revelation  of  joy  in  heaven  over  each 
sinner  that  repenteth,  of  ministering  spirits  sent  forth  thence  to  watch  over 
the  heirs  of  salvation — it  would  lay  to  rest,  thoroughly  and  for  ever,  that 
bitterest  and  cruellest  of  all  suspicions,  "  Master,  carest  Thou  not  that  we 
perish  ?  " 

And  when  a  man  has  made  up  his  mind  at  all  costs  to  believe  in  the 
Divine  care  for  him— and  when  we  say,  "  at  all  costs,"  we  mean,  "at  the 
cost  of  supposing  some  temporary  limit  to  the  present  exercise  of  the 
Divine  power  itself — he  will  find,  as  he  casts  himself,  day  by  day,  upon 
that  love  and  that  compassion,  that,  for  him  at  all  events — however  it  may 
be  for  the  universe — the  power  is  already  sufficient  too.  He  may  still  be 
unable  to  add  one  jot  or  one  tittle  to  the  old  argument  about  the  existence 
of  evil— he  may  count  it  more  reverent,  as  well  as  more  true,  to  say,  "Such 
knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me,  I  cannot  attain  to  them  " — but  he  will 
find  that  the  difficulty  is  no  longer,  for  him  personally,  a  moral  difficulty  — 
he  will  find  that  prayer  does  bring  him  the  needed  comfort  and  the 
needed  help — as  his  day,  so  his  strength  his — beginning  with  the  axiom, 
"  Thou,  God,  carest,"  he  passes  on  into  the  experimental  conviction, 
"  There  is  none  like  unto  Thee,  O  Lord,  there  is  not  one  that  can  do  as 
thoM  doest  ! " 

This  is  the  present  privilege  of  all  who,  for  good  or  ill,  cast  in  their  lot 
decisively  with  Jesus  Christ.  Though  for  these,  as  for  others,  the  theory 
of  life  is  still  dark  and  baffling,  the  practice  is  like  the  light  shining  more 
and  more  till  the  perfect  day  shall  come.  On  the  hypothesis  (as  men 
speak)  of  the  Gospel,  the  reading  of  the  great  riddle  is  but  a  question  of 
time.  For  each  particular  life  committed  to  it,  the  mystery  is  unveiled 
already.  ''Yeta  little  while  and  He  that  conieth  shall  come,"  makes 
patience,  patience  and  hope,  patience,  hope,  and  courage,  these  three,  the 
sum  and  substance,  the  sufficient  stay  also,  of  the  life  that  is.  For  others 
it  is  not  so.  On  the  life  that  has  undertaken  itself,  its  own  charge,  its  own 
guidance,  its  own  solution,  the  shadow  lies  heavily,  and  must  lie — and  the 
sun  goes  down  in  gloom.  Whatever  may  be  the  eventual  consolaf'on  of 
the  race,  it  has  placed  itself  outside  it.  It  has  no  evidences  to  add  to  the 
stock  of  hope — it  has  no  consolations  to  carry  to  the  account  of  patience. 


The  Sympathy  of  God.  173 


To  it  the  only  inquiry  must  be  that  of  the  text — as  it  watches  the  deepen- 
ing anxieties  of  men  and  nations  ;  as  it  hears  the  tottering  faiths  and 
despairing  deathbeds ;  as  it  watches  for  the  morning  that  comes  not, 
and  elaborate  constitutions,  Divine  and  human,  which  refuse  to  march — 
it  can  but  look  upward  into  the  inscrutable,  impersonal  heaven,  and  ask, 
"  Thou,"  if  there  be  one  in  hearing — if  all  be  not  vague  chance,  shifting 
change,  or  inflexible  law  ;  if  there  be  any  One  above,  intelligent,  however 
silent — "  carest  Thou  not  that  we  perish?  " 

The  question  might  have  been  asked,  with  some  force  of  reason— may  be 
propounded  still,  for  such  as  believe  not — were  it  not  for  that  Divine  inter- 
vention of  which  we  have  but  just  passed  from  the  annual  commemoration. 
The  very  reckoning  of  our  year,  little  as  we  may  notice  it,  reproves  and 
forbids  the  expostulation  of  the  "not  caring."  It  maybe  possible  to 
exaggerate — certainly  to  misrepresent — the  effects,  as  already  realised  on 
earth,  of  the  incarnation  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ— it  is  impossible  to 
overstate  the  argument  of  the  sympathy  and  of  the  love.  We  may  marvel 
at  the  slow  march  of  the  Gospel  towards  the  conquest  of  nations — at  the 
backward  steps  here  and  there,  of  its  beneficent  influences — at  the 
re-gathering  of  clouds  of  sin  and  misery  once  dispelled — at  the  imperfect 
success,  anywhere,  of  that  message  of  peace  and  holiness  which  ought  by 
this  time  to  have  spread  a  new  life  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth.  We 
may  feel — and  we  ought  to  feel — the  responsibility  of  this  failure  as  lying 
individually  upon  all  who  profess,  but  do  not  live,  the  Gospel.  We  may 
go  so  far  as  to  say  that  mankind  is  still  "  perishing,"  though  the  light  of 
day  has  searched  out  the  chambers  of  imagery,  and  made  it  no  longer 
excusable  to  sit  or  walk  in  darkness.  Like  the  disciples  on  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  vve  may  feel  ourselves  in  jeopardy,  the  Gospel  having  failed  to 
work  in  us  its  saving  work,  and  rather  revealing  than  dispersing  the  gloom 
of  sin  and  death. 

One  thing  we  cannot  say — that  our  Master  cares  not.  If  He  had  not 
cared  to  save,  would  He  have  left  the  glories  of  heaven  to  be  born  of  a 
woman,  to  be  made  one  of  us,  to  share  our  weakness,  temptations,  and 
sorrows,  to  be  despised  and  rejected  by  His  own,  to  stoop  at  last  to  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross  ?  Certainly  He  cares  if  we  perish.  Say,  iif 
you  must  say  it,  with  the  scoffer,  that  He  attempted  the  impossible-^that 
He  miscalculated  the  comparative  forces  of  antagonistic  good  and  evil — 
that  He  failed  in  His  great  adventure — that  He  lived  and  died  in  vain. 
Say,  if  you  must  say  it,  with  the  scoffer,  that  He  was  conscious  of  failure, 
that  He  felt  Himself  defeated,  that  he  died  broken-hearted.  At  least  you 
cannot  accuse  Him  of  not  caring.  He  took  it  upon  Him  to  deliver  man 
— He  came  upon  earth,  He  endured  the  contradiction  of  sinners,  He  sub- 
mitted to  the  last  agonies,  that  He  might  help,  that  He  might  redeem,  that 
He  might  regenerate,  those  who  cared  not  for  one  another,  those  who 
cared  not  for  themselves. 

And  though  we  can,  if  we  will,  perish  in  spite  of  Him — though  a  salva- 
tion by  force  is  no  salvation,  and  a  soul  that  will  slay  itself  can,  and  a  fallen 
nature  can  always  stay  so,  or  sink  lower  and  lower,  by  successive  acts  of 
willing,  till  it  dies  the  very  death  of  hell — this  need  not  be.  The  salva- 
vation  of  Jesus  Christ  is  sufficient  salvation — "to  the  uttermost"  is  its 
watchword — not  by  force,  nor  in  spite  of  us,  but  the  consent  of  a  will  made 
willing,  He  can  justify  and  sanctify,  He  can  strengthen,  and  bless,  and  save. 


174  ^^^^  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

If  ever  He  should  seem  to  sleep  through  our  sorrows,  or  to  be  indifferent 
to  our  prayers,  this  is  but  to  try  our  faith,  to  sober  our  lightness,  to  quicken 
our  earnestness— soon  will  He  arise  and  rebuke  the  wind  and  the  sea — at 
last,  for  one  and  for  another,  He  maketh  the  storm  a  calm,  so  that  the 
waves  thereof  are  still. 

"  Carest  thou  not  ?  " — has  a  voice  for  the  disciple  as  well  as  for  the  Lord. 
How  it  reproves  the  lazy  loitering,  the  purposeless  sauntering,  the  silly 
dreaming,  in  which  so  many  of  us  pilgrims  and  voyagers  pass  the  time  of 
our  sojourning  !  Not  to  care  that  we  perish,  is  suicide — not  to  care  that 
our  brother  perishes,  is  murder.  Christ  cared,  God  cared,  that  we  might 
care  ;  and  yet,  as  I  look  within,  as  I  look  around  me,  I  find  almost  nothing 
that  expresses,  almost  nothing  that  is  consistent  with,  this  anxiety  !  I  see 
lives  given  to  this  one  thing,  the  making  themselves  easy,  and  soft,  and 
luxurious — I  see  minds  relaxing  themselves  by  every  sentimental,  sensa- 
tional, or  sensual  study — I  see  souls,  not  so  much  bravely  encountering 
terrible  questions  of  doubting,  on  purpose  that  they  may  know,  and  on 
purpose  that  they  may  judge,  but  rather  idly  suspending  everything,  as 
though  doubt  were  wisdom,  as  though  it  were  an  evidence  of  power  to  be 
fertile  in  cavilling,  cruel  in  unsettling  !  O  if  we  would  be  serious  !  O  if 
we  would  be  considerate  !     O  if  we  would  work  !     O  if  we  would  care  ! 

Standing  this  day  on  the  margin  of  an  undiscovered  future — hearing 
Jesus  Christ  say  to  us  this  morning,  "  Let  us  cross  to  the  other  side," 
knowing,  yet  not  knowing,  what  that  "  other  side"  means — a  condition, 
at  least,  of  mind  and  heart  different  from,  yet  made  by,  the  present — let  us 
gather  all  our  energies  for  the  mystic,  the  allegorical,  crossing — let  us 
resolve,  like  the  disciples  before  us,  two  things  :  that  we  will  obey  the 
summons  as  His,  and  that  we  will  take  Him  with  us  !  This  if  we  do,  we 
need  fear  no  evil — no,  not  if  the  weeks  of  this  Term  should  contain  in 
them  the  transition  from  health  to  sickness,  from  life  to  death  ! 

No  stranger  can  visit  unmoved  those  solemn  memorials,  of  marble  slab 
or  painted  window,  which  keep  fresh  in  your  Cathedral  Church  the  loved 
names  of  young  men  called  suddenly,  by  accident  or  fever,  from  amidst 
the  energetic  movements  of  academical  life  into  the  stern  realities  of  an 
everlasting  hereafter.  They  live  still— there  and  here — there,  we  trust, 
resting,  serving,  knowing,  learning,  worshipping,  aspiring.  Here  in  salutary 
admonition  for  those  that  come  after — bidding  them  to  be  ready  always, 
remembering  their  Creator  in  the  days  of  their  youth. 

This  may  be,  for  anyone  of  us,  "  the  other  shore"  to  which  Christ  to-day 
is  calling  us — it  may  be  so,  even  if  no  one  thinks  it. 

But,  at  all  events,  changes  will  be  busy  in  this  congregation,  even  within 
the  short  span  of  one  Term.  O  how  many  may  have  passed,  by  a  few 
short  steps,  from  faith  to  scepticism — from  prayer  to  silence — from  com- 
parative innocence  to  a  guilty  conscience  !  Who  can  pretend  to  be  confi- 
dent, who  can  dare  to  be  light-hearted,  as  he  launches  forth  to-day  for  a 
shore  veiled  in  mist,  over  a  sea  big  with  storm  ? 

Let  us  all  thank  God  that  there  is  One  who  cares  if  we  perish — let  us 
pray  I  lim  so  to  keep  us,  in  every  going  out  and  coming  in  ;  so  to  watch 
over  us  in  the  hours  of  toil,  of  converse,  of  resting  ;  so  to  order  all  things 
for  us,  study,  thought,  influence,  companionship — that  we  may  never  perish, 
but  continually  grow  in  grace  and  in  knowledge  of  Himself,  our  Lord  and 
God! 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  175 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S  ,  of  Durham. 

Sunday, /u/y  20,  1890. 

TAKING  UP  THE  CROSS. 

Luke  xiv,  25—35. 

Storehouse  and  Fortress. — The  poor  peasant  or  fellah,  who  lives 
from  year  to  year,  or  rather  from  month  to  month,  conceals  his  scanty 
store,  which  is  to  supply  him  till  the  next  harvest,  in  a  silo,  or  under- 
ground pit,  carefully  covered  over,  either  in  his  little  plot  or  in  the  yard  of 
his  house,  and  drives  his  goats  every  night  into  his  courtyard  ;  but  when  a 
man  becomes  richer,  in  a  land  where  wealth  consists  in  flocks  and  herds, 
and  in  stores  heaped  up,  rather  than  in  money,  this  wealth  in  kind  cannot 
be  so  easily  concealed,  and  his  first  aim  is  to  secure  his  possessions  against 
the  surprise  of  marauding  parties.  With  this  object  he  prepares  to  build 
a  storehouse,  or  defensible  tower,  such  as  we  see  still  among  the  Druses  of 
the  Hauran,  where  he  can  bestow  all  his  fruits  and  his  goods.  As  the 
robber  parties  are  generally  only  a  troop  of  light-armed  horsemen,  a  simple 
square  building  of  stone,  loopholed  in  the  upper  story,  is  sufficient  for 
security,  these  towers  not  being  intended  to  resist  regular  military  opera- 
tions. Such  a  tower  still  exists  at  Carmel,  in  Judah,  the  home  of  Nabal, 
and  is  attributed  to  Abigail's  churlish  husband  by  the  country  folk  around, 
though  in  reality  of  no  earlier  date  than  the  time  of  the  Crusades,  having 
probably  taken  the  place  of  an  earlier  and  ruder  building.  The  need  for 
these  towers,  and  the  way  in  which  stores  were  kept  by  the  poorer  class, 
is  illustrated  in  Jeremiah  xli.  8,  where  ten  men  plead  for  their  lives  : 
"  Slay  us  not :  for  we  have  treasures  in  the  field,  of  wheats  and  of  barley, 
and  of  oil,  and  of  honey  3"  that  is,  hidden  stores,  buried  underground, 
which  they  could  reveal  to  their  captor,  if  their  lives  were  spared. 

"  If  the  Salt  have  Lost  his  Savour." — The  illustration  is  taken 
from  a  phenomenon  familiar  to  many  of  our  Lord's  hearers.  We  do  not, 
in  countries  where  the  salt  is  not  found  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  find 
salt  losing  its  taste.  But  in  Palestine,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  are  large  superficial  deposits  of  salt,  and,  as  at  Jebel  Usdum,  a  vast 
salt  mountain,  seven  miles  long  and  three  or  four  hundred  feet  high.  The 
salt  mountain  and  other  deposits  are  covered  with  a  coating  of  soft  gypsum, 
sometimes  several  feet  thick,  which  must  be  removed  before  the  salt  is 
reached.  This  covering  is  created  by  the  combined  action  of  sun  and 
rain,  which,  in  course  of  ages,  slowly  evaporates  the  moisture  and  precipi- 
tates the  saline  particles,  leaving  a  crust  of  earthy,  crumbling  matter, 
which  has  the  appearance  of  salt,  but  is  utterly  useless.  Salt,  as  is  well 
known,  is  a  valuable  fertiliser,  when  used  in  small  quantities,  especially  for 
the  date  palm.  But  this  earthy  gypsum  supports  no  vegetable  life  of  any 
kind,  and  is  perhaps  the  only  material  on  which  nothing  will  grow.     Even 

*  From  the  American  Sitnday  ScJiool  Times. 


176  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

the  sulphur  deposits  have  plants  peculiar  to  themselves  ;  but  these,  how- 
ever long  exposed,  unless  mixed  with  some  other  substance,  remain  abso- 
lutely bare.  The  marl-beds  on  the  west  side  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  the 
lower  Jordan,  which  give  an  air  of  such  utter  desolation  to  the  region,  are 
formed  entirely  of  this  deposit  of  salt,  which  has  lost  its  savour,  and  is, 
moreover,  absolutely  destructive  of  all  life. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.- 

Lesson  for  July  I"]  :  Luke  xv.  i  — 10.     Golden  Text ;  Verse  10. 

Lost  and  Found. 

We  come  now  to  some  parables  for  publicans  and  sinners,  in  which  our 
Lord  showed  to  them  the  love  and  free  forgiveness  of  God.  Our  Lord 
had  a  great  and  special  love  for  the  weak  things  of  the  castle — the  poor, 
the  down-trodden,  the  forsaken,  the  lost.  This  chapter  is  a  whole  Gospel 
of  comfort  to  the  lost. 

I.  The  value  of  one  lost  soul.  In  our  Lord's  first  parable  He  tells  of  the 
one  sheep  that  was  lost.  The  shepherd  had  many  sheep,  and  only  one 
was  lost.  But  if  the  shepherd  were  to  say,  "nevermind,"  whenever  one 
sheep  was  lost,  he  would  soon  have  many  fewer  than  ninety-nine.  God 
counts  the  lost  soul  worth  all  that  searching  which  is  told  us  in  this 
parable,  and  the  saving  of  it  worth  all  the  joy.  The  most  worthless  being 
you  ever  met  is  worth  more  that  all  earth's  gold. 

In  our  Lord's  second  parable  He  tells  of  the  one  bit  of  silver  that  was 
lost.  There  is  a  great  fascination  about  stories  of  lost  treasures,  and  the 
search  for  them.  One  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  most  popular  books  is 
"  Treasure  Island,"  which  relates  the  history  of  lost  treasure  and  the  search 
for  it.  Only  last  year  an  expedition  was  fitted  out  to  search  for  hidden 
treasures  in  the  lonely  island  of  Little  Trinidad  in  the  South  Atlantic. 
But  the  treasures  required  to  be  found,  and  the  expedition  had  to  return 
empty-handed.  There  is  often  great  eagerness  shown  to  recover  earthly 
treasure,  but  the  eagerness  of  God  is  far  greater  to  recover  His  lost  ones. 

II.  The  sinner's  great  encouragement.  The  shepherd  was  anxious  to 
find  his  lost  sheep,  the  woman  was  eager  to  recover  her  lost  coin,  and 
Jesus  is  far  more  eager  to  find  the  lost  souls.  Your  loss  is  His  loss.  It 
is  His  chosen  work  ;  His  great  joy  to  find  lost  souls.  The  great  preacher 
Whitfield  used  to  say,  that  Jesus  was  so  willing  to  receive  sinners  that 
he  did  not  object  to  receive  the  devil's  castaways. 

III.  The  work  of  the  heavenly  mind.  It  is  to  sympathise  with  those 
who  seek  the  lost,  and  to  rejoice  with  them  when  the  lost  are  found. 
"  There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that 
repenteth." 

'■'■  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  116,  Vol.  III.]  JULY  25,  1890.  One  Penny, 


JOY,  REST,  AND    FAITH. 

Bv  Professor  Henry  Drumjiond. 

Notes  of  an  Address  delivered  in  Toorak  Presbyterian  Church,  June  ^,  1890, /(? 
the  members  of  the  Sabbath  Morning  Felloioship  Union. 

Speaking  to  those  who  are  meeting  together  for  the  stud}-  of  the 
Bible,  and  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating  one  another  in  the 
Christian  life,  the  best  thing  I  can  do  to-night  is  to  put  you  in 
possession  of  a  principle,  which  you  can  apply  so  as  to  make 
the  Bible  a  little  easier  understood,  and  the  Christian  life  a  little 
smoother. 

Many  people  weary  themselves  out  in  trying  to  make  themselves 
good.  They  go  from  book  to  book,  and  from  service  to  service, 
to  learn  how  to  grow  in  grace.  Years  pass,  and  they  find  little 
change  occurs,  and  they  are  as  far  as  ever  from  the  goal  which 
they  seek-.  Why  should  it  all  be  so  resultless  ?  Why  should  it 
not  be  that  all  our  efforts  to  reach  a  higher  stage  in  the  Christian 
life  meet  with  success  ?  Why  is  it  that  Christian  experience  is 
in  such  a  disturbed  state  ?  There  must  be  some  principle  running 
through  the  Christian  life  which  would  aid  us.  There  is  a  prin- 
ciple, and  a  very  simple  one.  It  is  that  every  effect  has  a  cause.  If 
I  am  cold,  there  is  a  cause  for  it.  I  can't  extirpate  the  cold.  I 
must  find  the  cause  of  the  coldness.  It  must  be  a  cold  room,  or  a 
cold  article  of  clothing.  If  there  is  anything  wrong  in  a  man's 
spiritual  life,  he  must  find  out  the  cause  and  deal  with  it.  Some, 
when  they  come  to  cross  roads  in  their  life  and  don't  know  how  to 
turn,  are  advised  by  religious  people  to  pray  about  it  and  all  will 
come  right.  We  have  no  such  assurance  that  we  should  do  this 
mentioned  in  the  Bible.  What  the  Bible  says  is  really  this: 
"  Unto  the  upright  there  ariseth  light  in  the  darkness."  Then, 
my  first  business  is  to  ask,. am  I  upright  in  heart  ?  If  so,  it  must 
happen  that  light  will  arise.  It  is  just  a  case  of  cause  and  effect ; 
antecedent  and  consequent.  We  have  no  right  to  pray  unless  we 
are  in  the  line.  We  must  fulfil  the  condition  on  which  alone  the 
answer  can  be  given.  Our  thoughts  arc  too  little  fixed  on  effects 
and  on  causes.     If  we  would  only  see  this  ! 


178  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

One  of  the  things  people  want  most  in  the  Christian  life  is  joy 
— perhaps  the  crown  of  all  religious  grace.  When  attained,  then 
the  Christian  life  becomes  worth  living.  People  search  in  all 
directions  for  this  Christian  joy.  When  I  was  in  the  Sunday- 
school  I  thought  thus — that  we  were  to  ask  for  what  we 
wanted  and  we  would  get  it ;  and  that  joy  was  kept  in  heaven  in 
lumps,  and  was  let  down  in  answer  to  prayer ;  and  that  all  the 
graces  were  kept  in  heaven  and  let  down  in  this  fashion.  There 
may  be  circumstances  in  which  they  do  come,  and  whether  we 
know  it  or  not  we  can  easily  tell  by  turning  over  a  few  pages  of 
our  Bible.  It  does  not  come  directly.  There  has  been  read  the 
chapter  (John  xv.)  which  above  all  others  tell  us  about  joy,  and 
verse  11,  "These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  my  joy 
might  remain  in  you,  and  that  your  joy  might  be  full."  If  we 
want  to  know  how  our  joy  is  to  be  full  we  must  attend  to  these 
words.  The  vine  was  that  which  brought  joy  to  the  heart  of  man. 
And  joy  is  to  be  attained  by  bearing  fruit.  Anyone  who  bears 
fruit  will  find  it  is  the  effect  of  the  cause.  We  are  to  look  for 
these  things  indirectly ;  they  are  not  to  come  magically,  but 
according  to  the  laws  of  the  spiritual  world.  I  appeal  to  your 
own  experience.  Whenever  you  have  done  any  simple  thing  to 
help  on  Christ's  cause  in  the  world,  or  done  some  good  thing  to 
another,  joy  has  come  of  its  own  accord.  No  one  can  be  quietly 
glad  by  praying  for  it,  but  by  bearing  fruit,  which  is  the  condition. 
You  must  have  been  struck  with  the  conditionalness  of  the  promises 
given.  In  that  15th  chapter  of  John's  Gospel  you  will  see  how 
often  that  word // comes  in — if  yon  do  so  and  so,  so  and  so  will 
follow.  Verse  7,  "  //ye  abide  in  Me,  and  My  words  abide  in  you, 
ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you."  The 
important  part  of  that  text  is  the  if.  We  are  not  entitled  to  ask 
Avhat  we  will  unless  we  fulfil  Christ's  words.  Verse  10,  "  If  ye 
keep  My  commandments,  ye  shall  abide  in  love,"  &c.  The 
principle  I  am  asking  you  to  look  into  is  the  conditionalness  of 
the  promises  and  answers  to  prayer,  and  of  getting  the  Christian 
virtues  and  graces.  These  do  not  come  to  us  unless  we  apply  the 
causes. 

Perhaps  what  some  people  want  after  joy  is  rest.  If  anyone 
is  restless  there  is  a  cause  for  it.  There  is  no  use  of  reading  books 
or  of  longing  for  rest  in  order  to  get  it.  We  shall  not  read  long  in 
the  New  Testament  till  we  find  how  to  get  rest.  Christ  says, 
"  Learn  of  Me  .  .  .  and  ye  shall  find  rest."  If  we  learn  of  Him 
we  shall  find  rest  at  once ;  if  we  accept  Him  as  our  teacher,  and 
take  lessons  of  Him  how  to  live,  we  will  obtain  rest.  It  is  the 
same  thing  He  meant  when  He  said,  "  Take  My  yoke  upon  you  "' 
— not  a  burden,  remember.  What  is  a  collar  to  a  horse  ?  Is  the 
yoke  of  the  horse  the  burden  ?  No,  the  collar  is  what  helps  him  to 
bear  the  burden  easily.  Christ  saw  men  borne  down  with  burdens. 
He  said,  "  Try  life  as  I  live.     My  yoke  is  easy,  and  therefore  My 


Joy^  Rest,  and  Faith.  lyg 

iburden  is  light."  Instead  of  Christianity  adding  to  the  burden,  it 
is  the  secret  of  the  amelioration  of  life.  It  enables  one  to  take  the 
burdens  of  life  without  finding  their  weight.  He  actually  goes  on 
to  specify  what  we  are  mainly  to  learn  of  Him.  "  For  I  am  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart."  Do  you  see  the  connection  between  being 
meek  and  having  rest  ?  Most  are  not  meek  and  lowly  in  heart. 
Many  worr}-,  thinking  they  are  not  in  their  right  place  ;  that 
they've  been  looked  down  on,  and  at  night  they  are  bitter  and  lose 
their  rest  from  wounded  pride  and  from  imagining  people  are 
slighting  them.  These  things  would  be  impossible  to  us  if  we 
learnt  of  Christ,  and  were  meek  and  lowly  in  heart.  There  is  no 
other  way  than  by  doing  what  Christ  says.  It  is  impossible 
otherwise  to  have  that  great  Christian  experience  of  rest  that  is  so 
much  coveted. 

The  next  grace  we  will  notice  is  that  of  faith.  Does  faith 
come  in  the  line  of  cause  and  effect  ?  I  was  much  astonished  at 
first  when,  a  number  of  years  ago,  I  heard  Mr.  Moody  remarking 
that  if  he  had  spent  as  much  time  reading  his  Bible  as  in  prayer, 
he  would  have  been  a  better  Christian.  I  thought  then  that 
everything  was  obtained  by  prayer.  But  Mr.  Moody  had  found 
that  faith  didn't  come  in  that  way.  "  Faith  cometh  by  hearing," 
not  by  praying.  We're  disappointed  in  prayer  sometimes  be- 
cause it  makes  no  difference.  You  may  have  prayed  for  ten  years, 
night  and  morning,  and  been  no  better  for  it,  and  so  feel  inclined 
to  give  it  up.  But  prayer  alone  does  not  help  us  unless  we  help 
it  to  help  us  by  hearing.  I  come  to  Australia,  and  I  have  heard 
about  a  certain  man,  and  I  believe  in  him  a  bit.  I  hear  more 
about  him  and  my  faith  increases.  I  get  to  know  the  man  and 
my  faith  grows  stronger  and  more  intense.  Faith  comes  by  hear- 
ing about  Christ.  Someone  has  told  us  about  Christ.  We  think 
■something  of  Him.  Someone  else  strengthens  the  opinion  about 
Him,  and  we  begin  to  believe  in  Him,  and  we  grow  stronger  in 
faith  and  trust  Him  fully. 

I  think  I  have  mentioned  a  few  of  the  most  important  things 
in  the  Christian  experience :  joy,  rest,  faith.  I  could  go  over  all 
the  Christian  graces  and  show  that  all  had  a  cause,  and  if  we 
attended  more  to  cause  than  effect,  we  would  obtain  more  than 
we  do.  Let  us  all  apply  this  principle  more  to  sanctification. 
Hundreds  of  books  have  been  written  about  sanctification.  But 
no  book  touches  the  Bible  in  regard  to  it.  I  wish  to  recall  a 
single  formula  which  sums  up  the  whole  matter  (2  Cor.  iii.  i8,r.v.)  * 
*'  We  all,  with  unveiled  face  reflecting  as  a  mirror  the  glory  of 
the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to 
glory,  even  as  from  the  Lord  the  Spirit."  The  Lord's  glory  is 
the  character  of  the  Lord.  We  are  changed  into  the  same  image 
from  character  to  character ;  from  a  poor  character  to  a  little 
better  character,  and  then  a  little  better,  and  then  into  His  image. 
The  verb  there  is  in  the  passive.     We  are  changed  into  the  same 


■I So  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

image — transformed.  Most  people  try  to  manufacture  the  char- 
acter, but  these  wa}-s  are  futile  by  trying.  Christ  held  that  up  to 
ridicule  by  saying  (Matthew  vi.  27)  "  Which  of  you  by  taking 
thought  can  add  one  cubit  unto  his  stature  ?  "  No  one  by  trying 
hard  can  approach  by  any  means  to  the  stature  of  the  perfect 
man  in  Christ  Jesus.  We  cannot  grow  by  trying.  We  do  not 
change  ourselves  into  His  image,  we  are  changed.  Man  does  not 
"  born  "  himself,  he  is  born.  We  do  not  renew,  we  are  renewed 
in  the  mind. 

Another  method  people  adopt  is  trying  to  stop  one  sin  at  a  time. 
Life's  too  short  for  that  process.  Besides,  if  we  try  this  we  soon 
find  sin  after  sin  to  deal  with.  Others  try  to  copy  the  perfections, 
and  it  is  an  inharmonious  character  that  is  secured.  Many  more 
give  up  the  attempt  altogether,  while  many  others  imagine  that 
time  will  affect  the  change.  There  is  no  sanctification  by  time- 
Time  is  a  measure,  not  a  cause  of  change.  There  must  be  some 
cause  operating  to  change  us.  Some  are  of  the  opinion  that  a 
few  people  are  naturally  disposed  to  be  good,  and  to  go  to  meet- 
ings and  read  religious  books.  This  is  not  a  magical  world,  but  a 
world  of  law ;  and  the  law  of  sanctification  is  summed  up  in  that 
one  passage  on  reflecting  the  character  of  the  Lord.  If  I  live  for 
years  with  a  very  beautiful  character,  I  become  changed  to  that 
image.  It  comes  about  by  law.  We  are  all  reflectors.  We 
reflect  our  nations,  the  books  we  love,  &c.  If  we  live  with  bad 
people  we  become  changed  to  be  like  them.  If  we  live  with  good 
people  we  become  changed  like  to  them.  If  we  live  with  Christ  we 
become  changed  into  His  character  even  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God. 
All  these  gifts  come  from  the  Spirit.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to 
fulfil  the  conditions  and  the  results  will  follow. 

I  have  shown  but  crudely  how  to  do  it,  but  I  would  suggest 
that  you  take  up  the  subjects  in  detail,  i.e.,  love,  peace,  eternal 
life,  and  let  the  one  who  writes  the  paper  on  the  subject  for  your 
fellowship  meeting  find  out  the  cause  of  it,  not  merely  quote  texts 
or  give  examples  of  it,  but  go  to  the  very  bottom  of  it,  and  find 
out  from  the  Bible  and  from  human  life  how  these  things  do  come. 
The  second  great  thing  about  the  principle  is  that  it  is  absolutely 
simple,  and  the  third  thing  is  that  it  is  absolutely  infallible,  and  so 
one  cannot  fail  to  find  the  things  he  seeks.  All  comes  back  to  one 
thing  :  Abiding  in  Christ  and  trying  to  represent  Him  in  the  world 
in  which  we  live. 

Some  time  ago  theologians  showed  man's  status  in  God's  sight, 
but  the  accent  of  theology  has  changed  somewhat  nowadays,  and 
instead  of  the  preacher  dealing  so  much  with  the  status  of  a  man 
he  speaks  of  a  man's  character.  Perhaps  at  first  too  exclusive  an 
accent  was  put  upon  the  status,  but  the  change  has  been  a  good 
deal  brought  about  by  the  translation  of  the  original  in  the 
Revised  Version  of  the  Bible  from  soul  to  life.     The  accent  now 


Preaching  Christ  Crucified.  iSi 


falls  on  life,  and  this  is  a  more  practical  thing  and  has  more  to  do 
with  this  world. 

I  have  given  you  receipts  you  are  to  make  up  for  yourselves.  I 
have  suggested  the  methods,  you  are  to  work  them  out.  In 
closing  I  wish  to  say  two  practical  things  : — 

(i)  It's  not  worth  while  being  religious  unless  you  are  altogether 
religious.  It  won't  do  to  be  merely  playing  at  religion,  or  having 
religion  on  us  as  a  bit  of  veneer.  It  must  saturate  us.  Some 
seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  second  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  third  the  kingdom  of  God.  I  don't  think  a  man  makes  any- 
thing of  it  if  he  seeks  the  second  time.  For  then  prayer-meetings 
are  dull,  and  fellowship  gatherings  are  uninteresting.  But  the 
moment  a  man  begins  to  seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His 
righteousness,  all  things  are  right.  To  any  man  who  has  not 
heartily  thrown  himself  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  who  is 
seeking  secondly  the  kingdom  of  God,  he  may  be  religious,  but 
there  is  something  he  loves  more,  and  both  worlds  are  spoiled  to 
him.  He  has  neither  the  cream  of  the  one,  nor  of  the  other. 
The  great  desideratum  of  the  present  day  is  not  more  Christians, 
but  a  better  brand  of  Christians.  Who,  then,  will  first  seek  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness  day  by  day  ? 

(2)  The  last  thing  is — many  men  imagine  if  they  become  a 
little  more  religious  they  will  become  a  little  less  happy  than  they 
are.  I'd  like  to  assure  all  such  that  it's  just  the  opposite.  It's 
more  easy  to  live  the  whole  religion  than  the  half.  He's  most 
miserable  who  is  half  in  and  half  out,  trying  to  serve  two 
masters.  But  many  men  are  kept  back  by  this  thought  of  less 
happiness.  More  religion  of  the  right  kind  means  an  infinity  of 
joy  and  happiness,  and  it's  m.uch  easier  to  live  right  out  and  out 
than  in  a  half-hearted  way. 


PREACHING  CHRIST  CRUCIFIED. 

A  Scrmo7i  by 
The  Right  Rev.  The  Bishop  of  Oxford. 

"  But  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling  block,  and  unto 
the  Greeks  foolishness,  but  unto  them  which  are  called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks, 
Christ  the  power  of  God,  and  the  wisdom  of  God." — i  Corinthians  i.  23,  24. 

The  Christian  life,  the  love  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,  has  this  much 
in  common  with  the  Divine  perfection.  In  the  idea  of  God,  perfect  love, 
holiness,  and  light,  there  is  no  division  or  contrast  of  separate  perfections. 
Like  the  light  itself,  which  He  has  shed  around  us  as  typical  of  His 
presence,  His  glory  is  subject  to  our  analysis  only  when  looked  at  through 
some  medium  which  is  in  its  nature  more  closely  akin  to  ourselves  ;  which 
enables  us  to  approach  the  Divine  light  as  it  were  from  different  angles,  and 
to  discern,  as  different  colours,  the  infinite  variety  that  unites  in  that 
perfect  unity.     As  the  light  of  the  sun  through  the  rainbow,  so  the  light 


1 82  The  British  Weekly  Piclpit. 

that  lighteth  every  man  that  is  born  into  the  world.  Made  in  His  image^ 
although  fallen  from  His  image,  we  recognise  the  authority  of  His  com- 
mand, "  Be  ye  Holy  as  I  am  Holy."  And  he  has  brought  near  his 
righteousness  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  "  To  give  the  light  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  " ;  "  God,  who  commanded  the  light  to 
shine  out  of  darkness,"  has  shined  thus  on  our  hearts  ;  "  But  we  have  this 
treasure  in  earthen  vessels  that  the  excellency  of  the  power  may  be  of  God 
and  not  of  us."  Thus  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God, 
coming  to  us  through  the  life  of  Jesus,  has  the  same  unity  of  perfection 
that  we  ascribe  to  the  same  glory  not  yet  incarnate.  "  We  behold  His 
glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father."  As  the  justice  and 
mercy,  the  loving  kindness  and  the  determinate  counsel,  are  not  difterent 
qualities  but  the  same  perfection  of  Deity,  approached  in  diverse  attitudes 
aud  in  varied  circumstances  ;  so  is  the  perfection  of  Christ  Jesus  incarnate, 
crucified,  ascended,  and  yet  ever  with  us,  our  strength  and  our  example. 
The  obedience  of  Jesus,  the  love  of  the  atoning  work,  the  patience,  the 
perseverance,  the  brave  self-devotion,  the  beneficent  habit,  the  all 
illuminating  doctrine,  the  firmness,  the  pliancy,  the  boldness,  the 
reserve,  the  dignity,  the  lowliness,  of  his  mortal  life,  are  but  various  sides, 
various  manifestations  of  the  unity  of  character  and  purpose  which  he 
reveals  to  us.  And  that  charity,  which  St.  Paul  in  this  day's  epistle 
declares  to  us,  as  the  more  excellent  way,  what  is  it  but  the  reflection  of 
the  face  of  Jesus  in  the  lives  of  those  who  try  to  be  conformed  to  His 
likeness;  of  those  who  "  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  are  changed  into  the  same  image  from  glory  to  glory,  even  as 
by  the  spirit  of  the  Lord."  It  has  the  same  unity  of  the  love  which  is 
the  fulfilling  of  the  law ;  its  various  attributes  are  but  the  same  clear  light 
seen  from  different  points  or  by  a  varied  medium.  Take  away  some  of 
its  characteristics  and  the  whole  is  destroyed.  There  are  no  fragments  of 
the  broken  ideal.  He  that  is  guilty  in  one  point  is  guilty  in  all.  "  He 
that  hath  the  Son  hath  life,  and  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath 
not  life." 

If  then  we  take  that  charity  which  never  faileth,  as  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  the  Christian  life,  we  may  see  how  that  humility,  the  grace  of 
which  I  am  to  speak  in  particular,  is  little  else  than  that  graceful  attitude 
in  which  pure  charity  approaches  God  and  man,  and  looks  in  upon  itself ; 
the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  being  in  the  form  of  God,  and 
resting  in  the  unity  and  equality  which  left  Him  nothing  to  strain  after  but 
man's  salvation,  divested  Himself  of  the  unapproachable  and  in  comprehen- 
sible manifestation  of  His  glory,  "  and  took  upon  Him  the  form  of  a  servant, 
and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  humbled  Himself,  and  became 
obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross."  "  In  the  fashion  of  a 
man  "  He  was  found,  when  He  humbled  Himself;  how  deep  is  the  lesson. 
In  His  equality  with  God,  in  His  unapproachable  majesty,  in  whom  is  no 
variableness,  neither  shadow  or  turning,  "who  upholdeth  all  things  by  the 
word  of  His  power,"  there  is  no  diversity  of  proportions  ;  all  thmgs  are 
seen  by  Him  in  their  reality  ;  His  love  is  over  all  His  works,  and  as  His 
majesty  is  so  is  His  mercy.  It  is  when  He  has  become  man  that  He 
humbles  Himself,  with  His  great  purpose  of  love  before  Him — the  great 
glory  of  our  salvation,  the  reward  of  the  toil  for  which  He  has  come  to  visit 
us;  then  He  enters  the  list  in  which  the  captain  of  our  salvation  is  made 


Preaching  Christ  Crucified.  1S3 


perfect  by  suffering.  Humility  is  the  habit,  the  attitude  in  which  from  the 
first  He  has  undertaken  the  labour  of  His  divine  love,  the  travail  of  His 
soul. 

For  us  then,  according  to  the  idea,  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the 
fulness  of  Christ,  charity  is  not  one  habit  or  a  set  of  habits,  much  less  an 
act  or  set  of  acts,  but  the  habit  of  the  soul,  and  humility  is  not  one  of  a 
set  of  attitudes,  or  a  mere  class  of  attitudes,  but  the  attitude  of  the  soul 
in  which  the  Holy  Ghost  is  working  the  good  pleasures  of  God.  And 
when  we  look  for  the  bearing  of  the  text,  "  We  preach  Christ  crucified," 
on  the  special  theme  for  the  illustration  of  which  it  is  chosen,  we  recog- 
nise, as  in  the  charity  in  which  His  people  emulate  the  love  and  devotion 
of  His  work,  so  in  the  humility  in  which  they  share  the  mind  that  was  in 
him,  the  proof  of  the  union  of  their  hearts  with  His  heart,  the  proof  that 
the  life  which  they  now  live  in  the  flesh  they  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son 
of  God.  "  I  am  crucified  with  Him  whom  I  preach,  nevertheless  I  live  ; 
yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth  in  me.'' 

But  further ;  it  is  no  wonder  that  Christ  crucified  and  the  preaching  of 
Him  is  to  the  Jews  a  stumbling  block  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness.  To. 
the  faithful  themselves,  without  controversy,  great  is  the  mystery  of  godli- 
ness ;  more  than  a  mystery,  a  very  paradox  if  it  were  not  that  He  supplies 
the  clue.  How  strange  are  those  passages  in  the  record  of  His  last  days 
on  earth,  in  which  He  speaks  of  His  crucifixion  as  a  glorification  :  "  The 
hour  is  come  that  the  Son  of  Man  should  be  glorified."  "  What  shall  I 
say?  Father,  save  Me  from  this  hour,  but  for  this  cause  came  I  unto  this 
hour;  Father,  glorify  Thy  name."  "  Father,  the  hour  is  come,  glorify  Thy 
Son  that  Thy  Son  may  glorify  Thee."  And  the  language  in  Gethsemane, 
and  on  the  cross,  summed  up  in  the  loud  and  exceeding  bitter  cry,  "  Why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  me?  "  We  stand  awestruck  before  the  great  mystery  ; 
the  bush  burns  with  fire,  yet  is  not  consumed.  We  do  not  venture  to 
attempt  to  analyse  the  strange  light  that  gleams  from  the  cross.  But  we 
know  that  in  that  death  so  meekly  borne  was  the  accomplishment  of  the 
work  that  he  had  given  Himself;  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Me."  We  have  not  to  wait  until  He  has  passed  through  the  grave 
and  gate  of  death,  risen  and  ascended,  and  sat  down  in  the  glory  which 
He  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was.  It  is  on  the  cross  that  He 
wears  His  new  crown  ;  He  reigns  from  the  tree ;  the  new  glory  that  He 
wins  is  there,  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  ;  "  those  whom  thou  hast 
given  Me  are  safe  in  My  hand." 

Is  it  a  presumption  in  us  to  see  in  our  life's  task  a  reflection,  a  following 
of  His  ?  Was  not  the  thought  present  to  Him  when  He  followed  up  that 
strange  saying  about  His  glorification  with  the  words,  "  Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it 
abideth  alone ;  but  if  it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit."  "  He  that 
loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall 
keep  it  unto  life  eternal."  "  If  any  man  serve  Me,  let  him  follow  Me  ; 
and  where  I  am  there  shall  alsd  My  servant  be ;  if  any  man  serve  Me  him 
will  My  Father  honour."  Like  His,  our  glory  is  in  our  service,  our  liberty 
is  in  our  service,  our  kingdom  and  royalty  is  in  our  service  :  for  our  service 
is  the  very  outcome  of  His  service,  as  our  crown  is  of  His  crown,  our 
glory  of  His  glory ;  that  where  He  is,  there  also,  in  this  life  and  in  that 
which  is  to  come,  shall  His  servants  be. 


1 84  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

But  I  forbear  to  strain  after  analogies  which,  full  of  voice  and  life  as 
they  are  to  the  disciples  who  have  borne  the  cross  after  Him,  are  realised 
more  deeply  in  the  heart  than  on  the  hearing  of  the  ear.  Let  it  suffice  us 
now  to  remember  that  we  have  our  share  in  Christ  crucified,  in  Himself, 
in  His  work,  in  His  glory,  and  see  how  that  share  involves  our  wearing 
His  garment  of  humility  whilst  we  follow  His  steps :  in  His  suffering  for 
us  He  has  given  us  our  example,  He  has  given  us  His  Spirit,  He  is  with 
us  Himself. 

The  first  requisite,  I  should  suppose,  to  the  realising  of  true  humility,  is 
self-knowledge.  Not  but  that  a  great  deal  of  the  truest  humility  is  almost 
if  not  altogether,  unconscious,  a  habit  that  by  God's  grace  has  become  the 
nature  of  the  soul,  and  on  which  the  reactionary  efforts  of  pride  and  selfish- 
ness in  the  soul  break  as  something  strange,  and  inwardly  repulsive  to  the 
renewed  self.  Still,  I  conceive,  there  is  this  in  common  to  the  hearers  of 
the  word,  whether  doers  or  not  doers,  that  they  must,  at  some  time  of  their 
life,  have  looked  at  their  natural  face  in  a  glass.  We  know  that  in  the 
matter  of  worldly  work  it  is  an  absolute  requisite  of  success  that  a  man 
should  form  some  estimate  of  his  own  powers,  unless  he  is  willing  to  waste 
his  life  on  that  which  is  unworthy  of  him,  or  to  throw  away  his  chances  by 
straining  after  that  for  which  he  would  see  himself  to  be  incompetent,  if  he 
would  look  at  all.  And  some  habit  of  introspection  forms  necessarily  a 
part  of  all  mental  and  moral  discipline.  That  view  of  the  inner  life  which 
specially  connects  itself  with  humility  is,  however,  not  the  mere  conscious- 
ness of  sin,  the  view  that  results  for  the  moment  in  self-contempt,  and  wonder 
that  God  should  have  thought  us  worth  saving ;  or  what  conceivable  quality 
was  there  in  us  that  Christ  should  set  His  love  upon  us.  The  humility 
that  attends  upon  charity,  that  is  the  permanent  attitude  of  the  soul,  comes 
later  and  lasts  when  much  of  the  unhappiness  of  self-contempt  has  become 
a  thing  of  the  past.  This  humility  breaks  the  alabaster  box  of  spikenard, 
exceeding  precious,  because  of  the  great  love  which  is  the  proof  and 
witness  of  "sins  forgiven  ;  it  also  is  full  of  tears,  but  the  offering  is  an  offer- 
ing of  love,  not  of  bondage.  And  so  the  self-estimate  is  not  a  depreciating 
one ;  what  have  I,  what  am  I,  what  can  I  make  myself,  that  I  may  do  my 
Master's  work,  grow  into  my  Master's  spirit,  render  myself  a  grateful 
offering  to  Him  whose  joy  in  me  shall  be  perfected  when  He  shall  see  me  be- 
holding His  presence  in  righteousness,  waking  up  after  His  likeness?  I  know 
that  I  have  nothing  that  I  have  not  received,  I  can  do  nothing  but  by  the 
strength  that  He  has  given  me,  I  can  offer  Him  nothing  but  what  He  has 
first  bestowed  on  me.  As  David  said,  when  he  prepared  for  the  building 
of  the  Temple,  we  say  when  we  proffer  the  dedication  of  our  life,  "all 
things  come  of  Thee,  of  Thine  own  have  we  given  Thee.'  We  do  not 
want  to  bring  Him  even  the  one  talent,  wrapped  and  buried  as  it  other- 
wise would  be,  and  say  "  I  knew  that  thou  wert  an  austere"  man,  reaping 
that  thou  hadst  not  sown,  gathering  that  thou  hast  not  strawed."  We  ask 
what  is  our  talent,  what  is  our  gift,  what  can  we  do  to  prove  our  love,  to 
give  Him  some  fruit  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  ?  Our  whole  life  is  a  very 
little  gift,  either  as  compared  with  the  love  that  redeemed  it,  or  with  the 
love  that  we  would  render  for  the  redemption.  It  is  but  a  little  lesson, 
yet  it  is  more  than  a  life's  lesson,  "  Lord,  what  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful 
of  him,  and  the  son  of  man  that  Thou  so  regardest  him."  "Man  is  like  a 
thing  of  nought,"  but  "Thou  hast  redeemed  me,  O  Lord,  thou  God  of 


Preaching  Christ  Crucified.  185 

truth,"     True  love  and  true  humility  demand  that,  little  as  it  is,  it  be  not 
wasted. 

Next,  upon  self-knowledge  must  follow  self-culture  ;  and  in  the  region  of 
self-culture,  where  pride  and  humility  come  closest  together,  a  still  deeper 
effort  to  search  out  the  spirit  must  accompany  every  step,  every  stage  of 
growth.  For  there  are  in  the  very  means  and  appliances,  of  which  we 
have  to  avail  ourselves  to  increase  our  five  talents,  or  three,  or  one,  dangers 
as  well  as  helps  ;  temptations  to  self-worship  as  well  as  aids  to  self- 
devotion.  The  duty  of  making  the  most  of  ourselves,  of  strengthening 
where  and  how  we  can,  the  moral  sense ;  of  cultivating  the  intellectual 
powers  ;  of  qualifying  ourselves  to  increase  the  sum  of  human  knowledge, 
and  the  sum  of  human  happiness,  lies  upon  us  ;  a  service,  it  is  true,  full  of 
freedom,  full  of  delightful  energy,  full  of  a  sweet,  strong-sense  of  increasing 
power,  abundant  in  hope,  rejoicing  in  generous  trustfulness,  abounding  in 
noble  anticipations,  yet  at  every  step  needing  to  be  guarded.  Self-culture 
is  a  duty  of  true  love,  an  inseparable  accompaniment  of  true  humility  ; 
but  oh!  beloved,  is  not  the  way  full,  full  of  snares?  Not  merely  the 
danger  of  taking  to  ourselves  what  we  should  give  to  God — the  glory  of 
our  success,  the  credit  of  our  discoveries  ;  but  the  setting  of  our  heart  on 
the  things  in  which  we  are  training  ourselves,  living  for  study,  living  for 
science,  living  for  success,  living  even  for  liberty  and  well  doing,  when  our 
true  heart's  work  is  to  live  for  God,  casting  our  study,  our  science,  our 
success,  every  fruit  of  our  labour  at  His  feet,  with  David's  words,  "  Thine 
own  have  we  given  Thee  ";  yet  with  all  our  power,  not  more  than  the 
mere  fragment  of  what  we  would.  Nor  even  that  only  ;  jealousies  of 
other  men's  success,  ungenerous  rivalries,  heart-burnings,  enmities,  harsh 
words  of  those  who  differ  from  us,  embittered  perhaps  by  a  sense  of  in- 
feriority, or  by  a  sense  of  superiority  not  less  often,  but  oh  !  how  far  apart 
from  the  spirit  of  Christ,  or  even  from  the  spirit  of  St.  Paul,  saying 
"whether  it  be  we  or  they"  what  matters  it  if  He  be  glorified  ? 

Self-culture  has  its  end,  its  true  end,  in  self-devotion.  The  spirit  of 
humihty  lies  deep  here  and  must  needs  strike.  Let  me  give  myself,  such 
as  He  has  made  me,  such  as  He  has  helped  me  to  make  myself,  such  as  I 
am  ;  but  a  great  way  off  from  what  I  would  be,  to  the  work  which  He, 
rather  than  myself,  has  set  me.  Let  Him  choose  for  me.  I  will  not  say 
He  has  need  for  me  elsewhere.  He  had  no  need  of  thee  ;  it  is  for  thine 
own  salvation  that  He  has  chosen  thee,  and  given  thee  gifts,  and  a  place 
to  serve  Him  :  accept  the  guidance  of  the  Lord.  Shall  I,  after  making 
myself  a  ripe  and  brilliant  scholar  throw  away  my  chance  of  doing  great 
things  for  God,  by  taking  a  country  curacy,  or  a  place  in  a  second-rate 
'school?  Shall  the  vessel  of  clay  say  to  the  potter  ''  Why  hast  thou  made 
me  thus  ?  "  Will  not  He  who  gives  the  call  make  the  opportunity  ?  If  only 
you  are  sincere  in  telling  Him  that  such  as  you  have  made  yourselves,  you 
have  made  yourselves  for  Him,  be  well  assured  He  will  not  let  you  be 
wasted.  What  becomes  of  our  first  class  men  ?  The  very  men  whom 
God  has  equipped  in  His  own  armour  to  fight  the  battles  of  His  truth  in 
the  misery  of  our  great  cities,  in  the  dark  places  and  cruel  habitations  of 
farther  lands,  in  the  great  controversies  of  true  and  false  science.  They 
leave  us,  too  often — bear  with  me  when  I  say  it — because  they  to  whom 
their  very  attainments  constitute  a  call  to  do  God's  work,  have  been 
tempted  away,  and  refused  to  take  His  burden  and  learn  of  Him  with 


1 86  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

whom  they  would  find  rest  for  their  souls.  They  go,  and  we  hear  of  them 
from  time  to  time  as  men  of  whom  once  great  things  were  hoped,  but 
"  there  is  a  way  that  seemeth  right  unto  man."  Alas !  self-culture  and 
self-devotion,  without  which  humility  may  be  but  a  synonym  for  indolence, 
yet  need  the  training  of  humility  at  every  step.  Against  disappointment, 
against  jealous  grudging,  against  wondering  what  God  made  you  for, 
against  weariness,  "  Master,  we  have  toiled  all  night  and  have  taken 
nothing,"  against  despondency,  "  Lord,  they  have  digged  down  thine  altars 
and  I  only  am  left,"  against  impatient  wilfulness,  against  that  self-concen- 
trating energy  which  is  close  akin  to  pride,  the  spirit  of  humility  stands  in 
one  continuous  attitude  of  defence.     And  how? 

I  think  the  true  cure  for  this  constant  tendency  to  wander  from  God's 
work,  is  the  constant  bearing  in  mind  our  share  of  the  work  of  Christ 
crucified  :  the  glory  of  joining  in  His  work  of  ministration,  of  sympathy,, 
the  bearing  of  one  another's  burdens  ;  the  realising,  it  may  sometimes 
be,  of  our  own  burden  through  theirs  ;  the  lightening  of  their  toil,  the 
helping  to  save  them.  That  is  the  work  of  charity,  of  love  ;  the  work 
which  they  who  love,  are  clothed  with  humility.  It  is  in  His  Divine 
sympathy  that  Christ  draws  nearest  us  ;  in  our  sympathy  with  Him  and 
His,  we  realise  His  indwelling.  "  Surely  He  hath  borne  our  griefs  and 
carried  our  sorrows  ;"  "Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens  and  so  fulfil  the 
law  ;  "  bear  the  cross,  win  the  glory.  Humility  is  not  merely  the  attitude 
of  the  soul  before  God  or  in  introspection,  it  is  the  absolutely  necessary 
attitude  of  every  man  who  would  sympathise  with  his  fellows,  bring  Christ 
to  them,  lead  them  to  Christ,  do  Christ's  work  in  and  for  them.  That 
sympathy  is  the  oil  of  gladness;  the  very  nourishment  that  every  joint 
supplieth  according  to  the  effectual  working  in  the  measure  of  every  part, 
whereby  the  whole  body  under  the  head  which  is  Christ,  maketh  the 
increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love  ;  it  is  the  very 
salt  of  the  Church,  it  is  the  very  music  of  the  household,  it  is  that  which 
joins  the  lowliest  man  on  earth  to  the  great  company  of  heaven.  And 
yet  to  enter  at  all  into  that  we  must  know  how  to  forget  our  own  troubles, 
our  own  disappointments,  our  own  accomplishments,  our  own  selves,  or  to 
think  of  ourselves  only  as  most  highly  blessed  in  forming  a  link  between 
Him  and  those  whom  He  loves. 

How  much  more  !  He  who  would  receive  God's  truth,  however 
bestowed,  must  wait  for  it  in  the  same  attitude.  The  true  man  of  science 
is  the  man  who  is  content  to  labour  and  content  to  wait ;  he  is  not  the 
crude  discoverer  who,  as  soon  as  he  sees  a  new  truth,  imagines  that  he  has 
stolen  a  march  on  all  the  world,  and  rushes  out  to  make  his  market,  and 
recreate  the  universe  upon  it.  He  is  not  the  ruthless  critic  who  will  repel 
the  weak  and  tentative  beginnings  of  those  whom  he  might  cherish  and 
discipline,  not  the  rash  theorist  who  tries  to  take  the  kingdom  of  nature 
by  violence  and  demonstrate  a  new  creation  because  he  cannot  under- 
stand the  old.  He  is  the  man  who  works  with  patience  and  works  with 
humility.  The  true  man  of  genius  is  no  vain  dogmatist ;  he  is  at  heart 
very  humble,  for  true  genius  must  surely  recognise  both  the  giver  and  the 
work  that  he  has  appointed.  Who  is  the  true  preacher  and  minister  of 
(lod's  word  ?  Not  the  wise,  not  the  scribe  or  disputer,  not  the  controver- 
sialist, not  the  eloquent  man  who  can  draw  those  tears  that  lie  so  very 
near  the  eyes ;  it  is  the  man  who  can,  as  they  say,  lay  his  heart  to  your 


Preaching  Christ  Crucified.  187 

heart,  can  feel  for  your  doubts  and  feel  for  your  temptations,  can  feel  for 
your  sins ;  for  his  message,  and  his  mission,  and  the  spirit  of  his  crucified 
Lord,  have  for  him  the  reality  which  makes  Him  real  to  you  and  you  real 
to  Him.  Who  is  the  true  believer?  It  is  he  who  recognises  in  Jesus  and 
His  work  the  one  truth  whereby  his  soul  may  be  healed ;  and  who  before 
he  can  see  that,  has  seen  that  there  is  no  help  in  himself.  "An  evil  and 
adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign,"  but  to  those  who  want  a 
saviour  no  sign  is  needed  ;  to  those  who  approach  the  truth  in  humility. 
the  truth  comes  after  no  long  waiting  ;  they  that  do  His  will  are  taught 
His  will.  They  who  are  willing  to  be  taught  shall  speedily  be  taught  of 
God. 

Beloved,  it  is  no  slight  mercy,  no  small  boon,  to  have  seen  in  a  single 
holy  life  the  true  example  of  humility.  As  my  mind  reviews  the  past,  and 
the  men  whom  I  have  found  it  a  blessing  and  a  glory  to  have  loved,  I  can 
remember  one  who  for  years  occupied  no  small  place  in  the  world's  regard,, 
and  died  at  the  very  height  of  honour  ;  a  man  who  had  great  success  in 
life ;  had  been  loved  and  honoured  as  a  schoolboy  ;  had  won  the  greatest 
success  and  filled  the  most  onerous  offices  in  the  University  ;  had  early 
been  promoted  to  a  high  place  among  the  ministers  of  the  Church,  and 
performed  the  work  of  almost  raising  from  death  the  religious  life  of  a  most 
important  region  ;  on  whom  promotion  followed  promotion,  and  who,  if 
success  should  make  a  man  proud,  might  well  be  proud ;  until  he  died,  the 
same  quiet  and  modest  gentleman  that  he  had  been  throughout.  To  the 
outside  world  his  chief  characteristic  was  calm  dignity,  readiness  to  workj. 
readiness  to  mediate  ;  a  moderation  which  hastier  men  regarded  as  some- 
what cold.  No  dogmatist,  no  controversialist,  reticent,  most  cautious  and 
temperate  in  judgment,  firm  and  gentle,  all  men  knew  him.  But  to  those 
who  were  nearer  to  him  he  was  a  very  noble  monument  of  God's  grace  ; 
living  so  entirely  above  the  world,  that  whilst  he  was  wide  awake  to  all 
that  passed  around  him,  and  deemed  it  his  duty  to  be  first  in  every 
good  work,  and  on  his  guard  against  every  evil  one,  the  storms  of 
political  and  ecclesiastical  tumult  did  not  seem  to  come  near  him  ;  so 
entirely  in  sympathy  with  his  people  that  wherever  his  hand  could  reach  it 
was  stretched  out  to  help  ;  so  powerful  by  example  that,  where  he  was,  no 
ill-natured  word  was  ever  spoken,  no  unkind  tale  repeated  ;  no  word  of 
flattery  was  uttered  in  his  presence;  a  man  whose  life  began,  continued, 
and  ended  in  prayer ;  who  in  his  trouble  turned  to  his  God  and  his  Bible 
just  as  the  simplest  cottager  would  turn,  and  who  in  his  prosperity  had  a 
word  of  kindness  and  a  deed  of  wise  and  circumspect  bounty  for  all. 
The  fatherless  and  the  widow,  aye,  many  a  one,  live  to  feel  His  praise. 
Humility  was  the  very  charm,  and  very  harmonising  grace  of  all. 

Then  I  see  another,  a  very  different  man  in  most  else.  A  strong- 
minded,  hard-headed,  hard-working  parish  priest,  putting  his  shoulder  to 
the  burden  to  undertake  for  God  themostdifificultof  all  work,  the  recovery 
of  a  great,  half  heathenised  parish ;  a  great  preacher ;  a  man  of  over- 
flowing geniality,  wise  and  witty  ;  with  long  experience  of  men,  courted 
in  society,  the  friend  and  adviser  of  the  greatest  men  of  his  time  ;  only 
to  a  moderate  degree  successful  in  the  eye  of  the  world,  but  most  bounti- 
fully prospered  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon  his  labours.  Yet  in  him  also, 
so  different  a  man,  the  same  strong  and  effective  humility  was,  to  those 
who  were  privileged  to  come  near  to  him,  far  the  most  striking  feature  of 


i88  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

all.  Humility  in  his  estimate  of  himself  and  his  labours,  shown  in 
unwearied  industry ;  constant  training  of  himself  until  he  was  long  past 
three  score  years  and  ten,  to  become  more  than  before  a  fit  instrument  in 
the  Lord's  hands;  rising  at  four  every  day,  to  begin  his  work  with  prayer 
and  gain  time  to  let  all  the  multifarious  engagements  and  distractions  of 
his  busy  life  fall  into  their  proper  places  ;  although  a  stout  controversialist, 
taking  the  utmost  care  not  to  wound  the  man  while  he  struck  at  the  hostile 
cause,  and  most  careful  to  heal  the  wound  that  a  random  blow  might  inflict. 
With  all  so  patient,  so  considerate,  so  sympathetic  in  his  great  abounding 
fellow-feeling  with  weak,  sinful,  suffering  humanity,  that,  wherever  he  went, 
love  followed  him  and  rewarded  him  as  he  best  loved  to  be  rewarded.  None 
was  ever  repelled  as  trifling  or  intrusive  because  he  could  not  boldly  state 
his  case  at  once ,  time,  pains,  thought,  money,  were  freely  given.  *'  As 
the  eye  of  the  servant  unto  the  hand  of  the  master,  and  as  the  eye  of  the 
maiden  unto  the  hand  of  her  mistress,"  his  whole  life  was  to  his  Lord. 
There  was  nc  cant,  no  sham  reserve ;  his  humility  was  spontaneous  and 
unconscious ;  the  ornament  of  a  strong,  energetic,  ready,  v/hole-hearted 
soldier,  and  yet  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit.  His  reward  also  is  with  the 
Lord  ;  but  when  we  think  of  him  in  his  work  and  in  his  rest,  we  see  that 
he  had  the  beginning  of  his  reward  here.  Hundreds  of  inferior  men 
passed  him  in  worldly  honour,  but  none  came  near  him  in  the  love  of 
men.  And  once  more,  for  I  would  not  weary  you,  but  as  I  go  on  thinking, 
other  figures  crowd  upon  me,  of  those  who  in  sight  of  men  have  seemed 
farther  different  still,  but  have  rejoiced  to  wear  the  same  uniform,  ever 
bearing  about  in  their  body  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  Some  of  us 
can  remember  one,  perhaps  more  than  one,  who  neither  gained  success 
nor  won  such  influence  for  good  as  these ;  but  whose  gracious  gifts  were 
spent  in  more  retired  and  quiet  scenes  ;  a  great  scholar,  a  most  industrious 
critic,  a  brillaint  controversialist,  a  most  indefatigable  Worker,  the  man  who 
united  acuteness  of  critical  perception  with  extensive  learning  perhaps  in 
the  highest  degree  that  those  qualities  ever  are  united;  a  man  to  whom  to 
know  OS  a  difficulty  was  to  attack  it,  and  to  attack  it  was  in  nine  cases  out 
of  ten  to  overcome  it,  and  to  overcome  was  in  every  case  simply  an  equip- 
ment for  further  research  and  further  victory  ;  Vv'ho  was  content,  yes  glad, 
after  years  of  work  here,  to  devote  himself  to  the  care  of  a  little  country 
parish,  where  for  m.iles  and  miles  he  found  not  one  person  who  could  enter 
into  tlie  thoughts  which  had  occupied  his  whole  life,  or  recognise  the  value 
of  the  man  ;  who  threw  himself  into  his  work  heart  and  soul,  without  for- 
getting the  old,  and  learned  at  an  age  when  most  men  are  tired  of  trying 
to  learn,  to  speak  to  the  child  and  the  ignorant,  in  such  language  as  they 
could  understand,  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  Poor  and  broken  in 
health,  and  worn  with  many  discouragements,  we  saw  him  working  hard 
to  the  very  last  day  of  his  life,  when  he  knew  that  his  hours  were  num- 
bered and  that  it  was  to  God's  blessing  alone  that  his  labours  must  be 
left.  In  him,  too,  the  Holy  Ghost  wrought  that  self-same  mind  of  Jesus. 
Unlike  most  of  us,  even  of  those  who  try  to  do  better,  he  never  spoke  of 
himself,  or  of  what  he  had  done,  or  of  what  he  might  have  done  had  it 
pleased  God  otherwise  ;  his  very  abstinence  from  profession  marked  a  pro- 
lound  humility,  a  self-knowledge  and  self-disciphne  that  culminated  in  a 
rare,  very  rare,  self-devotion.  And  God  took  the  proffered  life,  although 
the  reward  may  not  be  seen  until  the  great  net  is  drawn  to  the  shore. 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  iSg 

Beloved,  you,  the  elders  at  least  among  you,  must  remember  others 
whose  lives  have  to  you  illustrated  the  great  theme,  far  more  signally  than 
any  words  of  sermons  or  examples  learned  through  the  preacher's  lessons : 
in  whom  you  have  seen  the  life  offered  to  Christ,  and  recognised  the 
humility  of  the  inner  conversation  in  one  whom  the  world  knew,  perhaps, 
only  as  the  great  judge,  or  the  popular  physician,  or  the  leading  politician, 
or  the  brilliant  soldier,  or  even  the  man  of  society.  Thank  God  for  having 
known  them,  and  letting  the  light  of  His  glory  shine  through  them  upon 
you.  But  do  not  fail  to  recognise  that  which  was  the  mainspring  of  life 
to  them  ;  the  humility  was  the  attitude,  the  habit,  the  outward  unconscious 
garb  of  a  spirit,  the  strength  of  which  was  in  its  union  with  Christ ;  a 
union  which  nothing  but  sin  could  dissolve  ;  and  which  He  and  they  with 
Him  were  steadfastly  purposed  should  not  be  broken.  That  oneness  with 
the  Crucified  carries  with  it  both  the  charity  and  the  humility  ot  the  saints ; 
and  He  the  Crucified  came,  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister ; 
"  He  that  is  greatest  among  you  let  him  be  your  servant."  Equally  fitting 
to  every  grade  of  human  life,  to  the  rich  and  to  the  poor,  to  the  wise  and 
the  ignorant — and  who  is  so  consciously  ignorant  as  the  truly  wise  man — to 
the  successful  and  the  unsuccessful,  to  the  ambitious  and  to  the  retiring, 
to  the  strong  and  the  weak  ;  it  helps  the  man  who  has  it  through  all  trials, 
yes,  even  through  the  disappointment  most  keen  to  the  heart  of  the  good 
man,  because  it  comes  nearest  to  the  divine  sorrow  which  cannot  be  com- 
forted, in  the  loss  of  those  for  whom  we  have  laboured  and  toiled  in  love. 
Christ  crucified  is  to  him,  why  not  to  us  also  who  believe,  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God.  His  consciousness  of  Christ's  hold  upon 
him,  and  of  his  own  helplessness,  may  like  the  dying  of  his  Master  be  to 
the  Jews  of  this  world  a  stumbling  block,  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness  ; 
but  in  spite  of  the  paradox,  he  can  say  with  the  Apostle,  "  When  I  am 
weak  then  am  I  strong";  "  If  I  must  needs  glory  I  will  glory  of  the  things 
that  concern  mine  infirmities  ";  "  Yet  all  things  are  yours,  and  ye  are 
Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's." 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON,* 

/li/y  27,   1890. 
By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S,,  of  Durham. 

LOST  AND  FOUND. 

Luke  xv.  i — 10. 
"  Then  .  .  .  Publicans  and  Sinners." — When  the  outcasts  of  religious 
society,  the  publicans  and  sinners,  heard  of  the  parable  of  the  supper,  and 
that  the  denizens  of  the  lanes  and  hovels,  the  homeless  ones  of  the  high- 
ways and  hedges,  were  welcome,  "  then,"  as  this  chapter  emphatically 
begins  in  the  Authorised  Version,  they  pressed  into  the  open  banqueting 
room  to  hear  Him.  At  once  He  emphatically  repeats  His  teaching  by 
two  parables,  taken  from  most  familiar  incidents  of  Eastern  life:  the  one, 
that  of  the  lost  sheep,  coming  home  to  the  men,  the  other,  of  the  lost  piece 
of  money,  to  the  women,  of  the  crowd.  In  a  country  where  all  the  pas- 
turage is  on  open,  unfenced  land,  and  where  every  cave  and  fissure  in  the 

•  From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


I  go  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

limestone  rocks  might  conceal  an  enemy,  the  sheep,  unless  under  the  shep- 
herd's eye,  are  never  safe.  By  the  "  wilderness  "  is  meant,  not  a  desert, 
but  the  grassy  downs  and  shrub-clad  hillsides  which  are  to  be  found,  in  a 
state  of  nature,  not  far  from  every  village.  The  village  is  usually  placed 
on  a  knoll,  very  often  with  a  tower,  such  as  is  alluded  to  in  our  last  note, 
and  around  it  are  the  gardens,  and  beyond  them,  on  the  slopes,  the  vine- 
yards, all  carefully  fenced  in,  and  each  belonging  to  individual  proprietors. 
Beyond  these  are  the  corn-fields,  where  there  is  any  tolerably  level  surface, 
for  the  most  part  unfenced,  though  the  limits  of  each  property  are  carefully 
marked  out  by  stones  set  up  at  the  corners  and  various  intervals,  the 
"  neighbour's  landmark,"  which  it  is  the  gravest  of  crimes  to  remove. 
Wherever  the  land  ceases  to  be  adapted  for  corn  cultivation,  the  common 
land  of  the  village  begins,  and  extends  to  the  common  of  the  next  little 
community,  carefully  dehmited,  also,  by  landmarks. 

"  If  He  Lose  One  of  The:\i." — Each  villager  has  the  right  of  taking  his 
sheep  and  goats  to  pasture  on  this  common  land,  but  they  must  be  con- 
tinually watched,  lest  they  trespass  on  the  corn,  stray  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  commune,  or  be  pounced  upon  by  skulking  wolves  or  jackals. 
But,  with  all  his  care,  a  shepherd  may  easily  lose  a  sheep.  As  soon  as  the 
flocks,  which  have  left  the  fold  at  daybreak,  reach  their  pasture-ground, 
they  generally  separate,  the  goats  hurrying  up  the  hillsides,  to  browse  in 
long  lines  on  the  shrubby  herbage ;  the  sheep  moving  in  a  parallel  line 
lower  down,  and  nibbling  at  the  finer  grasses.  The  shepherd  posts  himself 
on  some  rock  or  mound  where  he  may  keep  the  whole  in  view,  and  from 
time  to  time  moves  forward,  or  crosses  some  little  dell  in  quest  of  fresh 
pasturage,  calling  on  the  flocks  to  follow  him,  which  they  always  do  with 
alacrity.  But  at  such  a  juncture,  some  adventurous  animal  may  have 
strayed  out  of  hearing,  and  then,  bewildered  at  finding  itself  alone,  may 
wander  farther  and  farther  from  its  companions,  helpless  and  defenceless. 
When  evening  approaches,  the  shepherd  reckons  up  his  flock,  as  they  pass 
before  him  into  the  fold,  and  at  once  detects  his  loss,  and  retraces  his  steps 
till  he  haply  finds  the  wanderer. 

The  Women's  Silver  Pieces. — Then,  turning  to  the  women,  Christ 
appeals  to  them  too.  They  knew  well  what  it  was,  in  the  inner  recesses  of 
their  dark  Galilean  cottage,  to  lose  one  of  the  silver  pieces,  the  treasured 
heirlooms  which  they  strung  on  their  head-dresses  ;  for  the  allusion  here 
is  not  to  money  carried  in  a  purse,  but  to  the  coins  which  formed  the 
scmadi  worn  by  every  Nazareth  matron  to  this  day.  The  sanadi'xs,  formed  of 
silver  coins  pierced  through  the  centre,  and  strung  on  a  pad  on  each  side  of 
the  head,  the  larger  coins  at  the  bottom,  and  the  smaller  at  the  top,  meet- 
ing, if  the  wearer  be  rich  enough,  on  the  forehead.  These  treasures  are 
the  property  of  the  women  alone.  Father,  brother,  or  husband,  has  no 
power  over  them,  and  they  descend  from  mother  to  daughter.  How  poor 
must  that  woman  be  who  had  only  ten  such  pieces,  any  traveller  in  Galilee 
will  know  full  well  !  How  keenly  would  she  feel  the  loss  of  even  one  coin 
from  her  scanty  head-dress,  and  how  carefully  would  she  search  her  house 
for  the  missing  treasure  ! 

"  Doth  not  Light  a  Candle."— And  need  has  she  to  light  a  candle ; 
for  in  a  Galilean  cottage  there  are  no  windows,  but  generally  an  inner 
chamber,  which  receives  scarcely  a  ray  of  light  from  the  door,  the  only 
means  of  ventilation  or  light.     In  this  inner  chamber,  or  sometimes  raised 


Sevmoncite  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.       191 

dais  at  the  back  of  the  living-room,  are  kept  all  the  stores  of  the  house- 
hold— sacks  of  corn,  jars  of  wine,  heaps  of  olives,  and,  moreover,  the 
mattocks,  yokes,  ploughs,  and  other  implements  of  husbandry — and'without 
a  candle  her  search  would  be  futile.  When  found,  how  would  the  happy 
owner  tell  her  tale  of  anxiety,  and  evoke  the  congratulations  of  her  neigh- 
bours, as  they  gathered  at  the  fountain,  the  evening  rendezvous  of  the 
women  of  an  Eastern  village  !  In  seizing  on  these  two  incidents  of  every- 
day life  among  the  poor,  our  Lord  would  show  to  them  at  once  how  He, 
who  came,  as  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  to  seek  and  save  the  lost,  welcomed 
the  meanest,  and  could  sympathise  in  the  anxieties  of  the  humblest. 

JESUS   REVEALED. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  Edward  Spurrier,  Colchester. 

"  He  was  known  of  them  in  the  breaking  of  bread." — Luke  xxiv.  35. 

This  reminds  us  of — 

L  The  szocct  homeliness  of  Jesus. — The  moment  and  method  of  revela- 
tion in  one  of  the  commonest  acts  of  daily  life,  done  every  day  by  the  Jewish 
householder.  Christ  associated  Himself  with  the  ordinary  life  of  humanity 
— one  of  ourselves.  He  sanctifies  common  life.  Its  whole  round  may  be 
lived  with  Him.  He  does  still  often  make  known  His  presence  and 
reveals  Himself  in  the  home,  in  social  intercourse,  in  business,  &:c. 

II.  The  generous  Iminty  of  fesus. — Recalls  the  miracles  of  feeding  the 
multitude.  Recognised  in  His  compassion  for  us  in  our  need — and  pro- 
vision for  it.  Do  we  ever  entertain  Him  as  guest  ?  He  becomes  Host, 
whose  blessing  multiplies  our  store  and  sanctifies  it.  We  may  be  free  from 
disquietude.     He  knows  and  can  meet  our  need. 

III.  The  self-sacrificing  love  of  Jesus. — How  like  this  incident  to  that  in 
the  upper  chamber.  Conf.  xxiv.  30  with  xxii.  19.  The  Lord  revealed, 
not  only  as  Benefactor  and  Friend,  but  as  Saviour,  Who  died  for  our  sins 
and  rose  again.  The  source  and  sustenance  of  our  spiritual  life.  How 
often  now  He  reveals  Himself  in  the  breaking  of  bread.  He  who  gave 
Himself  for  us,  gives  Himself  to  us.  We  partake  of  Himself,  the  Living 
Bread. 

IV.  The  tinchanged  relationship  of  Christ  to  His  disciples  after  His  victory 
over  death  and  the  grave. — He  is  now  a  mighty  conqueror,  but  He  renews 
the  former  intercourse — the  same  tenderness,  grace.  So  ever,  so  eternally, 
will  He  supply,  enrich,  bless.     Rev.  vii.  16,  17. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  August  3  :  Luke  xv.  ii — 24.     Golden  Text:  Luke  xv.  18. 
The  Prodigal  Son. 
This  little  story  has  in  it  three  chapters  : — 

I.  What  the  lad  asked  for ;  or  what  all  sin  is. 

II.  Where  the  lad  went;   or  what  all  sin  does. 

III.  How  he  came  home ;   or  how  all  sin  is  remedied. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


192  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


I.  Away  in  this  pleasant  farmhouse,  the  father  has  his  own  freehold  and 
Ills  boys  growing  up  around  him,  the  elder  about  twenty-five  years  of  age, 
the  younger  twenty-one  to-day,  and  he  comes  before  his  father  and  says, 
"  Father,  I  am  twenty-one  to-day,  and  I  am  a  man,  and  I  want  the  money 
that  belongs  to  me,  and  I  will  go  and  push  my  way  in  the  world.  I  have 
served  you  a  long  time,  for  years  and  years."  That  is  what  all  sin  is.  It 
say?,  "  Let  me  be  my  own  master  ;  let  me  do  as  I  like."  Perhaps  the  lad 
had  not  any  very  evil  purpose,  but  he  wanted  to  be  his  own  master.  The 
essence  of  sin  was  there.  When  the  devil  came  to  our  first  parents  in 
Paradise  and  said,  "  Ye  shall  be  as  gods,"  what  did  he  mean  ?  Just  that 
they  were  to  be  their  own  masters.  So  the  father  went  to  the  old  chest, 
and  took  out  the  old  bags  of  gold,  and  said,  "Here  you  are,  my  lad."  He 
divided  to  him  his  living.  God  has  put  into  our  hands  this  mysterious 
power  to  be  our  own  master,  or  to  choose  Him  as  our  Father  and  our 
(;od. 

n.  Where  the  lad  went ;  or  what  all  sin  does.  The  lad  starts,  but  not 
for  a  day  or  two.  He  does  not  leave  the  old  father  suddenly,  but  at  last 
he  is  gone  to  the  far  country.  He  was  as  happy  as  the  day  was  long  at 
first.  The  world  can  give  happiness  for  a  while,  but  there  is  no  peace  or 
satisfaction  m  it.  But  at  last  the  lad  runs  through  all  his  money.  Where 
are  his  friends  to  pay  his  debts?  He  is  poor  now,  and  poor  people  do 
not  have  friends  in  the  far  country.  His  purple  and  fine  linen  are  all 
gone,  and  his  whole  looks  cry  out,  "  I  perish  with  hunger."  In  that  far 
country  this  comes  to  all  alike.  The  far  country  is  where  the  man  lives 
to  please  himself,  where  the  first  and  last  thought  is,  "  What  do  I  like  ?  " 

III.  How  he  came  home;  or  how  all  sin  is  remedied.  The  third 
chapter  opens  with  rather  a  sad  picture — wind,  north-east;  a  steel-blue  sky 
with  the  razor  edge  ;  and  here  sits  the  poor  lad  shivering  in  his  rags, 
perishing  in  his  hunger,  and  here  about  him  are  these  feeding  swine. 
And  what  did  the  pigs  care  for  his  misery ;  the  veriest  cur  would  have 
licked  his  hands  with  sympathy,  but  his  misery  was  nothing  to  the  swine. 
There  the  lad  sits  and  thinks  of  his  father's  house,  and  the  love  and  plenty 
there.  He  remembered  the  hired  servants — not  grumbling  under-paid 
servants — but  happy,  well-paid  servants.  He  remembered  his  father — no 
grumbling,  fault-finding  father.  These  memories  saved  the  lad,  and  he 
said,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father."  Love  is  blind  they  say,  but  it  is 
not.  Away  yonder  under  the  porch  sits  the  old  father,  and  he  sees  the 
prodigal  coming,  and  he  shades  his  eyes,  and  he  says,  "  Why,  'tis  my  son," 
although  the  servants  in  the  field  didn't  know  him.  And  he  runs  to  meet 
him,  flings  his  arms  about  him,  and  the  lad  was  glad  to  hide  himself  on 
his  father's  bosom,  and  then  he  could  speak.  "  Father,  I  have  sinned." 
And  the  father  cannot  do  enough  to  show  his  love.  He  came  home 
naked,  and  he  got  the  best  robe ;  without  shoes,  and  he  got  the  best  pair ; 
hungry,  and  he  had  the  fatted  calf.  What  a  love  is  God's  love  that  does 
not  wait  till  wc  arc  good,  but  that  gets  everything  ready  for  us.  There  is 
but  one  road  back  Irom  the  far  country  to  the  Father.  It  is  underneath 
the  Cross  of  Jesus.     Take  heed  to  the  road. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  117,  Vol.  III.]  AUGUST  i,  1890.  One  Penny. 


A   SUNDAY   MORNING    SERVICE    AT  THE    CITY 
TEMPLE. 

Conducted  by 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

On  Sunday,  July  13,  1890,  and  completely  reported. 


The  Lord's  Prayer. 

Hymn. 
"  This  is  the  day  of  light ; 

Let  there  be  light  to-day,"  &c. 

First  Lesson. 
I  St.  John  i. 

That  which  was  from  the  beginning,  which  we  have  heard,  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  eyes,  which  we  have  looked  upon,  and  our  hands  have 
handled,  of  the  Word  of  life ;  (for  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we  have 
seen  it,  and  bear  witness,  and  show  unto  you  that  eternal  life,  which  was 
with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us ;)  that  which  we  have  seen 
and  heard  declare  we  unto  you,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellowship  with  us  ; 
and  truly  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with  His  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
— That  is  the  basis  on  which  we  stand.  We  have  seen  Him,  a  fid  you  have 
seen  us,  and  we  are  in  His  fellowship. 

And  these  things  write  we  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may  be  full,  running 
over,  filling  all  space,  and  finding  it  too  small. 

This  then  is  the  message  which  we  have  heard  of  Him,  and  declare  unto 
you,  that  God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at  all. — Light,  light ;  no 
man  coicld  have  found  that  out. 

If  we  say  that  we  have  fellowship  with  Him,  and  walk  in  darkness,  7cie 
di^ellowship  ourselves ;  we  lie,  and  do  not  the  truth. 

But  if  we  walk  in  the  light,  as  He  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fellowship  one 
with  another,  and  the  blood  of  J.esus  Christ  His  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin,  and  brings  us  light. 

If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  to  be  cleansed  from,  we  deceive  ourselves, 
and  do  not  knoiv  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us.  Not  a  truth, 
the  Truth,  printed  with  a  large  initial  letter ;  the  Truth,  the  spirit,  the 
ghost,  the  true  genius — not  in  us. 

If  we  confess  our  sins — if  we  Jiame  them  one  by  one,  and  turn  them  all 


194  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

out  into  the  light— Hq  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness. 

If  we  say  that  we  have  not  sinned,  our  stateme7it  is  not  limited  to  our- 
selves, we  make  Him  a  liar — God  is  involved  in  that  folly — and  His  word 
is  not  in  us.     Let  Jis  rest  here  a  moment. 

Chant. 

Psalm  cxlviii. :  "Praise  ye  the  Lord  from  the  heavens,"  &c. 

Second  Lesson. 

1  St.  John  ii.  i — 17. 

My  little  children,  these  things  write  I  unto  you,  that  ye  sin  not.  And 
if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the 
righteous  :  and  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins  :  and  not  for  our's  only 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  And  hereby  we  do  know  that 
we  know  Him,  if  we  keep  His  commandtnents. — //  is  a  moral  test,  not 
metaphysical. 

He  that  said  I  know  Him  and  keepeth  not  His  commandments,  whose 
theology  and  morality  do  not  co-ordinate,  is  a  liar,  7iot  occasionally  and 
incidentally,  but  a  liar  through  and  through,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  him — 
7iot  a  fibre  of  it,  he  is  a  liar. 

But  whoso  keepeth  His  word,  in  him  verily  is  the  love  of  God  per- 
fected :  hereby  know  we  that  we  are  in  Him.  He  that  saith  that  he  abideth 
in  Him  ought  himself  also  so  to  walk,  even  as  He  walked.  Brethren,  this 
is  not  original,  I  write  no  new  commandment  unto  you,  thotigh  you  may 
never  have  heard  it  put  this  way  before,  but  an  old  commandment  which  ye 
had  from  the  beginning — morality  never  changes.  The  old  commandment 
is  the  word  which  ye  have  heard  from  the  beginning. 

Again,  in  the  same  sense,  a  new  commandment  I  write  unto  you,  which 
thing  is  true  in  Him  and  in  you :  because  the  darkness  is  past,  and  the 
true  light  now  shineth.  He  that  saith  he  is  in  the  light,  and  hateth  his 
brother,  is  in  darkness  even  until  now.  He  that  loveth  his  brother  abideth 
in  the  light,  and  there  is  none  occasion  of  stumbling  in  him.  But  he  that 
hateth  his  brother  is  in  darkness,  and  walketh  in  darkness,  and  knoweth 
not  whither  he  goeth,  because  that  darkness  hath  blinded  his  eyes,  he  is 
stone  blind. 

I  write  unto  you,  little  children,  because  your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for 
His  name's  sake.  I  write  unto  you,  fathers,  because  ye  have  known  Him 
that  is  from  the  beginning.  I  write  nnto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  have 
overcome  the  wicked  one.  I  write  unto  you,  little  children,  because  ye 
have  known  the  Father.  I  have  written  unto  you,  fathers,  because  ye  have 
known,  Him  that  is  from  the  beginning.  I  have  written  unto  you,  young 
men,  because  ye  are  strong,  and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  you,  and  ye 
have  overcome  the  wicked  one. 

Love  not  the  world — //  is  a  sjnall  place,  there  is  not  room  enozigh  in  it  for 
genius  like  yours,  for  immorality — neither  the  things  of  the  world.  If  any 
man  love  the  world,  the  love  of  the  Father  is  not  in  him.  For  all  that  is 
in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the  flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride 
of  life,  is  not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world.  A7id  the  world,  what  of  it  2 
A  flying  post,  or  a  shuttle,  a  shadow  chased  away.  And  the  world  passeth 
away,  and  the  lust  thereof :  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for 
ever. 


A  Sunday  Morning  Service  at  the  City  Temple.        195 

Anthem. 

"  It  is  high  time  to  awake,"  &c. 

Prayer. 

Almighty  God,  we  rejoice  that  Thou  art  light  of  light,  Thou  art  the 
fountain  and  the  centre.  God  said :  "Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was  light," 
Himself  who  shone  upon  the  brooding  darkness.  Shine  in  our  hearts,  be 
the  morning  of  our  lives,  be  the  summer  of  our  souls.  Jesus  Christ,  Thy 
Son,  is  the  light  of  the  world.  As  long  as  He  is  in  the  world  He  is  the 
light  of  the  world.  He  abideth  with  us  for  ever,  therefore  are  we  living  in 
the  day  of  light,  and  in  the  presence  of  light  may  we  answer  light  by  light, 
and  thus  may  Thy  creation  be  full  of  glory.  They  that  are  of  the  dark- 
ness love  the  things  that  are  evil.  May  we  be  children  of  the  morning  and 
not  of  the  night,  rejoicing  in  all  things  pure,  beautiful,  true,  and  lovely. 
If  Thou  wilt  answer  this  prayer  for  us  at  the  cross,  we  shall  know  that  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  Thy  Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  We  shall  know  that  we  have 
God  in  us  as  the  light  abounds  in  our  whole  thought  and  purpose.  Chase 
away  the  last  shadow,  break  up  the  evil  empire  of  night,  and  bring  in  the 
sovereignty  of  Thy  own  illumination. 

We  bless  Thee  for  a  religion  that  is  full  of  light.  We  thank  Thee  that 
we  are  called  to  fellowship  one  with  another  in  the  full  light  of  day.  Thy 
Church  always  meets  at  mid-day.  It  is  the  child  of  the  noon.  There  is 
in  it  no  love  of  darkness,  no  trace  of  mystery  or  secrecy  that  is  corrupt. 
The  Lord  help  us  to  realise  our  call  into  light,  and  may  we  be  found  in 
loving  obedience  serving  the  altar  of  the  cross.  Thou  hast  made  the 
summer  longer  than  the  winter.  Thou  givest  joy  when  Thou  givest  life. 
All  young  things  laugh  and  play,  and  gambol  and  sport  themselves  in  the 
growing  morning.  May  it  be  so  in  our  souls.  May  no  old  age  ever  set  in 
upon  our  hearts.  In  our  spirit,  thought,  purix)se,  love,  may  we  be  young  for 
ever.     May  we  grow  always  new  and  not  towards  old  age. 

We  thank  Thee  for  this  religion  of  cheerfulness,  vivacity,  music  and 
sense  of  triumph.  This  is  the  gift  of  God,  this  is  the  flash  of  immortality. 
The  Lord  reveal  His  purpose  towards  us  more  and  more,  little  by  little, 
that  we  may  see  the  way  of  life,  and  go  in  it  with  obedience  and  delight,  not 
only  with  resignation  and  contentment,  but  with  acquiescence  and  sense  of 
being  with  God  every  moment.  Thou  knowest  what  our  purposes  are.  If 
they  are  good,  healthy,  sound,  useful,  Thou  wilt  bring  them  into  happy 
fruition  ;  if  they  are  otherwise,  crush  them  as  a  brood  of  the  night,  and 
may  we  never  be  able  to  find  them  again.  May  our  lives  be  beautiful  with 
truthfulness,  and  useful  because  we  walk  in  the  steps  of  Him  who  went 
-about  doing  good.  May  this  be  our  one  business.  Then  we  shall  have 
no  tediousness,  no  wearisomeness  in  life.  Our  life  shall  pass  like  a  sacred 
song. 

The  Lord  direct  us.  Sometimes  the  road  is  full  of  perplexity.  It 
breaks  out  in  all  directions,  and  we  cannot  choose  the  right  line  to  take. 
If  it  be  up  hill,  give  us  strength  to.  climb  the  steep.  If  it  be  downhill, 
help  us  to  go  down  joyously,  knowing  that  in  the  valley  we  shall  find  the 
river.  If  k  be  full  of  darkness,  trouble,  and  sorrow,  then  the  God  of  love 
be  with  us,  lest  our  hearts  die  of  despair. 

The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fulness  thereof.  Do  as  Thou  wilt  with 
the  seasons ;  send  us  the  seasons  in  their  order,  or  withhold  them  from  us, 
or  mingle  them  into  one  disappointment;  only,  give  us  grace  to  say :  "Thy 


196  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


will  be  done."  Be  round  about  our  houses.  May  there  be  flowers  climb- 
ing up  around  the  door  and  around  every  window,  honeysuckle,  and  wood- 
bine, and  roses,  and  flowers  of  all  hues  and  fragrances ;  and  may  we  know 
that  our  house  is  the  house  of  God,  because  of  the  love  that  is  there,  and 
the  fulness  of  summer  light.  If  any  man  would  trouble  his  home,  trouble 
him  ;  send  darkness  upon  his  eyes,  drive  away  his  malign  purposes,  and 
teach  him  that  he  who  would  spoil  the  home  would  wreck  heaven  itself,  if 
he  could.  Be  with  all  the  people  who  want  to  build  up  this  sweet,  healthy, 
beauteous  home — a  household  of  pureness  and  joy  and  trust ;  and  may 
these  little  homes  that  we  build  be  pieces  of  heaven,  sections  of  God's  own 
paradise. 

Be  with  our  loved  ones  everywhere.  We  would  never  forget  them  ;  in 
their  travels,  in  their  separations  from  us,  we  would  remember  their  heart- 
ache and  their  perplexity,  and  their  wonder  concerning  ourselves.  The 
Lord  bring  us  all  together  again,  to  unite  in  one  grateful  doxology.  The 
Lord  look  upon  the  stranger  within  our  gates  ;  from  America,  from 
Australia,  from  the  islands  of  the  sea,  from  the  missionary  fields  far 
away.  Look  upon  our  fatherless  and  motherless  ones.  Be  with  all  who 
are  in  trouble  of  heart,  and  dare  not  say  so.  Be  with  those  who  are  dread- 
ing to-morrow  morning's  post,  because  a  letter  may  bring  blackness  and 
ruin.  Be  with  all  who  are  anxious  to  pray,  and  yet  cannot,  or  dare  not/ 
open  their  lips  in  intercession.  Soften  our  hearts ;  send  the  Spirit  of  love 
into  cur  bosoms.  And  do  this  because  we  gather  at  the  cross,  the  cross 
of  Christ,  because  we  assemble  on  lonely,  mournful  Calvary.  Thou  Saviour 
of  the  world  make  us  glad  this  day.     Amen. 

Hymn. 
"  Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  height, 
And  in  the  depth  be  praise,"  &c. 

Sermon. 
Malachi  iv. 

We  are  studying  the  very  last  words  in  the  Old  Testament. 
We  began  the  study  last  Sunday — the  prophecies  of  Malachi,  the 
fourth  chapter. 

Here  are  two  effects  of  fire.  In  the  first  instance  is  the  effect 
of  destruction.  When  the  burning  day  comes  it  shall  leave  the 
wicked  neither  root  nor  branch.  That  may  be  called  the  nega- 
tive action  of  fire.  No  man  who  is  wicked  can  fight  omnipotence 
and  win.  Why  do  the  heathen  rage  ?  Why  do  the  people 
imagine  a  vain  thing  ?  Why  do  men  kick  against  the  pricks  ? 
Why  docs  the  ox  back  u^on  the  goad  and  torment  itself  with 
keener  agony  ?  No  man  can  fight  almightiness  and  conquer.  When 
the  Lord's  day  of  burning  shall  come,  the  great  oven-day  spoken 
of  by  the  prophet,  "  all  the  proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do  wickedly, 
shall  be  stubble."  Who  can  fight  fire  with  straw  ?  Who  will 
set  up  a  wooden  fence  against  a  volcano  ?  When  all  the  burning 
is  done  how  will  the  day's  history  total  ?  Thus  :  "  It  shall  leave 
them  neither  root  nor  branch,"  nothing  to  be  seen  above  ground, 
nothing  to  be  found  underground.  The  triumph  of  retribution  is 
complete. 


A  Sunday  Morning  Service  at  the  City  Temple.         197 

It  is  well  that  men  should  thus  be  able  to  forecast  their  fate. 
"  The  candle  of  the  wicked  shall  be  put  out."  "The  memory  of 
the  wicked  shall  rot."  The  ungjodly  are  not  like  the  righteous  : 
they  are  "  like  the  chaff  which  the  wind  driveth  away,"  as  if  in 
mockery  and  derisive  sport.  There  need  be  no  waiting  for  the  day 
of  judgment  in  our  destiny.  This  is  the  day  of  judgment.  The 
Lord's  right  hand  is  evident,  and  the  Lord's  left  hand  is  vividly 
displayed,  and  men  can  rank  themselves.  Conscience  shall  be 
judge.  In  personal  history  shall  be  found  personal  evidence. 
For  the  wicked  there  is  nothing  but  a  "  fearful  looking  for  of 
judgment  and  fiery  indignation."  "  The  wicked  shall  be  turned 
into  hell,  and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God."  Terrible  words  ; 
but  the  surgeon  is  a  terrible  man  when  he  takes  out  his  instru- 
ment that  he  may  cut  out  the  diseased  flesh  or  remove  the 
diseased  joint.  But  is  he  only  terrible  ?  On  the  contrary ;  his 
terribleness  is  an  aspect  of  his  beneficence.  If  your  house  is 
standing  upon  a  bog,  it  is  better  that  you  should  know  it  in  time. 
Do  not  declare  that  the  messenger  is  terrible  and  severe.  He  is 
not.  He  is  wise,  he  is  considerate,  he  is  merciful;  he  has  come 
to  state  the  facts,  that  you  may  know  what  to  do.  Why  should 
you  be  a  victim  to  your  own  diseased  sentimentality,  saying, 
"  Do  not  tell  me  about  ruin  and  burning  days,  but  tell  us  about 
sunshine  and  flowers "  ?  Rather  say  to  all  God's  angels  and 
ministers  of  grace,  "Gentlemen,  tell  us  the  truth."  A  call  for  the 
truth  will  elicit  the  truth. 

But  there  is  another  action  of  fire.  There  is  the  action  of 
healing.  "  But  unto  you  that  fear  My  name  shall  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  arise  with  healing  in  His  wings."  A  terrible  sun. 
Dead  trees  have  a  hard  time  of  it  when  the  sun  shines.  They  do 
not  understand  one  another.  There  is  no  point  of  co-operative 
contact.  The  tree  that  is  dead  is  out  of  the  solar  system.  It 
does  not  come  into  the  current  of  its  ministries.  It  stands  in  the 
soil,  but  is  not  rooted  to  the  centre.  All  day  the  sun  fights  it, 
mocks  it,  blisters  it,  takes  out  of  it  drop  by  drop  any  lingering 
juice  that  might  be  in  its  veins,  until  the  process  of  dissection  is 
complete.  It  is  otherwise  with  the  living  tree.  The  sun  kisses 
it  into  larger  life,  blesses  it  with  reproductive  and  generous 
warmth,  tells  it  messages  from  heaven,  speaks  to  it  of  the  larger 
trees  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  tells  the  most  blossoming 
and  blooming  and  fruitful  tree  upon  earth  that  it  is  only  a  dim 
emblem,  a  poor  shadowy  type  of  God's  real  trees  and  promises  of 
living  true  and  good  things  that  they  shall  be  lifted  up  into  the 
ideals  which  they  now  imperfectly  typify.  Nor  do  the  trees  com- 
plain. They  say,  "  If  we  are  only  types,  we  can  do  God's  work. 
If  we  trees  are  to  be  carried  into  a  higher  realisation,  so  be  it. 
God's  will  be  done.  We  are  thankful  of  what  we  can  do  now,  and 
the  future  we  leave  to  Him." 

What  is  this  Sun  of  Righteousness  ?    Not  a  man  ;  the  grammar 


igS  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


is  against  that  view.  The  Hebrew  word  for  sun  is  feminine. 
She  a  woman  of  righteousness.  A  She  of  beauty  shall  arise  with 
healing  in  her  wings.  The  universe  would  be  empty  without  a 
woman.  Eden  did  not  begin  to  grow  until  the  woman  came. 
And  if  she  killed  it,  it  was  because  she  first  made  it  alive.  We 
do  not  understand  these  allusions  to  gender.  Is  God  Father  and 
mother?  Is  there  a  feminine  element  in  God  ?  When  He  made 
man  He  made  him  man  and  woman,  and  He  made  him  after  His 
own  likeness.  Who  knows  the  meaning  of  these  things  ?  No 
man.  Yet  they  are  full  of  meaning  to  the  soul,  meaning  which 
will  not  give  itself  up  to  winds,  but  will  hover  about  the  soul, 
flutter  near  it,  throw  fragrance  upon  it,  sing  to  it,  startle  it  in  the 
night  time  with  visions  of  light. 

We  must  not  part  with  these  unseen  presences  and  ministries. 
There  is  a  cant  that  says  we  cannot  go  into  the  unseen  world  ; 
we  know  nothing  about  the  world  unseen.  It  is  the  merest  drivel 
to  say  so.  It  is  also  opposed  to  the  simple  fact  of  the  case.  We 
are  all  living  in  an  unseen  world.  We  are  trifling  with  ourselves 
when  we  suppose  that  we  are  only  living  within  a  sphere  or  circle 
that  is  visible.  We  are  invisible  to  ourselves,  we  are  invisible  to 
one  another.  We  only  know  one  another  by  a  revelation.  Behind 
the  word  lies  the  meaning,  behind  the  .meaning  lies  the  motive, 
behind  the  motive  lies  eternity.  And  so  there  be  fools  who  tell 
our  young  souls  not  to  trouble  about  the  unseen.  Have  you  seen 
thought,  spirit,  life,  motive?  Have  you  seen  the  self  of  your- 
selves ?  It  is  even  so  with  these  deeper,  spiritual  interpretations. 
This  woman-sun  is  a  fact. 

Look  at  the  effects  of  Divine  healing.  They  are  stated  by  the 
prophet.  "  Ye  shall  grow,  ye  shall  go  forth."  There  was  to  be 
activity.  This  is  a  characterfstic  of  the  Divine  religion.  It  will 
not  let  a  man  stay  at  home.  It  develops  the  spirit  of  travel  and 
locomotion.  When  the  Divine  religion  has  taken  hold,  "  when 
will  the  ship  be  sailing  ?  When  will  the  train  be  going  ?  When 
will  the  cattle  be  ready,  that  we  may  ride  through  the  wilder- 
ness ?  "  Why  not  sit  down  here  ?  We  cannot.  Why  not  ?  To 
go  forth  is  the  watchword  of  our  faith.  Missionaries  cannot 
always  give  an  account  of  themselves.  We  have  already  in  this 
"  People's  Bible  "  come  upon  men  who  have  said,  "  Let  me  go," 
and  when  Pharaoh  said,  "  Why  ?  have  I  not  been  good  to  thee  ?  " 
"  Yes."  "  Hast  thou  not  had  abundance  to  eat  ?  "  "  Yes." 
"  Hast  thou  not  been  as  one  of  my  own  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Then 
why  go  ?  "  "I  do  not  know  why,  but  I  must  go."  That  is  the 
pressure  of  destiny.  Pharaoh  did  not  understand  how  a  well-fed 
beast  could  wish  to  leave  his  pastures  and  his  stalls ;  but  the 
Lord,  as  we  have  seen,  had  spoken  to  the  man,  and  filled  him 
with  a  spirit  of  recklessness.  Christianity  is  restless  in  that 
sense.  It  will  not  give  any  recreation  nor  cessation  from  labour 
until  the  very  last   man  has  been  saved  from  shipwreck.     Not 


A  Sunday  Morning  Service  at  the  City  Temple.         199 

only  shall  ye  "  go  forth,"  but  ye  shall  "  grow  up  as  calves  of  the 
stall,"  a  figure  which  signifies,  "  Ye  shall  be  sportive,  ye  shall 
realise  the  idea  of  youthfulness."  You  shall  be  vivacious.  You 
shall  not  be  old,  cold,  dead  things.  You  shall  be  as  calves  of  the 
stall,  full  of  life,  leaping  because  of  the  very  redundance  of 
vitality.  There  is  a  burst  here  of  spiritual  enthusiasm.  This  is 
not  an  animal  vivacity,  it  is  a  spiritual  impulse  and  ambition,  it 
is  the  new  and  deeper  magnetism,  it  is  the  effect  of  being  in  touch 
with  God. 

Where  there  is  no  enthusiasm  there  is  no  true  realisation  of  the 
sunlight.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  the  sunlight  that  keeps  us  in 
obedience.  The  sun  tells  us  what  to  do.  The  sun  will  tell  you 
whether  it  is  holiday  time  or  not.  You  cannot  go  out  willingly  to 
take  your  holiday  in  the  rain.  If  for  arbitrary  reasons  and  appoint- 
ments you  are  obliged  to  go,  you  go  with  discontent  and  com- 
plaining. But  when  the  sun  comes  and  fills  the  whole  firmament 
with  his  glory  you  say  at  once,  "  Let  us  go."  The  sun  tells  you 
what  coat  to  wear,  what  food  to  eat.     The  sun  is  master. 

But  there  may  be  activity.  That  is  so — "  going  forth."  And 
there  may  be  the  scene  of  sportiveness  and  joy  intimated  by  the 
words  "  Grow  up  as  calves  of  the  stall."  But  what  after  that  ? 
There  will  be  conquest.  "  And  ye  shall  tread  down  the  wicked, 
for  they  shall  be  ashes  under  the  soles  of  your  feet  in  the  day  that 
I  shall  do  this,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  Christ  goes  forth  to 
conquer.  Christ  never  fails.  Any  failures  are  temporary  and 
apparent  and  superficial.  If  they  could  fail  arithmetic  could  fail, 
all  truth  could  fail,  geometry  could  fail ;  and  we  all  know  that 
geometry  always  wins.  Within  its  own  sphere  geometry  makes 
the  builder  take  his  plumb-line  or,  geometry  says,  "  You  must 
build  according  to  me  or  you  cannot  build  at  all,  your  little  edifice 
will  topple  over  if  you  do  not  build  according  to  the  structure  of 
the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  stars."  All  these  essential  things  are 
settled  for  you.  As  for  your  so-called  architecture  you  can  have 
Gothic,  or  Doric,  or  Grecian,  or  Composite,  or  what  you  please, 
geometry  does  not  interfere  with  your  architecture — but  you  must 
build  according  to  Euclid — the  gospel  according  to  Euclid,  or  you 
cannot  build  at  all.  In  proportion  as  anything  is  true  it  must 
eventually  succeed.  There  will  always  be  found  fools  who  will 
venture  some  other  policy.  There  have  been  men  who  have  ven- 
tured to  build  crooked  walls,  and  the  walls  have  fallen  down  upon 
them. 

Now  the  oracle  is  about  to  cease.  Malachi  is  about  to  resign 
the  pen.  What  are  his  kst  words?  There  shall  no  prophet 
arise  after  him  until  John  come,  and  John  the  Baptist  was  not 
coming  for  four  hundred  years.  What  is  to  be  done  in  the  mean- 
time ?  Does  God  provide  for  the  interstices  of  history  ?  Has 
God  taken  note  of  gap  and  vacancy  and  hiatus  in  the  wondrous 
evolution  of  history  ?     Here  is  the  word — verse  4  :  "  Remember 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


ye  the  law  of  Moses  My  servant,  which  I  commanded  unto  him 
in  Horeb  for  all  Israel  with  the  statutes  and  judgments."  With 
that  Bible  you  must  be  content  for  four  centuries — keep  in  mind 
the  law.  In  the  Jewish  synagogue  great  distinction  is  drawn 
between  the  law  and  the  prophets.  In  the  Jewish  synagogue 
there  are  two  lessons  in  public  worship.  The  one  is  read  from  the 
law,  and  that  lesson  must  be  read  by  the  highest  functionary  in 
the  synagogue.  The  second  lesson  is  from  the  prophets,  and  any 
boy  can  read  it — any  mean  man  or  casual  student  may  read  the 
prophet.  Only  the  very  highest  officer  may  read  the  law.  We 
do  not  believe  in  these  distinctions.  We  believe  that  the  utter- 
ances of  God  are  one.  Whatever  God  speaks  is  truth,  is  music, 
is  poetry,  is  life. 

We  are,  however,  dealing  with  one  who  did  make  certain  dis- 
tinctions, and  we  must  respect  them.  For  four  hundred  years  the 
people  were  to  remember  the  law  of  Moses.  When  Jesus  Christ 
was  asked  what  a  man  should  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  He  asked, 
"  What  is  written  in  the  law  ?  "  That  was  a  startling  answer. 
He  did  not  say:  "  It  hath  been  said  by  them  of  old  time,  but  I 
say  unto  you  " —  When  it  came  to  a  matter  of  life  and  death. 
God  has  never  left  matters  of  life  and  death  to  be  settled  by 
arbitrary  dogmas  and  settlements  and  by  variable  theories.  When 
it  has  come  to  a  face  to  face  interview  with  God,  when  it  has 
come  to  a  question  of  life  or  death,  "  What  shall  I  do  to  inherit 
eternal  life,"  we  are  referred  to  the  very  first  chapters  of  the  Bible. 
All  great  questions  were  answered  in  eternity.  Only  little  riddles 
and  passing  problems  may  be  discussed  in  variable  terms.  The 
lawyer  answered  :  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God."  "  Cer- 
tainly,", said  Christ,  "that  will  never  change;  do  that  and  thou 
shalt  live." 

So  the  Jewish  Church  was  not  left  without  oracles  during  the 
four  centuries  of  so-called  silence.  If  the  law  of  Moses  had  pre- 
vailed it  would  have  given  life,  if  lovingly  accepted  and  obeyed. 
All  truth  gives  life,  all  truth  brings  life.  But  is  it  the  law  of 
Moses  ?  That  is  only  part  of  the  description.  The  full  descrip- 
tion is  *'  the  law  of  Moses  My  servant."  There  is  the  supremacy 
of  God,  "  Which  I  commanded  unto  him  "  ;  there  is  the  fountain 
of  law.  God  commands,  Moses  communicates.  All  that  man 
can  do  is  to  act  instrumentally.  The  fountain,  the  origin  of  law, 
we  find  in  God. 

Is  there,  then,  no  touch  of  prophecy  ?  Is  there  no  widening 
horizon  before  that  view  of  the  church  ?  Is  it  simply  the  law,  the 
law,  the  law — iron,  dogmatic,  positive,  unchangeable  ?  Is  there  no 
sky  above  this  poor  earth  of  law  ?  God  never  made  earth  with- 
out making  sky.  So  in  this  instance  we  find  the  sky,  the  horizon, 
the  far-away  hint  and  promise  :  "  Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet,"  not  Elijah  the  Tishbite.  We  cannot  always  distin- 
guish between  the  local  and  the  universal.      If  the  Lord  had  pro- 


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mised  Elijah  the  Tishbite  then  we  might  have  expected  one  certain 
definite,  limited,  local  personality.  We  should  have  fixed  our 
attention  on  the  word  Tishbite,  and  unless  a  man  had  come  with 
that  locality  attached  to  his  name,  we  should  have  refused  the 
man,  though  his  eyes  burned  like  suns  and  his  voice  was  eloquent 
like  thunder.  We  are  great  in  technicalities.  We  are  nin  prius 
men.  We  know  all  about  precedents,  and  cases  that  have  been 
in  the  court,  and  localities,  and  technicalities,  and  particularities, 
but  we  are  nothing  when  it  comes  to  a  great  sky  mission.  The 
man  who  was  to  come  was  to  be  "  the  prophet " — the  local,  the 
parochial,  the  limited  forgotten,  and  the  prophetic,  the  inspired, 
was  to  be  predominant,  illuminating  the  sky  for  the  day  of  his 
sovereignty. 

What  shall  this  Elijah  do  when  he  comes  ?  He  shall  work 
out  the  great  reconciliation,  and  he  shall  turn  the  heart  of  the 
fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children."  This  is 
not  a  family  reference.  The  prophet  is  not  speaking,  or  God  is 
not  speaking  through  the  prophet,  merely  of  the  father  of  a 
family  and  the  children  of  a  family.  He  is  speaking  of  fathers 
in  the  sense  of  leaders,  teachers  of  the  world,  and  children — the 
populations  and  the  flocks  of  the  earth.  And  this  prophet,  when 
he  comes,  will  be  known  by  his  desire  to  promote,  and  his  power 
to  promote  reconciliations.  God's  prophets  always  bring  music, 
harmony,  rest.  If  any  man  bring  aught  else,  except  in  an  official 
and  temporary  sense,  he  is  no  prophet  sent  by  God. 

"  Lest  I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse,"  with  a  ban  ; 
lest  I  come  and  cover  it  with  a  smear,  a  mockery  that  never  can 
be  obliterated. 

Would  a  Jew  end  the  reading  of  the  prophet  here  ?  No,  a 
Jew  could  never  read  a  chapter  and  end  it  with  such  a  word  as  a 
curse.  The  Jewish  habit  was  to  go  back  to  a  preceding  verse. 
And  therefore  if  a  Jew  were  reading  the  prophet  Malachi  to  us 
he  would  not  say,  "  Lest  I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a 
curse,"  and  then  close  the  book.  He  would  go  back  to  verse  5, 
and  conclude  with  the  words,  **  Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet,"  or  he  would  go  back  to  verse  4,  and  say,  "  Remem- 
ber ye  the  law  of  Moses  My  servant."  A  Jew  always  concluded 
his  Biblical  reading  with  a  sweet  verse,  a  tender  benediction.  He 
would  go  back  in  the  chapter  to  find  the  music,  and  that  he 
would  bring  and  set  it  at  the  last.  He  built  his  rhetoric  well. 
He  would  not  sit  down  in  a  thunderstorm,  or  in  judgment  and 
terror.  He  would  go  back  and  find  the  gentlest,  simplest,  most 
limpid  words  in  the  chapter,  and  would  fit  them  on  to  the  end. 
Thus  the  Lord  allows  us  to  make  beauteous  images  and  beauteous 
issues  out  of  His  Word. 

To  close  the  Old  Testament  is  a  solemn  act.  As  commentator 
for  the  people  upon  the  Old  Testament  I  now  close  the  record. 
It  is  a  wonderful  story.     We  have  gone  through  it  from  the  first 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


page  to  the  last,  yet  we  have  not  ended  it.  Herein  is  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Bible,  that  we  end  the  book  but  not  revelation.  Were 
we  to  turn  back  to  the  opening  of  Genesis  we  should  find  the 
flowers  open  for  us  as  if  we  had  never  gathered  one,  and  all  the 
trees  of  the  Lord's  right  hand  planting,  blooming,  blossoming, 
bearing  fruit,  and  in  those  trees  we  should  find  choirs  of  singing 
birds,  uttering  music  from  heaven.  I  pray  you  be  familiar  with 
your  Bible.  If  you  will  only  read  your  Bible  no  man  can  ever 
take  them  from  you.  We  take  the  Bible  only  from  the  men  who 
have  read  little  portions  of  it  here  and  there.  But  no  man  who 
ever  read  the  Bible  in  its  unity,  and  comprehended  it  in  some 
adequate  degree  in  all  its  bearings  and  relations,  ever  abandoned  it. 

HVMN. 

"  Christian,  seek  not  here  repose,"  &c. 

Benediction. 

The   grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  love  of  God  our  heavenly 

Father,  and  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost  abide  with  us,  that  we  may 

be  saved  from  the  day  of  burning,  and  rejoice  in  the  light  of  the  Sun  of 

Righteousness.     Amen. 

THE    ''FIRST"    GOSPEL. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Right  Rev.  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury. 

Pi'eached  before  the  University  of  Oxford. 

"And  many  other  signs  truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  His  disciples, 
which  are  not  written  in  this  book  :  but  these  are  written,  that  ye  might  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  life 
through  His  name." — St.  John  xx.  30,  31. 

"  The  walls  of  the  city  (writes  the  seer  of  the  Apocalypse)  had  twelve 
foundations,  and  in  them  the  names  of  the  twelve  Apostles  of  the  Lamb." 
So  indeed  it  is.  Yet  when  we  reflect  on  the  historical  origins  of  our 
Christian  faith  and  polity,  how  little  in  them  can  we  attribute  with  certainty 
to  the  majority  of  the  Apostolic  College  !  If  (as  seems  probable)  the  two 
brothers  James  and  Jude — the  brethren  of  the  Lord — were  not  members 
of  the  original  body,  we  hardly  know  more  than  three  or  four  of  the 
Twelve  who  exercised  a  definite  and  enduring  influence.  But  while  we 
recognise  this  fact,  we  must  not  forget  the  lesson  it  teaches  us.  History 
is  at  best  but  a  poor  representative  of  the  springs  and  powers  of  the  life 
it  professes  to  describe.  In  all  societies  of  men,  especially  in  those  that 
are  closely  knit  together  by  devotion  to  a  noble  object,  a  very  important 
work  is  done  by  members  who  never  make  any  show  or  figure  in  the  after 
time.  If  we  have  been  blessed  (as  many  of  us  surely  have  been)  in  the 
intimate  alliance  and  confidential  intercourse  of  friends — who  are  sharers 
of  like  faith  and  hope  with  ourselves,  we  shall  often  be  aware  of  the  subtle, 
indescribable  influence  exercised  by  some  one  or  other  of  our  associates 
who  is  little  known  to  the  world  outside.  An  early  death  may  take  away 
a  brother  like  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  whose  personal  witness  might 
have  seemed  of  the  highest  importance  to  our  cause.  Or  he,  who  is 
removed  from  our  visible  presence,  may  have  had  rare  gifts  of  tact  and 


The  "First"  Gospel.  203 


sympathy,  a  sense  of  the  nearness  and  reality  of  the  unseen  world,  which 
our  harder  and  more  practical  natures  cannot  replace.  Others  who  live 
on,  and  whom  we  know  to  be  better  than  ourselves,  may  have  no  oppor- 
tunity of  displaying  their  powers,  or  may  shrink  back  from  the  turmoils 
and  compromises  of  public  life,  unthought  of  in  debate,  and  ignored  by 
public  opinion.  But  those  who  die  young,  those  who  live  unknown,  may 
none  the  less  have  their  names  engraven  upon  the  stones  of  the  holy  city, 
may  none  the  less  be  valued  as  fellow-workers  by  our  Master,  who  now, 
as  of  old,  calls  together  whom  He  wills,  and  unites  them  upon  the  Mount 
in  a  society  of  apostolic  love  and  brotherhood. 

Such  thoughts  naturally  occur  to  us  when  we  attempt  to  reckon  up  our 
obligations  to  this  or  that  Apostle.  For  to-day — as  my  text  im^ilies — I 
would  endeavour  to  recall  to  your  minds,  in  a  somewhat  precise  form,  the 
chief  features  of  the  work  of  St.  John  as  an  Evangelist,  the  chief  elements 
of  our  personal  debt  to  him. 

For  St.  John  was  reserved  the  office  of  founding  what  may  be  called 
the  first  great  Christian  school  of  doctrine — an  office  different  from  that  of 
the  missionary  labours  of  many  of  his  fellows,  but  none  the  less  a  true  and 
perfect  following  of  his  Master.  Though  no  stranger  to  suffering  and 
tribulation,  it  was  his  to  realise  more  especially  a  pecuharly  beautiful  side 
of  our  Lord's  work  on  earth — the  position  of  a  teacher  of  teachers.  If 
we  look  at  all  deeply  into  the  lessons  of  the  Gospels  we  shall  see  what  a 
large  part  of  our  Master's  time  was  occupied  with  the  direct  education  of 
the  Apostles — and  to  whom  but  the  beloved  disciple  could  the  continu- 
ance of  this  sacred  office  be  committed  ?  He  who  lay  upon  His  breast  at 
supper,  and  drank  in  discourse  alter  discourse,  feeling  how  the  profound 
thoughts  stirred  each  after  each  the  pulses  of  his  Saviour's  heart — was 
chosen  naturally  to  record  and  hand  on  this  teaching.  "  Do  illo  pectore 
in  secreto  bibebat,"  says  St.  Augustine,  very  beautifully.  And,  again,  he 
who  received  the  Virgin  Mother  from  his  dying  Lord  to  be  to  himself  a 
mother,  became  (as  we  say  with  reverence)  a  second  Jesus,  impressed  be- 
yond all  others  with  the  spirit  and  language  of  His  inner  and  mysterious 
teaching.  From  the  blessed  inmate  of  his  home  he  doubtless  learnt  much, 
as  she,  like  himself,  was  one  who  kept  many  things  in  silence,  pondering 
them  in  her  heart. 

Let  us  look  for  a  short  space  at  the  terms  in  which  the  author 
describes  his  work  in  the  two  verses  which  I  have  chosen  for  my  text. 
We  may  expect  to  learn  from  them  something  more  definite  as  to  the 
circumstances  which  occasioned  its  production. 

Each  of  these  verses  contains  a  distinct  statement.  The  first  declares 
that  the  Gospel  is  incomplete  as  a  record  of  the  miracles  or  signs  wrought 
by  Jesus,  a  selection  of  which  had  been  recorded  in  the  previous 
chapter.  The  second  verse  explains  the  design  with  which  what  has 
been  written  had  been  set  down. 

The  first  of  these  statements,  viz.,  that  the  Gospel  is  a  selection  from 
a  larger  mass  of  material,  harmonises  with  the  frequent  references  to  other 
events,  and  with  the  introduction  of  persons,  as  if  already  known  to  the 
readers  or  hearers  of  the  Gospel. 

The  second  verse  of  our  text  gives  another  and  a  more  explicit  state- 
ment of  the  Evangelist's  design.  Here  also  we  have  a  tradition  according 
well  with  the  observed  facts — a  tradition  that  there  was  not  only  a  belief 


204  ^^^^  British  Weekly  Pulbit. 

to  be  inculcated  that  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ  the  Son  of  God,"  but  that  this 
statement  of  it  was  necessitated  by  the  errors  of  Cerinthus.  The  existence 
of  false  doctrine  at  this  epoch  is  perfectly  certain.  It  is  almost  as  certain 
that  Cerinthus  was  a  contemporary  of  St.  John.  And  when  we  carefully 
compare  the  statement  of  this  verse  with  the  previous  teaching  in  the 
body  of  the  Gospel  on  the  same  subject  and  with  the  denunciation  of 
heresy  in  the  first  Epistle,  and  set  them  side  by  side  with  the  errors 
attributed  to  Cerinthus,  there  is  scarcely  room  to  doubt  the  tradition.  Of 
the  three  capital  errors  of  this  heretic,  two  were  denials  of  the  simple 
statement  of  the  Apostle  "  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  the  Son  of  God." 
Simple  and  familiar  as  this  assertion  may  appear  to  us,  there  was  once  a 
time  when  every  part  of  it  was  controverted  and  denied.  Cerinthus 
asserted  that  Jesus  was  fwt  the  Sa?i  of  God,  but  the  Son  of  Joseph 
and  Mary,  by  the  ordinary  process  of  human  birth.  He  did  not  allow 
that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  but  separated  one  from  the  other.  He  separated 
Jesus  from  the  Christ,  making  them  two  distinct  persons;  and  only  allow- 
ing that  the  Christ  dwelt  in  the  man  Jesus  from  the  time  of  His  baptism 
till  just  before  His  suffering  upon  the  cross.  What  a  light  does  the  con- 
sideration of  these  errors  throw  upon  the  use  of  the  term  Son  of  God,  and 
its  contrast  with  the  scornful  Jewish  question,  "  Is  not  this  the  Son  of 
Joseph  ?  "  How  closely  it  bears  upon  the  emphatic  physical  description 
of  the  crucifixion,  and  the  record  of  the  doubts  and  satisfaction  of  Thomas 
—upon  the  obscure  words  of  the  Epistle,  "  This  is  He  that  came  by  water 
and  blood,  Jesus  the  Christ ;  not  by  water  only,  but  by  water  and  blood." 
Here  we  have  no  second  personality  superinduced  upon  a  first,  and 
separable  from  it ;  but  one  Christ  Jesus  the  same  before  and  after  His 
baptism,  the  same  before  and  after  His  Passion  and  Resurrection. 

Lastly,  the  third  cardinal  error  of  Cerinthus  is  touched  really,  if  less 
directly,  in  the  closing  words — "  and  that  believing  ye  might  have  Life 
through  His  name." 

For  if  we  examine  what  the  Apostle  means  by  Life,  we  shall  find  that  it 
is  not  simply  equivalent  to  salvation.  It  is  the  gift  of  Christ  as  the  Creator, 
communicated  to  him  as  an  attribute  of  the  Father.  "  All  things  were 
made  by  Him,  and  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made. 
In  Him  was  life,  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men  " — are  the  words  of  the 
marvellous  prologue.  And  on  the  discourse  on  His  equality  in  work  with 
the  Father  our  Lord  Himself  declares,  "The  hour  is  coming,  and  now  is, 
when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  they  that  hear 
shall  live.  For  as  the  Father  hath  life  in  Himself,  so  hath  He  given  to 
the  Son  to  have  life  in  Himself." 

This  truth  about  life  it  was  that  Cerinthus  denied  in  his  third  and 
primary  error,  separating  the  supreme  God  from  the  Creator,  and  so 
throwing  the  whole  conception  of  the  world  into  confusion.  He  had  been 
taught,  we  are  told,  at  Alexandria  ;  and  there,  no  doubt,  had  imbibed  the 
belief  that  it  was  "  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  supreme  God  that  He  should 
come  into  immediate  contact  with  a  world  so  alien  from  His  own  essence." 
I'hus,  in  the  place  of  one  source  of  life  simple  and  identical  in  its  origin, 
and  exhibiting  itself  alike  in  the  natural  world,  in  the  moral  life  of  Chris- 
tians, and  in  the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  this  heresy  supposed  a 
distinction  between  the  origin  of  natural  and  spiritual  life.  This  is  no 
mere  error  of  the  schools,  no  simple,  fanciful  theory,  but  a  point  of  vital 


The  ''First"  Gospel.  205 


importance.  With  the  duahstic  account  of  creation  an  element  of  doubt 
is  at  once  introduced  as  to  the  whole  course  of  Divine  providence.  Once 
let  men  believe  that  God  is  intermittent  in  His  relation  to  the  universe, 
and  they  will  soon  imagine  that  He  is  ignorant  and  careless.  From 
ignorance  and  carelessness  they  descend  at  once  to  disbelief  in  His  power, 
and  so  step  by  step  to  magic  and  theurgy,  to  heathenism  and  idolatry,  or 
practical  atheism. 

I  am  well  aware  that  the  interpretations  just  given  of  these  two  verses 
are  not  accepted  by  many  scholars  ;  but  the  reasons  for  their  dissent 
hardly  outweigh  the  positive  arguments  that  have  been  adduced.  It  seems 
in  no  degree  whatever  to  lower  the  value  or  the  grandeur  of  the  Gospel, 
if  we  allow  that  while  the  author  writes  freely  and  independently,  with 
perfect  command  of  his  materials,  and  as  if  absorbed  by  the  eternal  in- 
terests of  his  theme,  he  yet  fulfils  withal  two  definite  and  subsidiary  ends. 
Nor  does  the  fact  that  the  Apostle  is  refuting  a  heresy  make  his  doctrine 
a  whit  less  the  true  doctrine  of  the  Church.  The  implied  premise,  that 
any  religious  book  written  with  a  purpose  must  necessarily  or  probably 
contain  what  is  untrue,  has  been  so  widely  and  destructively  used,  that 
Christians  have  been  rather  unwilling  to  admit  such  purposes  lest  they 
seem  to  allow  a  taint  of  error  and  prejudice.  No  doubt  a  book  written 
with  a  purpose  requires  careful  reading,  and  a  consideration  of  all  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  written.  But  if  there  be  such  a  thing 
as  divine  truth,  if  a  revelation  be  possible,  then  there  is  or  may  be  also 
such  a  thing  as  heresy  ;  and  he  who  overcomes  heresy  is  as  much  deserving 
of  gratitude  as  he  who  for  the  first  time  states  a  truth.  And  in  the  case 
of  Cerinthus  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  he  had  any  hold  on 
primitive  Christian  doctrine,  there  is  no  reason  to  attribute  unfairness  or 
onesidedness  to  St.  John.  If,  for  example,  we  compare  the  Synoptic 
Gospels,  especially  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark,  we  find  that  they  totally 
and  entirely  disagree  with  such  tenets.  Nor  if  anyone  feels  himself  hesi- 
tate for  a  moment  as  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Incarnation  as  expressed  by 
St.  John,  will  he  find  in  it  anything  more  than  is  implied  in  the  passage  of 
St.  Matthew.  "All  things  are  delivered  unto  Me  of  My  Father,  and  no 
man  knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father ;  neither  knoweth  any  man  the 
Father  save  the  Son  and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  will  reveal  Him." 

"  Come  unto  Me  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest." 

"  Take  My  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  of 
heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls." 

Here  we  have  the  perfect  communion  of  nature  limited  to  the  Father 
and  the  Son,  and  the  assertion  of  the  unique  ofiice  of  the  Son  towards  man- 
kind. And  yet  the  person  of  the  speaker  includes  also  the  human  nature 
in  all  its  humility,  and  He  passes  from  one  to  the  other  with  perfect  ease 
and  readiness.  "  No  man  knoweth  the  Son  but  Ihe  Father,"  here  we  have 
the  Divinity,  and  in  the  next  breath,  "  My  yoke,"  "I  am  meek  and  lowly 
of  heart,"  here  we  have  the  humanity. 

It  is  true  that  the  eternal  pre-existence  of  the  Son  of  God  is  not  dis- 
tinctly and  in  terms  stated  in  the  earlier  Gospels,  but  it  was  no  addition 
made  by  St.  John.  It  was  taught  (as  we  all  know)  in  distinct  terms  by  St. 
Paul,  and  can  hardly  have  been  absent  from  the  mind  of  St.  Peter,  when 
he  spoke  of  the  prophets  of  the  old  covenant,  "  Searching  what,  or  what 


2o6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


manner  of  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them  did  signify,  when  it 
testified  beforehand  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  that  should 
follow  "  (i  Peter  i.  ii).  Or  again,  what  else  can  he  intend,  when  he  writes, 
in  the  very  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  of  the  Redeemer  Himself,  "  Who 
verily  was  preordained  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  but  was  mani- 
fested in  these  last  times  for  you,  who  by  Him  do  believe  in  God,  that 
raised  Him  up  from  the  dead,  and  gave  Him  glory  "  {ib.  20,  21)? 

It  might  then  be  said,  of  what  use  is  the  Gospel  according  to  St.  John, 
if  it  only  states  a  doctrine  that  was  known  and  received  before  ?  The 
answer  is  clear,  that  without  such  a  systematic  presentation  of  doctrine  the 
life  of  the  Church  could  not  have  been  continued  in  its  original  strength 
and  power.  In  the  first  age  the  feeUng  of  what  our  Lord  was  and  had 
been,  the  memory  of  His  visible  presence,  the  oral  traditions  of  His  teach- 
ing about  Himself,  the  supernatural  charismata  in  the  Church  supplied  the 
place  of  a  written  doctrine.  That  there  existed  such  a  background  of  belief 
we  might  reasonably  have  inferred  from  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  but  should 
have  had  some  difficulty  in  demonstrating.  But  this  power  is  now  supplied 
us.  The  Gospel  according  to  St.  John  makes  their  statements  clear  and 
harmonious,  and  helps  us  really  to  understand  them.  The  truths  con- 
tained in  it  are  the  primary  basis  on  which  they  repose  ;  and  it  is  therefore 
in  a  real  sense  t\\Q  first,  though  not  the.  first-written,  Gospel. 

It  was  his  great  prerogative  to  be  a  teacher  of  teachers.  So  it  is  ours. 
Not,  indeed,  to  neglect  the  little  ones  of  the  flock,  the  weak  in  faith,  the 
unlearned,  or  the  poor.  St.  John,  we  know  himself  spent  great  pains  in  ■ 
the  conversion  of  the  young  robber  who  had  lapsed  again  into  sin.  But  our 
principal  work  is  to  be  teachers  of  those  who  will  have  to  stand  up  to  teach 
others.  It  is  so  to  a  great  extent :  in  all  branches  of  the  education  that 
we  give  it  should  be  so  more  than  it  is,  in  almost  all.  But  chiefly  in  our 
theological  training  it  is  desirable  that  we  should  recognise  this  function 
more  consciously  and  distinctly.  Much  has  been  done  within  the 
memories  even  of  a  recent  generation.  God  be  thanked  for  it  night  and 
morning,  every  day  that  we  live.  But  if  Oxford  is  to  take  the  place  of  a 
centre  of  light  to  heathen  and  infidel  lands,  as  well  as  to  this  land,  we 
must  not  rest  till  the  work  of  St.  John  is  visibly  mirrored  among  us.  We 
must  not  only  aim  at  obtaining  a  due  supply  of  the  external  aids  to 
missionary  studies,  the  endowment,  it  may  be,  of  new  professorships  of 
languages,  of  ethnology,  of  practical  medicine  and  surgery,  perhaps  even 
of  the  theory  and  history  of  missions — the  formation  of  libraries  and 
museums,  and  the  like.  But  we  must  also  long  and  labour  after  the 
organisation  of  life.  St.  John,  we  may  believe,  was  what  he  was,  not  only 
from  his  devotion  to  his  Master,  but  from  his  close  and  loving  association 
with  the  Twelve  and  the  Virgin  Mother.  He  represents  to  us  the  essence 
of  their  common  life,  he  givts  form  and  words  to  their  beliefs,  he  com- 
bines the  simplicity  of  the  Galilean  peasant  with  the  profoundest  medita- 
tion of  the  recluse,  and  imparts  this  simplicity  and  this  profundity  to  those 
who  gather  round  him.  From  the  sources  of  this  common  life  a  stream 
has  flown  down  even  to  us ;  we  taste  at  times  its  sweetness,  and  are 
wondrously  refreshed  and  comforted.  We  feel  in  those  moments  that  our 
gifts  of  mind  and  heart  grow  far  beyond  the  sum  of  their  separate  powers. 
There  is  a  common  movement,  bearing  us  like  a  mighty  river  upon  its 
bosom,  which  endows  us  with  tenfold  vigour  and  spiritual  grace.     And 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  207 

now,  dear  brethren,  the  meeting  of  this  Conference  would  seem  to  call  us 
to  new  efforts  in  this  direction.  Let  this  thought  be  in  our  minds  and  in 
our  prayers  :  "  Can  we  not  create  in  our  midst,  after  the  example  of 
St.  John,  a  school  where  teachers  of  the  word  of  life  may  be  taught,  and 
disciplined,  and  inspired,  where  another  Ignatius  may  train  another 
Polycarp,  where  a  Polycarp  may  hand  on  the  faith  to  an  Irenteus  and  a 
IMelito,  that  so  land  after  land  may  rejoice  with  the  knowledge  of  our 
Saviour's  name? " 

Lastl}',  our  method  should  also  be  that  of  St.  John.  We  do  not  only 
want  implicit  teaching  like  that  of  the  Synoptists — or  controversial  and 
occasional  teaching  like  that  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  Both  are  admirable, 
both  are  beautiful,  both  are  indispensable.  But  we  want  most  of  all  dog- 
matic or  explicit  teaching.  I  believe  this  truth  is  recognised  increasingly, 
even  by  those  who  do  not  know  how  to  accept  Christian  doctrine.  They 
feel  the  want  of  certainty — they  respect,  they  admire,  they  even  love  St. 
John.  It  is  not  of  course  that  dogmatic  teaching  is  opposed  to  rational 
teaching.  God  forbid.  On  the  contrary,  the  more  dogmatic  our  teaching 
the  more  it  ought  to  comprehend  of  method,  the  more  it  ought  to  embrace 
of  knowledge  in  every  department  of  science  and  history.  If  our  testimony 
is  true,  it  will  gladly  welcome  all  truth.  But  it  believes  above  all  things 
that  there  is  a  God  of  truth,  and  that  He  does  not  will  us  to  wander  in  a 
mist  of  scepticism  and  uncertainty  of  action ;  that  He  does  not  delude  us 
with  phantoms  ;  that  He  does  not  teach  us  what  is  noblest  by  means  of 
lies ;  but  that  He  has  given  us  some  real  knowledge  of  Himself. 

This  is  the  foundation  of  St.  John,  this  must  be  our  foundation — the 
Word  of  God,  in  Whom  is  life,  and  whose  life  is  the  light  of  men. 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Sunday,  August  3,  1890. 
By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

THE  PRODIGAL  SON. 
Luke  xv.  11—24. 
"Give  Me  the  .  .  .  Goods  that  Falleth  to  Me." — No  parable  ot 
our  Lord  is  more  full  of  allusions  to  manners  and  customs,  exquisitely  true 
to  nature ;  yet  most  of  these  touches,  common  to  all  ages  and  countries, 
require  no  illustration.  They  appeal  to  us  at  once.  "  Give  me  the 
portion  of  goods  that  falleth  to  me."  The  law  of  primogeniture  was  very 
strictly  laid  down  under  the  Mosaic  code,  and  a  father  could  not  pass 
over  his  first-born  in  favour  of  any  of  the  younger  brothers.  The  eldest 
was  by  law  entided  to  a  double  portion,  and  this  always  included  the 
homestead.  But  neither  could  a  father  ignore  the  claims  of  the  rest  of 
his  family,  whatever  had  been  the  position  of  the  mother.  Each  was 
entitled  to  his  share,  as  Abraham  gave  portions  to  his  sons  by  Keturah. 
In  the  present  case,  the  younger  son  would  be  entitled  to  one-third  of  his 
father's  possessions,   though   he  had  no  right  to  demand  it   during   his 

'  From   the  American  Sttnday  School  7\mes. 


2o8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

father's  lifetime.  What  the  father  gives  would  naturally  be  what  we 
should  term  his  "  personal "  property ;  that  is,  he  would  give  it  to  him  in 
the  shape  of  money  or  jewels — the  latter  a  very  common  form  of  investing 
wealth  to  this  day  in  the  East.  With  his  fortune  in  this  portable  shape, 
the  son  stays  not  many  days  before  he  takes  his  journey  to  spend  it 
beyond  his  father's  control. 

"The  Husks  that  the  Swine  did  Eat." — These  husks  are  the  pods 
and  seeds  of  the  locust  or  carob  tree  {Ceratonia  siiiqiia),  a  common  ever- 
green tree  bearing  an  abundant  crop  of  fruit,  long  curved  pods,  which  are 
used  for  feeding  cattle,  and  are  largely  exported  to  England  for  feeding 
horses,  under  the  name  of  locust  beans.  They  are  capable  of  sustaining 
human  life,  like  the  acorns  of  the  oak,  eaton  by  our  Saxon  ancestors  in 
times  of  scarcity  ;  and  as  in  Germany  and  England  the  swine  are  driven 
into  the  woods  to  feed  on  the  fallen  acorns,  so  in  Syria  they  feed  under 
the  locust-trees.  Latin  classical  authors  speak  of  the  locust  bean  as  the 
food  of  the  most  miserable  of  the  people  in  the  last  extremity.  The 
prodigal  had  "joined  himself"  to  the  man  who  sent  him  to  feed  the 
swine— the  most  degrading  of  all  possible  employments  to  a  Jew.  The 
word  implies  more  than  merely  hiring  himself.  He  had  glued  himself 
(literally),  so  that  he  was  practically  his  slave. 

"How  MANY  Hired  Servants  .  .  .  have  Bread  enough?" — He 
soon  contrasts  himself,  in  this,  to  a  free  man,  most  abject  condition,  with 
his  father's  hired  servants.  Yet  the  day  labourer,  the  mere  hireling,  was, 
and  is,  in  an  Eastern  household,  in  a  far  lower  social  position  than  the 
bom  or  purchased  member  of  the  household,  or  domestic  servant. 
Between  master  and  slave  we  see  still  in  Oriental  families  a  community  of 
interest,  a  sympathy,  and  an  intimacy  very  far  different  from  the  mere 
business  relationship  of  employer  and  hired  labourer.  This  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  position  of  the  trusted  Eliezer  of  Damascus  in  the  house- 
hold of  the  patriarch  Abraham.  There  is  a  depth  of  self-abasement  in  the 
proposed  petition  to  his  father,  though  never  actually  uttered  to  him, 
"  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired  servants  " — as  though  he  had  said,  "  I  do 
not  even  ask  the  humblest  place  within  thy  house.  Suffer  me  to  serve 
thee  outside,  as  a  mere  hireling,  from  day  to  day." 

"The  Best  Robe." — Very  different  is  his  actual  reception.  "Bring 
forth  the  best  robe ; "  literally,  the  first  robe,  the  long  loose  and  wide 
upper  garment,  often  embroidered,  which  was  worn  by  the  Jews  of  rank, 
and  in  which  the  Pharisees  loved  to  show  themselves,  like  the  long  fur- 
trimmed  cloak  which  the  Polish  Jews  in  Palestine  still  wear  on  the 
Sabbalh  day  and  on  great  festivals  only.  A  still  more  emphatic  sign  of 
the  prodigal's  restoration  from  a  state  of  degradation  is  the  investing  him 
with  the  shoes  and  the  ring.  Shoes  were  worn  only  by  freemen,  never  by 
slaves.  The  giving  of  the  ring  restores  him  not  only  to  freedom,  but  to 
dignity  and  power.  The  ring,  which  in  the  East  is  always  also  a  signet 
or  seal,  is  only  worn  by  men  of  position  or  property.  It  is  the  symbol  of 
rank,  equivalent  to  armorial  bearings  in  European  countries.  Finally,  in 
place  of  the  kid,  the  ordinary  provision  for  a  feast,  we  have  the  fatted  calf, 
slain  only  on  the  greatest  and  most  important  public  occasions,  and  when 
the  entertainment  was  to  extend  beyond  the  mere  family  circle. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  ii8,  Vol.  III.]  AUGUST  8,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE   PROMISED  POWER. 

A  Sermon^ 
By  the  Very  Rev.  Francis  Pigou,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Chichester.* 

Preached  at  Holy  Trinity  Churchy  Tunbridge   IVeils,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
Aggregate  Clerical  Meeting. 

"  Behold,  I  send  the  promise  of  My  Father  upon  you :  but  tarry  ye  in  the 
city  of  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from  on  high.  And  He  led 
them  out  as  far  as  to  Bethany,  and  He  lifted  up  His  hands,  and  blessed  them." 
—St.  Luke  xxiv.  49,  50. 

I  CANNOT  but  be  thankful  to  be  allowed  of  God  and  privileged  to 
take  a  part,  however  small,  in  the  interesting  proceedings  of  this 
Aggregate  Clerical  Meeting,  under  the  auspices  of  a  President 
whose  pupil  I  was  when  he  was  Head  Master  of  the  Edinburgh 
Academy,  and  who  bears  an  honoured  name  in  the  Church  as  one 
of  her  ablest  apologists.  The  occasion  also  is  of  prayerful 
interest  to  us  all,  inasmuch  as  we  rejoice  in  common  to  meet 
together  here,  amid  the  familiar  scenes  of  his  ministry,  one 
whose  life  we  trust  may  long  be  spared  as  that  of  a  faithful 
witness  to  Christ. 

Many  topics  suggest  themselves  for  our  consideration,  more 
especially  at  a  crisis  such  as  that  through  which  the  Church  of 
England  is  at  present  passing,  when  we  are  awaiting  with 
anxiety  a  judgment  fraught  with  moment,  the  issues  of  which,  who 
can  foresee  ?  It  may  be  well  to  divert  our  thoughts  from  dis- 
tracting and  embittering  controversy,  which  rarely  tends  to  edifica- 
tion, and  for  a  brief  space  to  meditate  together  upon  some  one  prac- 
tical topic  in  which  clergy  and  laity  are  alike  concerned.  Would 
it  not  also  be  well  to  ask  ourselves  what  place  the  comparatively 
trivial  questions  which  are  under  consideration  at  Lambeth  will 
find  in  our  thoughts  in  a  dying  hour  ?  Well  do  I  remember, 
when  my  own  life  once  hung  on  a  slender  thread,  and  it  was  not 
expected  that  I  could  live  to  see  a  new  day,  a  memorial  found  its 
way  into  what  seemed  about  to  be  the  scene  of  my  departure, 
requesting   my  signature,   with  reference  to  questions  of  ritual 

^'  Published  by  request. 


210  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

which  were  at  that  time  *'  vexing  the  Church."  Need  I  say  that 
in  the  prospect  of  eternity  there  was  no  room  for  such  questions  ? 
The  one  absorbing,  commanding  thought  was — "  Am  I  resting 
my  soul  humbly  and  trustfully  on  the  finished  work  of  Christ  ?  " 
I  could  not  but  feel,  in  a  dying  hour,  into  what  insignificance 
much  of  keen  and  bitter  controversy  sinks  beside  the  one  question 
which  must  at  last  come  to  the  front.  This  evening  we  will 
brush  aside  questions  of  ritual,  and,  bearing  in  mind  our  text, 
will  plead  for  a  fuller  realisation  on  the  part  of  clergy  and  laity 
of  a  truth  somewhat  lost  sight  of,  viz.,  that  this  is  the  dispensation 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  under  which  we  live. 

We  are  so  much  in  the  habit  of  speaking  of  the  Christian  ^ra, 
living  amidst  those  creations  and  institutions  of  Christianity 
which,  compared  with  the  practical  aspect  of  Atheism,  are 
evidences  of  the  truth  of  our  creed,  that  we  forget  that,  while  in 
one  sense  the  Christian  yEra,  the  Church  has  passed  into  the 
possession  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  religious  history  of  the  world  is  evidently  marked  by  three 
leading  historical  periods.  There  wasthe  age  of  "Natural  Religion," 
when  God  was  revealed  in  His  creation.  Stars  and  daisies  taught 
those  who  had  eyes  to  discern  His  greatness  and  benevolence. 
The  age  of  natural  religion  came  to  a  close  when  "  The  Word 
became  flesh  and  dwelt  amongst  us."  The  second  of  these  periods 
came  to  a  close  with  the  ascension  of  Christ. 

If  the  Ascension  of  our  Lord — a  Festival  slowly  recovering  its 
place  in  Church  teaching  and  recognition — be  the  close  of  the 
Gospel  history,  it  is  in  one  sense  the  beginning  of  the  history  of 
the  Church.  The  last  event  in  the  ministry  of  our  Lord  is  the 
first  inthe  ministry  of  the  Apostles.  So  vividly  was  this  felt  that 
in  the  early  Church  the  "  Acts  of  the  Apostles,"  and  not  the 
Gospels,  were  read  in  Divine  Service,  for  some  weeks  after  every 
anniversary  of  Pentecost.  The  Ascension,  amongst  other  lessons, 
was  to  encourage  and  keep  alive  a  spirit  of  expectation  of  that 
personal  return  of  Christ,  which  so  cheered  the  first  ages  of  the 
Church.  To  gaze  up  into  heaven,  to  ask  curious  questions, 
to  lose  ourselves  in  idle  contemplation,  is  not  the  task  committed 
to  the  Church  militant  here  on  earth.  The  grounds  on  which  the 
Irvingites  in  part  justify  their  position  is  that  the  second  coming 
of  our  Lord  is  not  insisted  upon  by  us  with  the  urgency  and 
importance  that  great  truth  demands.  During  my  vicariate  at 
Doncaster,  one  who  described  himself  as  "  serving  under  the 
restored  Apostles,"  regularly  attended  our  early  celebration  and 
morning  service,  and  gave  lectures  in  the  evening  at  a  service 
conducted  by  himself.  I  was  desirous  to  know  his  reason  for  this 
apparent  schism.  He  replied  that  the  modern  Irvingite  holds 
that  the  Church  of  England  does  not  sufficiently  dwell  on  and 
enforce  the  second  coming  of  Christ.  Of  course,  the  end  and 
aim  of  the  Christian   ministry  is  to  prepare  the  world  for  that 


The  Promised  Power.  211 


event ;  and,  though  it  may  not  form  the  topic  of  every  sermon,  it 
is,  surely,  more  or  less  assumed  in  all  our  Offices ;  it  is  the  goal 
towards  which  all  is  trending,  but  it  does  us  no  harm  to  be  made 
aware  of  these  opinions,  be  they  rightly  or  wrongly  entertained, 
and  "if  the  faith  of  the  Church,"  as  Dr.  Vaughan  observes,  "  is 
to  be  brought  back  to  its  simplicity  in  matter  of  doctrine  it  must 
be  brought  back  to  its  simplicity  in  matter  of  fact ;  there  must  be 
a  full  persuasion  that  Christ  will  come  again."  Pentecost,^ 
therefore,  in  the  Church's  history,  was  to  this  dispensation  what 
Bethlehem  was  to  the  Christian  ^ra,  and  Christ  ascended  that 
His  Spirit  might  be  poured  forth.  It  never  was  intended  that 
Christianity  should  be  localised.  Men  were  not  to  say  of 
Christ,  "  Lo,  here,"  or  "  Lo,  there."  There  are  stagnant 
languages  such  as  know  no  new  accretions ;  there  are  stagnant 
civilisations;  there  are  stagnant  creeds ;  they  are  not  essentially 
missionary.  We  have  no  Buddhist  temples  nor  Moham- 
medan mosques  in  the  British  isles.  Christianity  was  to  know 
no  geographical  or  topical  limits.  It  was  to  be  diffused  and  dif- 
fusive. All  of  outward  was  to  disappear,  to  give  place  and  scope 
for  this  present  dispensation.  Every  traveller  returns  somewhat 
disappointed  from  a  visit  to  the  Holy  Land.  It  is  difficult  to 
identify  for  certain  some  localities  closely  connected  with  our 
Lord's  ministry.  We  have  no  authentic  portrait  of  Christ.  It 
never  w^as  intended  we  should  possess  what  all  in  every  age  have 
craved  for,  and  what  Art,  to  supply  the  felt  want,  has  imagined. 
There  is  profound  significance  in  St.  Paul's  words,  "  Henceforth 
know  we  no  man  after  the  flesh.  Yea,  though  we  have  known  Christ 
in  the  flesh,  yet  now  henceforth  know  we  Him  no  more."  Hence 
expressions  of  this  nature — "  Christ  in  you,  the  hope  of  glory." 
If  the  Church  be  under  any  obligation  to  the  Irvingite  for  speci- 
ally emphasising  the  doctrine  of  the  Second  Advent  of  our  Lord, 
it  is  under  no  small  obligation  to  the  Society  of  Friends  for  keep- 
ing alive  the  great  truth,  that  this  is  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  In  their  silent  worship,  "  waiting  for  the  moving  of  the 
waters  "  ;  in  their  honouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  recognition  of 
His  varied  offices,  they  have  in  large  measure  preserved  the 
Church  from  practical  ignoring  of  His  work.  Now  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  becoming  more  honoured,  we  hear  less  and  less  of 
Quakers.  We  do  not  meet  them  so  frequently  in  their  quaint 
attire.  As  astronomers  speak  of  stars  that  have  ceased  to  shine, 
because  they  have  done  their  appointed  work,  so  certain  schools 
of  thought,  or  sects,  protesting  for  certain  truths,  cease  by  degrees 
to  shine  brilliantly  in  the  firmament  of  Gospel  truth.  Thank  God 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  becoming  more  honoured.  The  Prayer 
Union,*  which  so  many  are  joining  for  daily  supplication  for  the 
gifts  of  the  Spirit,  is  largely  contributing  to  this  fuller  recognition 

*  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  the  Rev.  H.  L.  Harkness,  M.A.,  Rector  of  St. 
Swithin's,  Worcester. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


of  Himself  in  His  varied  offices.  He  is  more  acknowledged  as 
the  source  of  power,  or  as  spiritual  power  itself.  We  speak  of 
Him  in  our  creeds  as  "  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life."  He  brooded 
over  chaos.  Does  it  not  enhance  the  charm  of  beautiful 
scenery  to  remember  that  all  the  beauty  of  varied  landscape  is 
attributable  to  and  identified  with  the  operation  on  the  physical 
world  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  It  was  He  Who  rested  on  Moses, 
David,  Elijah,  Isaiah,  under  Old  Testament  times,  on  Christ  and 
His  Apostles  in  latter  days.  Is  it  not  remarkable  that  in  one 
passage  the  dew — symbol  of  the  Holy  Ghost — is  represented  as 
resting  on  the  manna,  and  that  in  another  the  manna — type  of 
Christ — is  represented  as  resting  on  the  dew  ?  Is  not  this  re- 
markable mutual  attestation  under  familiar  symbols  of  how  the 
Holy  Ghost  testified  to  Christ  before,  and  prepared  the  world  for 
His  coming,  and  how  Christ,  all  throughout  His  ministry,  and 
increasingly  as  the  time  of  His  departure  drew  near,  honoured 
and  bore  witness  to  the  Spirit  ?  Need  I  quote  to  a  congregation 
of  this  character  texts  in  support  of  Christ's  testimony  to  the 
Holy  Ghost  ?  After  His  resurrection  He  renewed  His  testimony, 
giving  the  Holy  One  the  peculiar  title  of  *'  The  Promise." 

*'  Wait,"  was  our  Lord's  command  ;  wait  for  the  promise  of  the 
Father.  "  Again,  ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  Ye  shall  receive  Swa/^t?,  power. 
And  this  is  the  root  idea  of  Christianity,  not  a  new  Creed  for  each 
successive  generation,  but  the  heroism  and  might  of  a  conquering 
force  put  into  the  Creed  we  have  ;  not  miracles  wrought,  ever  and 
anon,  for  the  Church,  but  wonders  wrought  by  the  Church  with 
the  material  at  hand ;  men  and  women  carrying  on  Christ's  work 
as  energised,  Spirit-inspired  witnesses,  living  over  again  Christ's 
saintly  life  in  the  power  which  qualified  and  enabled  them  to  do  so, 
even  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  was  the  secret  of  Christ's 
success,  as  it  is  the  secret  of  all  successful  ministry.  You  will 
remember  that  when  the  disciples  "  asked  of  Him,  saying,  Lord, 
wilt  Thou  at  this  time  restore  again  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  "  His 
reply  did  not  satisfy  curiosity.  It  was  plain  and  practical :  "  It  is 
not  for  you  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons  which  the  Father  hath 
put  into  His  own  power,  but  ye  shall  receive  power  after  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me." 
In  other  words,  "  My  work  is  a  finished  and  accomplished  work. 
I  have  been  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  upon  the  cross. 
I  ascend  now  to  where  I  was  before,  to  carry  on  My  mediatorial 
work  of  intercession,  by  virtue  of  my  Passion,  for  the  Church 
militant  on  earth.  You  are  henceforth  to  carry  on  My  work  here 
below."  The  temptation  came  to  Christ  more  than  once.  It  lay 
at  the  root  of  His  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  to  resort  to  super- 
natural methods  where  the  ordinary  conditions  of  obedience  or 
trust  would  suffice.     Wonders  were  not  any  longer  to  be  wrought 


The  Promised  Power.  213 


for  the  Church,  but  great  things  were  to  be  done  by  His  Church.* 
Christianity  was  not  simply  and  only  a  revelation.  It  was  a  system 
for  the  regeneration  of  a  lost  world.  It  is  not  one  of  many  forms 
of  religion  which  shall  have  its  day,  to  be  carried  out  to  its  grave 
with  extinct  creeds.  The  demand  of  our  age  is  not  a  new  Creed 
more  suited  to  our  modern  wants  and  more  in  harmony  with  our 
modern  thoughts.  Christianity  is  not  played  out.  Its  necessity 
or  virtue  cannot  cease  so  long  as  a  sinner  remains  to  be  saved 
and  a  saint  to  be  edified.  It  is  not  some  further  revelation 
which  is  the  crying  want  of  our  enlightened  age,  further  develop- 
ment of  doctrine,  extraordinary  manifestations,  sensational  efforts. 
We  know  all  we  need  to  know.  No  further  revelation  could  make 
God's  plan  of  salvation  more  simple  or  more  intelligible.  No 
development  of  doctrine  could  teach  us  more  of  the  efficacy, 
world-wide,  all-embracing,  of  the  death  of  Christ.  What  we  do 
want  is  more  simple  and  perfect  faith  in  the  means  of  grace  and 
the  methods  of  the  successful  ministry  which  are  already  ours. 
We  want  more  faith  in  that  Gospel  that  makes  "wise  unto  salva- 
tion ;  "  more  faith  in  all  that  God  has  promised  and  Christ  has 
pledged ;  more  faith  in  His  presence  in  His  church,  as  working  in 
and  behind  all  her  movements,  just  as  God  is  ever  working  in 
and  behind  the  phenomena  of  His  natural  kingdom.  We  want 
more  faith  in  the  secret  presence  and  co-operation  of  God  the 
Holy  Ghost.  On  what  did  the  Apostles  rely  as  they  crossed  the 
threshold  of  that  upper  chamber  to  confront  the  world  in  which 
they  were  to  witness  for  Christ  ?  What  were  the  weapons  of  theii 
warfare  "  mighty  to  the  pulling  down  of  strongholds  ?  "  How  came 
it  to  pass  that  the  Lord  added  daily  to  His  Church  such  as  were 
being  saved,  that  so  many  consciences  were  pricked,  so  many  set 
inquiring,  so  many  became  believers  as  the  result,  not  of  several  but 
of  one  sermon  ?  They  witnessed  to  truth.  Their  texts  were :  "  Jesus 
and  the  resurrection,"  "  Christ  and  Him  crucified."  The  world 
was  converted  by  preaching,  not  by  sacraments.  No  one  would 
undervalue  the  two  great  Sacraments  of  the  Christian  Church. 
Tiiey  are  of  Christ's  own  ordaining,  but  Holy  Baptism  does  not 
convert  the  babe  unconscious  of  its  baptism.  Some  time  or  other 
in  its  after-life  there  must  be  the  conscious  fulfilment  of  the  con- 
ditions of  Repentance  and  Faith.  We  do  not  regard  Sacraments  as 
charms,  working  miracles  of  grace  on  unconscious  minds  or 
unwilling  hearts.  Holy  Communion  is  "  the  children's  bread." 
We  come  to  it  with  life.  I  do  not  say — for  I  know  it  to  be 
otherwise — that  Christ  does  not  make  Himself  known 
to  anxious  souls  in  the  breaking  of  bread  !  But  that  blessed 
Sacrament  presupposes  awakening ;  it  represents  a  love  which  the 
communicant  is   assumed  to  feel ;  it  sets  forth  a  death  in  the 

*  "  By  the  hands  of  the  apostles  were  many  signs  and  wonders  wrought  among 
the  people"  (Acts  v.  12). 


214  The  British  Weekly  Ptdpit. 

atoning  merits  of  which  we  are  trusting.  As  often  as  we  partake 
devoutly  and  faithfully  of  Holy  Communion  we  are  assured  of  the 
forgiveness  of  sins  "  truly  repented  "  of;  we  are  strengthened  with 
unseen  grace  by  which  to  live  more  truly,  the  spiritual  life  is 
nourished  by  vital  union  with  our  Lord.  These  are  amongst  "  the 
benefits  of  His  Passion."  The  world  was  not  won  to  Christ  by 
"  celebrations,"  more  or  less  frequent,  of  Holy  Communion,  but 
believers  were  kept  and  strengthened  by  the  breaking  of  bread. 
There  is  a  tendency  in  our  day,  very  observable,  to  disparage  the 
great  ordinance  of  preaching.  I  say  this  advisedly.  On  all  sides 
the  cry  is  for  "  short  sermons."  The  setting  of  the  Canticles  may 
be  inordinately  long;  the  Anthem  may  be  spread  over  fifteen  or 
twenty  minutes  and  no  complaint  is  made,  but  the  sermon  is 
considered  long  if  it  exceed  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes.  The 
clergy  are  in  not  a  few  cases  becoming  identified  with  this  im- 
patience of  a  sermon.  The  pulpit,  to  which  the  prominent  place 
is  assigned  by  every  church  architect,  is  in  some  danger  of  being 
depreciated  in  its  use.  This  arises  in  part  from  the  reaction 
which  has  set  in  against  giving  the  pulpit  undue  prominence, 
against  that  idea  of  church-going  which  mutilates  the  very  structure 
of  churches,  sacrificing  all  their  arrangements  and  harmony 
to  the  one  dominant  idea  that  to  hear  a  sermon  was  the  great  end 
of  church-going.  Now  we  hear  more  and  almost  only  of  worship  ; 
ignoring  the  difference  between  worship  and  evangelising,  the  one 
being  the  privilege  of  the  child  of  God,  the  other  being  necessar}' 
for  the  awakening  of  unawakened  and  the  building  up  of  believers 
in  their  most  holy  faith.  To  my  mind,  and  indeed  now  within  my 
experience,  it  is  this  depreciation  of  the  pulpit  that  to  a  large 
extent  accounts  for  and  explains  the  pro.verbial  soporific,  dead-alive 
condition  of  Cathedral  cities,  except  where  special  Nave  Services 
are  habitually  held.  The  inordinate  length  of  Service  by  itself 
makes  a  very  short  sermon  almost  a  necessity.  But  faith  comes  by 
hearing,  not  by  vain  repetition,  not  by  music  however  good,  and 
Cathedral  cities  are  doomed  to  remain  proverbially  dead-alive  so  long 
as  almost  everything  is  sacrificed  to  the  dominant  idea  of  worship. 
You  will  not  expect  of  me,  in  the  presence  of  many  of  large 
experience,  that  I  should  either  enlarge  on  preaching  or  venture  to 
lay  down  rules  for  your  guidance.  Considering  the  nature  of  the 
message  entrusted  to  our  heralding,  and  how  frequent  are  our 
opportunities  for  declaring  it,  in  pulpits,  Bible-classes,  sick-rooms, 
and  by  the  wayside  of  life,  who  can  be  satisfied  with  the  result  ? 
I  do  not  speak  of  Christless  sermons,  sermons  in  which  Christ  is 
scarcely  alluded  to.  I  do  not  speak  of  moral  essays  flavoured  with 
Christianity ;  I  do  not  speak  of  sermons  about  Christ  and  His 
example.  I  leave  out  of  thought,  as  unworthy  of  this  Conference, 
sermonsnotourown,  purchased  in  response  to  advertisements,  norof 
those  which  have  all  the  odour  of  staleness,  ill-disguised  with  a  new 
text.  I  do  not  speak  of  "  Christless  teaching "  and  "neutral  tints  " ; 


The  Promised  Power.  215 


elaborate  criticism  or  controverted  texts  which  do  not  touch  the 
heart,  the  effect  and  results  of  which  have  been  described  as 
"  drops  of  opium  on  leaves  of  lead."  Nor,  again,  of  sermons  care- 
fully written,  or  extempore ;  stiff  and  formal  or  unfettered  by  rule  ; 
long  or  short,  but  of  what  is  understood  by  "evangelical  preaching," 
'*  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."  Is  the  result  of  evangelical  teaching 
what  it  ought  to  be  ?  Need  I  define  evangelical  doctrine  ?  Ruin 
by  the  Fall,  Redemption  by  Christ,  Regeneration  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  three  R's ;  salvation,  full,  finished,  free,  provided, 
offered,  present,  so  that  we  work  from  and  not/or  life,  we  work  not 
that  we  may  be  accepted,  but  because  we  are  reconciled,  justified 
by  that  faith  which  works  by,  and  is  evidenced  in  love.  This,  is  it 
not,  is  what  we  understand  by  "the  Gospel"?  It  is  not  the 
exaltation  of  the  Church,  but  the  lifting  up  of  Christ.  It  is  not 
the  exaltation  of  the  Sacraments,  but  the  honouring  of  Christ, 
through  the  efficacy  of  whose  Atonement  the  Sacraments  are  to 
us  channels  of  grace.  This  Gospel  may  be  variously  stated  :  with 
the  simplicity  of  a  profound  intellect,  such  as  it  was  my  privilege 
to  hear  last  autumn  at  the  lips  of  the  present  Bishop  of  London, 
or  at  the  lips  of  one  not  greatly  gifted  but  "  taught  of  God."  It  is 
to  my  mind  possible,  with  what  I  myself  strongly  hold,  Baptismal 
Regeneration.  It  is  possible  with  surplice  in  pulpit  and 
with  surpliced  choirs.  It  is  possible  with  Eastward  position 
in  Holy  Communion,  which  is  the  universal  use  in  the 
American  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  and  in  not  a  few  Churches 
in  which  it  has  been  my  privilege  to  conduct  Missions,  with- 
out any  compromise  of  evangelical  doctrine.  The  demand  of  our 
age  is  bright  Services  and  faithful  preaching.  We  are,  thank 
God,  fast  outgrowing  many  prejudices,  undoing  much  which 
estranged  our  more  cultured  classes  from  evangelical  teaching. 
It  is  not  that  we  offer  a  gilded  pill,  nor,  under  guise  of  an  attractive 
Service,  a  mutilated  Gospel,  but  we  are  learning  that  we  have  too 
long  kept  good  wine  in  old  bottles,  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  to 
be  a  Puritan  to  be  a  Churchman.  And  yet  with  all  this,  with 
concessions  wisely  made,  with  growing  perception  that  much 
which  was  once  thought  incompatible  with  "  saving  truth  "  is 
not  really  and  intrinsically  so,  how  comes  it  to  pass  that  evan- 
gelical preaching  isnot  more  visibly  blessed?  that  more  signs  and 
tokens  do  not  accompany  and  witness  to  it  ?  The  answer  is  not 
far  to  find.  Have  not  many  of  us  heard  sermons  in  which  "  Christ 
and  Him  crucified  "  is  clearly  preached,  but  there  has  been  no 
allusion  to  God  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Well  do  I  remember  being 
requested  to  visit  one  of  culture  and  mental  gifts  on  her  death- 
bed in  a  town  where  I  was  conducting  a  "  Mission."  I  found  her 
in  the  deepest  distress  of  mind  in  the  prospect  of  Eternity.  She 
told  me  she  knew  she  could  not  live,  but  that  she  had  no  hope  for 
Eternity.  On  questioning  her  as  to  her  religious  convictions,  she 
answered  me  that  with  her  whole  soul  she  longed  to  know  Christ. 


2i6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

"They  come,"  she  said,  "and  sit  by  my  bedside,  and  bid  me  'to 
believe  '  and  to  *  accept  Christ.'  Would  to  God  I  could,  but  I 
cannot."  I  asked  her  if  she  understood  that  it  must  be  given  to  us 
to  believe  in  order  that  we  may  accept ;  and  when  I  proceeded  to 
explain  to  her  that  it  is  the  office  and  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost  to 
convince  of  sin,  to  discover  our  need  of  a  Saviour,  to  reveal  Him 
to  the  soul,  and  to  enable  us  to  accept  Him,  and  appropriate 
personally  His  precious  blood,  it  all  seemed  to  come  to  her  as  a 
new  truth.  She  did  not  depart  this  life  without  having  "  seen 
His  salvation."  This  is  one  specimen  only  of  many  where  evan- 
gelical preaching  has  failed  from  want  of  honouring  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  from  not  encouraging  our  people  to  look  to  Him  for  convic- 
tion, enlightenment,  and  power.  The  word  we  preach  is  partly 
natural  and  partly  supernatural.  "  It  is  the  Spirit  which  giveth 
life."  If  we  sought  His  guidance,  we  should  often  be  guided  to 
particular  texts  ;  these,  to  use  the  late  Bishop  Wilberforce's  happy 
expression,  would  become  "  luminous."  If  we  sought  His  inspira- 
tion, and  preached  in  dependence  on  Him,  it  would  be  more 
given  us  what  to  speak,  not  with  man's  wisdom,  but  "in 
demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power."  If,  when  in  the 
pulpit,  with  the  Bible-class,  or  the  sick-room,  we  more  expected  a 
blessing,  we  should  more  often  see  the  Word  "  accompanied  with 
signs  following."  If  occasionally  we  encouraged  our  people  quietly 
to  say  the  "Veni  Creator"  together,  and  from  time  to  time  held  an 
After-meeting,  so  intensely  solemn  that  pricked  consciences  might 
lead  to  anxious  questioning,  and  fleeting  impressions  be  fixed,  we 
should  find  that  the  Gospel  is  still  "  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation 
to  everyone  that  believeth."  For  nothing  can  supersede  it.  The 
Press  qan  never  supersede  or  fulfil  the  functions  of  the  pulpit.  It 
has  not  the  accessories  of  the  living  voice  and  earnest  diction  ; 
it  is  not  the  specially  chosen  instrumentality  of  the  "  preaching 
of  the  word."  So  let  me  persuade  you,  brethren  in  the  ministry, 
"  when  the  day  is  fully  come,"  take  your  carefully-written  manu- 
script, or  your  few  notes — for  no  hard  and  fast  rule  can  be  laid  down 
in  this  matter — and  spread  manuscript  or  notes  before  God.  As  the 
waters  of  the  Nile  flow  over  and  irrigate  the  soil  in  which  lies  the 
seed,  so  pray  that  the  Holy  Ghost  may  flood  what  you  would  sow 
with  His  fertilising  power :  that  the  Spirit  may  be  poured  forth 
in  His  quickening  and  enabling  power.  And  you  shall  be  led, 
as  it  were,  from  Calvary,  from  meditation  on  the  Cross  and 
Passion,  to  the  more  quiet  and  restful  scene  of  your  ministry, 
and  He  in  whose  name  you  are  about  to  speak  shall  lift  up  His 
hands  and  bless  you  with  the  benediction  which  shall  endue  you 
with  power  from  on  high. 

I  must  not  forget  the  laity  are  represented  in  this  Conference. 
Suffer  a  word  of  exhortation.  That  word  is,  Honour  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  secret  prayer,  in  family  prayer,  in  public  worship, 
when  kneeling  at  the  Holy  tabic.  Recognise  Him  in  what  you  call 


The  Promised  Power.  217 


impression  or  conviction.  He  Who  never  speaks  of  Himself  is 
heard  in  the  *'  still  small  voice."  Oh  how  much  is  lost  through 
want  of  cherishing  impressions  which  are  not  the  fruit  of  our  own 
thought  or  meditation  but  God  created,  God  inspired  !  Stand 
outside  our  churches,  listen  to  the  conversation  quickly 
carried  on  by  those  who  have  just  been  worshipping, 
and  hearing  of  the  things  which  concern  their  everlasting  peace  ! 
Who  would  believe,  did  they  not  know  it  to  be  otherwise,  that  these 
had  been  to  church  ?  If  the  pulpit  is  losing  power,  with  whom 
does  the  fault  lie,  not  entirely,  but  in  part  ?  Where  reaching  is 
erroneous,  it  of  course  loses  power;  but  where  teaching  is  Scriptural 
and  true  it  loses  power  because  men  hear  but  do  not  obey.  What 
chance  has  the  pulpit  against  "  Church  Parades,"  and  ''Prayer- 
book  Parades  "  ?  What  chance  when  people  are  limiting  the 
sermon,  and  impatient  of  such  a  length  as  shall  debar  them  from 
meeting  their  worldly  friends  in  the  park,  and  abbreviates  the 
opportunity  for  displaying  the  latest  fashions?  And  even  where  this 
is  not,  how  many  care  not  to  cherish  impression,  lest  it  should  lead 
them  on  further  than  they  are  prepared  to  go  !  I  visited  a  devotee 
of  fashion  in  London,  who,  when  she  came  to  die,  found  herself 
not  only  without  hope  for  the  life  to  come ;  but,  as  it  seemed  to 
herself,  past  the  power  of  being  impressed.  She  told  me  she  had 
often  been  under  deep  conviction,  but  that  she  had  as  often  done 
her  very  best  to  quench  the  Spirit.  She  would  come  home  from 
church  with  earnest  words  ringing  in  her  ears,  the  Spirit 
striving  within  her,  and  then  she  would  look  over  her  list  of  worldly 
engagements,  and  still  His  voice.  No  wonder  that,  if  the  witness  to 
Christ  and  His  truth  be  not  reverently  obeyed,  the  testifying  ceases, 
and  the  power  to  be  impressed  ceases  also.  Ice  frequently 
thawed  and  again  frozen  is  the  most  difficult  at  last  to  melt. 
Cherish  God-created  impressions.  Remain  a  little  while  on  your 
knees  in  silent  prayer.  Tarry  at  Jerusalem  until  you  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high,  and  then  truth  will  so  become  yours, 
and  conviction  of  it  be  so  strong,  that  you  shall  be  in  your  way 
a  "  witness."  In  anxious  days  like  these,  the  Church  of  Christ 
wants  more  and  more  living  witnesses,  laymen  as  well  as  clergy, 
who  are  taught  of  God,  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  then  used  of 
God.  If  we  would  lift  off  the  reproach  too  freely  cast  on  our 
modern  Christianity,  that  it  is  a  creed  of  selfishness,  we  must  show 
that  we  are  not  careful  only  of  our  own  salvation,  but  that  we  are 
solicitous  for  the  salvation  of  others.  If  we  are  to  forbid  the  sneers 
with  which  some  affect  to  despise  or  ridicule  "  evangelical 
doctrine,"  it  must  not  be  by  contending  for  favouriteviewswhich  too 
often  only  foster  party-spirit,  but  we  must  recommend  evangelical 
teaching  by  evangelical  life,  by  personal  consecration,  by  active 
service,  by  identifying  ourselves  with  Christ's  cause,  by  having  the 
courage  of  our  convictions  "  as  the  Spirit  giveth  utterance."  The 
world  is  growing  old,  we  live  amidst  signs  of  our  Lord's  second 


2i8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

coming  which  no  unprejudiced  mind  can  well  ignore.  It  is  not 
wars  and  rumours  of  wars,  it  is  not  pestilence  and  famine  which 
are  really  the  signs  of  His  appearing.  Our  blessed  Lord  Him- 
self warned  His  disciples  against  the  mistakeof  interpretingthese  as 
signs  of  His  appearing.  These  are  so  common  to  all  ages  that 
they  could  never  be  strictly  predicated  of  one  age  in  particular. 
But  we  see,  do  we  not,  how  knowledge  is  increasing  ?  We 
live  in  an  age  singularly  restless.  Greg,  in  his  essay 
on  "  Life  at  High  Pressure,"  well  worthy  of  careful 
perusal,  exhaustively  deals  with  this  restlessness  which 
is  abroad,  and  which  is  so  characteristic  of  our  age.  The 
restoration  of  the  Jews  to  their  own  land,  facilitated  by  the 
gradual  disintegration  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  and  by  recent 
legislation  for  their  benefit,  is  in  itself  a  most  significant  indica- 
tion of  the  approaching  end.  The  decHne  of  **  the  faith  "  at 
home,  the  impatience  of  definite  dogmatic  teaching  together 
with  a  wonderful  diffusion  of  the  Gospel  in  foreign  lands  ;  the 
lawlessness  of  our  age  ;  the  independent  spirit  of  youth ;  the 
feeble  recognition  in  the  domain  of  natural  science  of  a  great 
First  Cause  ;  the  rebellious  outbreaks  against  needful  discipline  ; 
the  shocking  and  revolting  crimes  which  remain  undiscovered — 
surely  we  cannot  affect  to  close  our  eyes  to  what  is  coming  upon 
the  earth.  Tares  and  wheat  are  ripening  fast  for  the  harvest  and 
sickle  !  The  Church  of  Christ  wants  more  than  ever  all  the 
spiritual  force  she  can  command  and  wield,  not  to  be  wasted  on 
controversies  which  only  sever  Christians,  not  expended  on  inter- 
necine bickering  and  strife,  not  to  be  dissipated  on  the  details  of 
ritual,  not  dormant  in  contemplation,  but  spent  in  earnest, 
united  battling  with  evil,  forming  one  serried  rank,  whose  banner 
is  Jehovah-Nissi,  against  infidelity,  lawlessness,  and  indifferentism. 
Be  up  and  doing,  each  of  you  according  to  your  ability  and  the 
measure  in  which  the  Spirit  is  given  to  you  !  Bear  in  mind  the 
true  saying,  "  He  does  the  most  for  God  in  this  great  world  who 
does  his  best  in  his  own  little  world."  And  it  will  be  with  you 
also  as  laymen  as  it  was  with  His  specially-chosen  witnesses, 
even  now  again  He  will  lead  you  from  Gethsemane  and 
Calvary,  from  the  contemplation  of  His  Cross  and  Passion  as  far 
as  to  the  Bethany  of  your  every-day  life,  and,  lifting  up  hoh' 
hands,  will  bless  you  with  that  benediction  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  will  endue  you  with  power  both  to  be  and  to  do  what  He 
would  have  }ou  both  be  and  perform.  His  Church  is  built  on  a 
Rock,  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 


Character  and  Service.  219 


CHARACTER  AND  SERVICE. 

By  the  Rev.  Philips  Brooks,  D.D. 

From  a  g7-aduati}ig  seriiio?t  preached  at  Harvard  University,  Sunday,  June  1 5 

"  Now  they  do  it  to  obtain  a  corruptible  crown  ;  but  we  an  incorruptible." — 
I  Cor.  ix.  25. 

Character  and  service.  These  two  words,  I  think,  describe  the  higher 
regions  of  man's  Hfe,  in  which  alone  his  powers  can  fulfil  themselves  and 
know  their  real  strength,  and  fit  themselves  for  the  full  doing  even  of  their 
lower  tasks.  In  them,  the  workman  doomed  to-day  to  lower  toils,  when 
he  is  once  allowed  to  enter,  lifts  himself  up  and  knows  his  dignity,  and 
begins  to  put  forth  the  might  which  he  possesses. 

Character :  what  is  that  ?  The  absolute  quality  of  a  being,  distinguished 
from  its  circumstances.  Behind  even  that  closest  of  circumstances,  which 
we  call  the  body,  the  intrinsic  substance  of  the  soul,  what  the  man  is, 
original,  distinct,  different  from  what  any  other  man  has  ever  been  before, 
fed  through  the  channels  of  his  circumstances,  of  what  happens  to  him, 
but  fed  directly  from  first  principles,  from  fundamental  and  eternal  truths, 
an  utterance  of  the  life  of  God,  a  true  unit  and  harmony  of  personal 
existence,  which  can  change  every  condition  and  be  itself  unchanged, 
whose  goodness  and  badness  rest  in  the  very  fibre  and  substance  of  itseh, 
a  true  soul. 

That  is  character.  And  then  service,  what  do  we  mean  by  that  ?  Thc 
other  truth  about  each  human  nature ;  that  which  is  so  separate  and  dis- 
tinct is  also  true  part  of  a  unit  greater  than  itself;  that  the  personality  is 
portion  of  humanity,  that  what  belongs  to  it  belongs  also  to  the  larger 
whole,  that  it  realises  and  possesses  itself  only  as  it  gives  itself  to  the 
greater  which  enfolds  it,  that  it  is  its  own  only  as  it  serves  the  life  of  man 
to  which  it  belongs,  as  the  eye  keeps  its  quality  of  vision  only  as  it  dwells 
in  the  complete  structure  and  dedicates  its  power  of  vision  to  the  use  of 
the  whole  body,  hand,  and  foot,  and  tongue,  and  heart,  as  they  may 
need  it. 

These  are  the  two  great  wonderful  regions  of  life  which  we  call 
character  and  service.  These  are  the  regions  in  which  the  human  powers 
fulfil  themselves  and  put  on  their  full  strength  and  glory.  In  seeking 
character,  in  rendering  unselfish,  self-sacrificing  service,  ingenuity  becomes 
a  hundred- fold  acute,  assiduity  is  clothed  with  an  unguessed-of  industry, 
imagination  grows  into  bewildering  fervour,  love  and  ambition  are  trans- 
figured into  passions,  and  with  the  increase  of  strength  comes  an  increase 
of  fineness  which  shows  the  old  powers  which  once  hammered  at  the  low 
forges  of  life  were  not  merely  doing  higher  things,  but  shining  themselves 
with  the  revealed  radiance  of  their  true  natures.  Vulcan  has  shown  him- 
self a  god.  These  are  the  regions  where  the  saints  have  meditated  and 
the  heroes  fought.  These  are  the  regions  into  which  the  saintly  and 
heroic  parts  of  our  own  lives  have  pressed  sometimes  and  known,  in  spite 
of  themselves,  that  they  were  saintly  and  heroic. 

Now  the  one  great  thing  we  need  is  to  believe  that  in  character  and 
service  lies  the  true  life  of  a  human  creature.  We  do  not  thoroughly 
believe  that.     We  think  of  the  struggle  to  be  perfect,  and  the  eftbrt  to 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


sr.rve  humanity  as  suburbs  of  human  life,  great  districts  into  which  excur- 
sions are  to  be  made,  heavens  into  which  ecstatic  flights  are  to  be  soared, 
not  as  the  very  city  and  citadel  of  humanity,  to  live  outside  of  which  is 
not  to  be  a  man.  Until  we  do  believe  that  with  our  hearts  and  souls,  the 
higher  regions  are  still  closed  to  our  powers,  and  they  live,  stunted  and 
perverted,  at  their  lower  tasks. 

And  so  we  come  to  this,  that  it  is  only  to  man  daring  to  think  of  him- 
self nobly,  divinely — aye,  as  the  Son  of  God — that  there  comes  the  possi- 
bility of  putting  his  human  powers  to  their  perfect  use.  Character  and 
service  both  fling  their  doors  wide  open  to  Him  who  knows  Himself  the 
Son  of  God.  Think  how  they  stood  wide  open  all  the  time  to  Jesus. 
Think  how  He  always  lived  within  their  ample  gates.  The  Divine  soul 
within  Him  and  the  great  work  before  Him,  to  be  Himself  and  save  the 
world,  these  made  His  life.  Therefore,  let  the  foxes  have  their  holes,  and 
the  birds  of  the  air  their  nests;  let  Pilate  sit  upon  his  throne  and  the 
Pharisees  weigh  their  mint,  anise,  and  cummin.  He  took  these  splendid 
human  capacities  of  ours  and  carried  them  beyond  the  stars  into  the 
heavenly  worlds  of  character  and  service,  and  when  men  listened — as  they 
had  to  listen — hark,  in  these  visionary  worlds,  the  same  old  human 
faculties  had  put  out  a  new  strength  and  worked  with  a  pulse  of  power  and 
a  throb  of  music  which  made  heaven  and  earth  stand  still  to  listen.  Yet 
ii  was  our  human  patience  with  which  He  was  patient  and  our  human 
bravery  with  which  He  was  brave,  and  our  human  intelligence  with  which 
He  knew,  and  our  human  purity  with  which  He  was  pure,  only  they  proved 
themselves  divine  when  they  attained  their  full  humanity. 

My  friends,  students,  scholars,  men  facing  the  world  and  eager  for  its 
work,  do  you  read  your  Bible?  Alas  !  for  you  if  you  do  not.  Does  it 
sound  like  an  old  dame's  exhortation,  full  of  nervous  and  unreasonable 
panic?  Does  it  sound  like  a  priest's  question  with  superstitions  lurking 
in  its  darkness  ?  I  care  not  how  it  sounds.  I  ask  you,  as  true  men,  "  Do 
you  read. your  Bible?"  Not  in  the  old  ways,  perhaps;  not  to  find  a 
cl:arm  and  magic  which  will  keep  you  safe  ;  not  to  equip  yourselves  with 
arguments  to  maintain  your  creed,  but  do  you  read  your  Bible  so  that  out 
of  the  heart  of  it  there  comes  to  you  the  divine  man  who  shows  you  what 
it  is  to  live  divinely  ?  Who  exalts  character  and  service  as  the  only  true 
crowns  of  life  ?  And  who  gives  human  energy  its  glory  and  splendour 
when  he  sets  it  to  struggling  for  those  crowns  ?  It  is  because  this  being, 
this  Christ,  with  his  superb  claim  of  humanity  for  God,  with  his  salvation 
ot  humanity  upon  the  cross  where  He  sacrificed  free  for  all  the  body  to 
tl  e  soul  and  Himself  to  His  brethren.  It  is  because  He  lives  in  that 
book  and  comes  forth  from  it  into  the  heart  of  every  man  who  reads  it 
with  his  heart,  that  one  would  rejoice  to  put  the  Bible  into  the  hands  of 
every  man  who  goes  out  from  the  college  to  the  world. 

"  Out  from  the  college  to  the  world,"  I  say,  and  the  words  bring  me 
back  to  the  full  meaning  and  all  the  bright  associations  which  belong  to 
this  Sunday  of  Class  Day  week.  What  will  you  say  as  college  life  gathers 
itself  into  a  single  impression  at  your  departure  from  it,  what  will  you  say 
of  it  in  this  regard  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  ?  Does  college  life  as 
it  is  lived  to-day  do  this  ?  Does  it  claim  the  energies  of  man  for  their 
completest  uses  ?  Does  it  assert  that  character  and  service  are  the  true 
objects  of  man's  living  and  that  man  in  living  for  them  finds  his  whole 


Character  and  Service.  221 


nature  working  at  its  best  ?  I  should  like  to  know  the  thoughtful  answer 
of  a  graduating  class  to  that  question.  Plenty  of  reason  there  would  be 
for  hesitation.  Plenty  of  slavery  to  circumstances,  to  the  comfort  of  the 
moment,  to  the  well-being  of  the  body  which  seems  to  leave  the  soul  no 
chance  ;  plenty  of  blind  loyalty  to  old  traditions  ;  plenty  of  conventional 
standards  of  honour  and  manliness  and  morality  which  make  independence 
and  originality  of  life  seem  very  hard ;  plenty  of  selfishness,  even  of 
selfishness  under  the  rich  guise  of  self-culture  enjoined  and  accepted  as  a 
duty,  so  that  public  spirit  and  the  open  sympathy  of  democratic  life  seem 
often  to  be  sought  almost  in  vain.  Plenty  of  thes^i  causes  for  hesitation 
and  discouragement.  Plenty  of  these  signs  of  how  much  better  the  college 
might  be  than  it  is — and  yet,  in  spite  of  every  hesitation,  I  think  your 
answer  still  would  be  that  here  in  college  on  the  whole,  the  crown  which  is 
incorruptible — the  crown  of  character  and  service — is  set  before  the  eyes 
of  men  who  are  ready  to  see  it,  and  the  human  powers  are  bidden  to 
recognise  in  it  and  it  alone  their  worthy  goal. 

Would  that  it  were  possible  for  you,  to  whom  perhaps  some  clearer 
vision  of  this  is  coming  as  you  leave  these  familiar  scenes,  somehow  to 
speak  back  and  leave  your  testimony  to  the  true  value  of  college  life  and 
cast  down  some  of  the  false  ideas  and  dissipate  some  of  the  clouds  which 
so  largely  hide  that  value  from  the  eyes  of  men  who  are  still  scattered 
along  the  valleys  and  uplands  off  the  four  delightful  and  absorbing  years. 

But  perhaps  the  great  fact  of  the  best  value  in  any  period  of  existence 
is  not  clear  to  us  until  we  have  left  it.  That  is  very  often  at  once  our 
sorrow  and  consolation.  We  shall  not  know  what  this  strange  dear  old 
earth  has  done  for  us  until  we  stand  on  the  fqr-off  hill-tops  and  walk  by 
the  river  of  the  water  of  life.  Therefore  we  dare  not  believe  that  the 
value  of  character  and  service  which  is  behind  all  the  lighter  and  weaker 
standards  of  college  life  is  to  come  out  more  and  more  to  college  men  as 
they  go  forth  into  the  world  outside  the  college  gates.  Do  not  believe, 
do  not  dare  to  believe,  that  these  few  years  in  their  quick  passage  told  you 
their  whole  story  or  opened  to  you  all  their  heart.  It  is  not  possible. 
They  would  not  have  been  worth  living  if  they  had.  They  have  perhaps 
seemed  to  complicate  life  and  to  divide  life  and  to  make  life  shallow.  Be 
sure  that  that  is  not  their  final  power.  The  simplicity  of  life,  the  unity  cf 
life,  the  mysterious  depth  of  life — these  college  years  have  not  done  their 
full  work  for  you  till  they  have  brought  you  to  all  these.  In  the  great 
freedom  of  the  University  you  are  like  pilgrims  who  have  entered  a  vast 
house  by  many  doors.  You  stand  in  many  different  chambers  of  its  outer 
courts.  You  seem  to  seek  different  things,  to  be  scattered  among  many 
different  interests.  Press  deeper  into  your  own  interest.  Insist  upon 
living  nearer  to  its  heart  and  soul,  and,  wondrously,  as  you  grow  older  you 
shall  find  yourself  nearer  to  all  your  fellow-seekers,  and  discover  that  the 
great  essential  things  which  you  all  are  seeking  are  the  same,  the  few 
divine  things,  the  two  divine  things  which  alone  are  the  worthy  prizes  of 
the  soul  of  man.  Press  into  the  vast  house  from  the  special  door  by 
which  you  have  entered  it,  and  clearer  and  clearer  every  year  shall  grow 
in  your  ears  the  murmur  of  invitation  from  the  inmost  chamber  where  you 
shall  meet  at  last. 

There  is  nothing  I  think  more  beautiful  than  the  way  in  which  various 
men,  as  each  gets  nearer  to  the  heart  of  his  special  occupation  or  study 


222  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

or  career,  find  themselves  one  man,  and  realise  the  simplicity  and  unity  of 
human  life.  We  part  at  twenty  to  be  many  things.  We  come  together 
again  at  fifty  with  the  single  desire  to  be  one  thing,  good  men,  brave  men 
and  faithful  servants  of  God  and  of  our  brethren.  The  knights  ride  forth 
in  the  bright  morning  in  every  direction,  east  and  west,  north  and  south. 
As  the  day  deepens  and  their  quest  succeeds,  they  meet  in  the  Hght  of  the 
Holy  Grail,  in  finding  which  they  find  themselves  and  find  each  other. 

There  is,  there  must  he,  a  prophetic  power  in  such  an  afternoon  as  this. 
The  lines  of  life  held  in  your  hands,  running  out  variously  into  the  dark- 
ness, must,  as  you  sit  here,  tremble  with  some  subtle  movement  which  tells 
you  how  they  will  all  come  out  together  the  great  light  beyond.  The 
simplicity  and  unity  of  life  must  at  this  moment  be  felt  beyond  its  com- 
plexity and  diversity.  You  must  see  how  by  one  flash  of  vision  that  only 
in  goodness  and  unselfishness  is  there  the  final  peace,  and  that  that  peace, 
though  we  come  to  it  by  many  roads,  is  one  great  city  of  God  for  all.  It 
would  be  all  theory  and  speculation  if  there  were  not  God— if  around  all 
our  confusion  and  perplexity  there  did  not  rest  the  boundless  certainty  and 
strength  of  him.  To  know  that  certainty  and  strength  is  faith  !  There- 
fore believe  !  Therefore  belief  ?  Belief  is  the  rest  of  the  partial  on  the 
perfect,  of  the  temporary  on  the  everlasting,  of  that  which  is — on  that,  on 
nim,  which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  be. 

Into  that  faith,  let  us  all  enter.  In  it,  let  us  all  abide.  To  them  who 
live  in  it,  the  incorruptible  crown  is  always  summoning  the  willing  ener- 
gies, and  the  willing  energies,  hearing  their  true  summons,  are  always  eager 
to  respond.  Beyond  the  little  struggles  always  stretches  the  great  race 
course  with  its  shining  prize — character  and  service.  Nothing  can  satisfy 
the  soul  but  them.  The  soul  finds  them  when  it  finds  God.  The  soul 
finds  God  when  it  finds  them.  May  we  all  find  them  and  God,  and  so 
attain  the  crown  of  life.     Amen. 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.- 

Sunday,  August  lo,  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

THE    RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS. 

ST.   LUKE  XIV.    19—31. 

"  Purple  and  Fine  Linen." — A  proverbial  Eastern  expression  for 
sumptuousness  of  apparel.  The  wealthy  among  the  Jews,  as  among  the 
Mohammedans,  wear  an  outer  garment,  a  long  cloak  with  sleeves,  and  an 
under  cassock  of  fine  linen  or  silk,  bound  with  a  girdle.  The  "  purple" 
means  the  outer  garment  of  cloth  dyed  with  Tyrian  purple,  or  we  should 
term  it  "  crimson,"  or  perhaps  "  scarlet  "  ;  for  it  is  difiicult  precisely  to 
identify  the  hue.  What  is  called  a  purple  robe  by  St.  John,  is  termed 
"scarlet"  by  St.  Matthew  (John  xix.,  2;  Matthew  xxvii.,  28).  It  was 
manufactured  at  Tyre  from  a  shellfish  {tnurex)  found  on  the  Syrian  coast, 
and  each  animal  produced  only  a  minute  drop  of  the  colouring  matter. 

*  From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  223 

To  this  day,  large  heaps  of  these  crushed  shells  are  to  be  seen  about  Tyre. 
Wool  dyed  with  this  preparation  fetched  an  enormous  price,  and  the  cloth 
woven  from  it  was  used  as  the  insignia  of  royalty  or  high  rank  among  all 
the  nations  of  antiquity,  and  a  purple  or  crimson  garment  is  still,  in  the 
East,  a  royal  gift.  The  art  of  extracting  this  dye  has  been  completely 
lost.  Fine  linen  [byssus)  was  the  finest  product  of  Egyptian  flax,  bleached 
to  a  dazzling  whiteness,  and  was  so  costly  that  we  are  told  that  it  sold 
for  its  weight  in  gold.  It  was  gradually  superseded  by  the  introduction  of 
silk,  which,  however,  it  equalled  in  softness.  Of  this  material  was  made 
the  long  inner  garment,  or  shirt,  of  the  most  wealthy  and  luxurious. 

"  Laid  at  his  Gate." — While  lepers  are  always  outside  the  city,  pro- 
fessional beggars  and  cripples  crowd  the  gateway  of  every  Eastern  city,  and  - 
frequently  take  up  their  quarters  at  the  threshold  of  the  courtyards  of  the 
wealthy.  At  the  gate  of  a  nch  Moslem  sheikh,  who  had  a  great  reputation 
for  piety,  in  the  ancient  city  of  Nizib,  in  Mesopotamia,  I  saw  a  crowd  of  these 
wretched-looking  beggars,  many  of  them  were  carried  thither  every  morn- 
ing by  their  friends,  to  receive  the  dole  which  their  patron  always  silently 
distributed  among  them,  as  he  passed  along  on  his  daily  progress  to  the 
bazaar.  One  could  picture  him,  a  Pharisee  of  old,  distributing  his  alms 
to  be  seen  of  men,  even  though  no  trumpet  was  sounded  to  summon  the 
recipients  together.  But  the  Mohammedans,  in  their  systematic  mainte- 
nance of  the  blind  and  the  maimed  by  daily  alms,  set  us  an  example,  and 
act  faithfully  up  to  the  commands  of  their  Koran. 

Hades. — Our  Lord  adapts  His  picture  of  the  world  of  spirits  to  the 
current  ideas  and  modes  of  expression  among  the  Jews.  The  word 
translated  "  hell  "  is  Hades,  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  or  Sheol,  which 
the  Jews  divided  into  two  portions — Gehenna,  the  abode  of  the  wicked, 
and  Paradise,  the  home  of  the  righteous.  Between  the  two  was  a  yawning 
chasm,  but  everything  could  be  seen  from  either  side.  The  Talmud  con- 
tains many  peurile  fables  and  conversations  of  the  souls  in  Sheol. 
Paradise  they  held  to  be  placed  under  the  throne  of  God,  with  Abraham  in 
the  centre  and  Moses  close  by  him.  One  of  the  Talmudic  tales  seems  to 
be  suggested  by  our  Lord's  parable.  Two  men  died,  who  had  committed 
many  crimes  together.  One  of  them  in  Gehenna  sees  the  other  in 
Paradise  standing  in  the  assembly  of  the  just,  and  complains  of  the  in- 
justice of  his  lot.  "  Most  foolish  of  mortals,"  they  reply,  "  thy  companion 
became  a  penitent.  It  was  in  thy  power  to  become  a  penitent,  but  thou 
didst  not."  He  saith,  "  Let  me  go  now,  and  become  a  penitent."  But 
they  say,  "  O  most  foolish  of  men,  dost  thou  not  know  that  this  world  in 
which  thou  art  is  like  the  Sabbath,  and  the  world  out  of  which  thou 
earnest  is  like  the  evening  of  [before]  the  Sabbath  ?  If  thou  dost  not 
provide  something  for  the  Sabbath,  what  wilt  thou  eat  on  the  Sabbath 
day?"  (Midrash  Qoheleth.)  (N.B.— The  Jewish  Sabbath  begins  at 
6  p.m.  on  our  Friday,  and  ends  at  6  p.m.  on  our  Saturday.) 


224  ^^^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  Aitgust  lo  :  Luke  xvi.  19—31-     Goldc7i  Text :  Mark  x,  24. 

The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus. 

This  parable  is  full  of  terrible  warning  to  those  who  live  selfish  lives, 
without  one  thought  of  the  sorrow  and  suffering  which  lie  at  their  very- 
doorstep. 

I.  The  contrast  between  Dives  and  Lazarus  in  their  life.  Dives  was  a 
man  who  lived  a  life  of  ease  and  luxury.  His  very  stables  and  barns 
were  paradise  in  comparison  with  the  hovels  outside  his  gates.     Very  near 

him but  perhaps  unknown  to  him — there  lived  an  afflicted  child  of  God, 

called  Lazarus,  one  full  of  sores,  "  Longing  for  the  crumbs  which  fell  from 
the  rich  man's  table  ;  and  the  dogs  came  and  licked  his  sores."  We  do 
not  know  that  Dives  ever  cared  to  ask  who  this  poor  beggar  at  his  gate 
was  ;  but,  if  he  was  ignorant,  it  was  a  responsible  ignorance.  In  the  great 
day  of  reckoning  we  shall  be  held  responsible  for  the  sufferings  we  might 
have  known,  and  for  the  wounds  which  we  might  have  healed.  We  ought 
to  know  the  wants  and  sorrows  of  those  who  lie  in  our  way,  perhaps  under 
the  shadow  of  our  roofs.  Lazarus  hoped  in  vain  for  any  relief  from  the 
rich  man. 

II.  The  contrast  in  their  death  and  burial.  At  last  there  came  a  day 
when  ragged  Lazarus  died.  He  was  found  huddled  up  in  his  rags  dead. 
As  he  had  lived,  so  he  died — alone.  And  Dives  too  must  die,  though  the 
very  ablest  physicians  were  summoned  ;  and  when,  on  the  Sabbath  after, 
his  funeral  sermon  was  preached,  people  were  moved  as  the  preacher 
dwelt  on  .the  text,  "  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last 
end  be  like  his." 

III.  The  contrast  in  their  destinies  after  death.  Lazarus,  who  found  no 
sympathy,  now  lies  in  the  bosom  of  Abraham.  Dives'  pampered  body 
is  parched  and  fevered  with  the  burning  flame  :  he  who  never  gave  a 
crumb  is  now  ready  to  give  all  worlds  for  a  drop.  Lazarus  used  his 
poverty  well  \  Dives  used  his  wealth  ill,  and  had  sinned  away  his 
opportunities. 

What  is  the  lesson  of  the  parable  ?  It  is  to  teach  us  the  consequences 
of  their  conduct  who  will  not  treat  all  their  possessions  as  loans,  as  trusts 
for  which  a  most  strict  account  must  be  given  at  last. 

"Alas  !  I  have  walked  through  life  too  heedless  where  I  trod, 
Nay,  helping  to  trample  my  fellow-worm  and  fill  the  burial  sod. 
Forgetting  that  even  the  sparrow  falls  not  unmarked  of  God. 
The  wounds  I  might  have  healed,  the  human  sorrow  and  smart, 
And  yet  it  never  was  in  my  soul  to  play  so  ill  a  part ; 
But  evil  is  wrought  for  want  of  thought  as  well  as  for  want  of  heart." 

Remember  that  every  selfish  life  is  surely  preparing  for  itself  endless 
misery. 

*  These  Sermonettes  ate  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  119,  Vol.  III.]  AUGUST  15,  1890.  One  Penny. 

•  TASTING  DEATH  FOR  EVERY  MAN. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Principal  Cave,  B.A.,  DD. 

Preached  in  Brixten  Independent  Church  on  Sunday  mornings  July  6,  1890. 

"That  He  by  the  grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every  man." — 
Hebrews  ii.  9. 

As  I  have  already  said  in  reading  one  of  the  lessons,  the  great 
theme  of  this  epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  the  superiority  of  the  new 
covenant  to  the  old.  The  superiority  of  the  new  covenant  really 
resolves  itself  into  the  superiority  of  the  medium  of  the  new  cove- 
nant, that  is  to  say,  the  superiority  of  Jesus.  And  you  will  observe 
how  throughout  the  epistle,  if  you  read  it  carefully,  the  one  point 
of  stress  is  the  superiority  of  Jesus.  In  the  old  covenant  they  had 
received  words  by  the  ministration  of  Moses  :  Jesus  is  declared  to 
be  greater  than  Moses.  They  had  also  been  accustomed  to  reve- 
rence the  High  Priest :  Jesus  is  declared  to  be  the  great  High 
Priest.  Further,  they  had  been  accustomed  to  reverence  angels 
as  the  media  of  revelation,  and  the  writer  insists  that  Jesus  is 
greater  than  any  angel.  Angels  are  servants,  Jesus  is  Son. 
Angels  adore,  they  adore  Jesus.  Angels  are  media  of  a  revelation 
that  is  now  past.  Jesus  is  the  King  of  the  coming  age.  There- 
fore, because  of  the  superiority  of  Jesus  we  are  bidden  listen  to 
Him. 

Further,  Jesus  is  specially  called  the  King  of  the  coming  age. 
It  is  put  here  "  the  world  to  come."  Far  better,  as  if  you  will 
turn  to  the  original  you  will  see — the  Revised  Version  accepts  it 
— far  better  is  the  reading  "  Jesus  is  King  of  the  coming  age," 
rather  than  of  the  world  to  come.  Again,  in  the  very  reason 
assigned  we  see  a  further  ground  for  the  superiority  of  Jesus.  The 
reason  lies  here — the  ground,  of  the  Kingship  of  Jesus  is  not  His 
birth  but  His  death.  No  angel  has  died  for  man  :  Jesus  has. 
Therefore,  wc  are  bidden  to  remember  the  superiority  of  this  new 
covenant  that  tells  us  of  Him  who  by  the  grace  of  God  should 
taste  death  for  every  man. 

Now,  in  the  first  place,  I  want  to  dwell  for  a  little  while  upon 
what  one  can  only  call  this  remarkable  phrase  "  tasting  death  for 


226  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

every  man,"  and  then,  in  the  second  place,  I  want  to  say  some- 
thing concerning  that  death  of  Jesus  as  the  ground  of  His  King- 
ship. 

First,  then,  let  us  look  for  a  little  while  together  at  this  remark- 
able phrase — "  Tasting  death  for  every  man."  Some  of  you  will 
remember  how,  in  a  brilliant  passage  in  the  "  Paradise  Lost," 
Milton  describes  for  us  the  scene  in  heaven  at  the  first  announce- 
ment of  human  sin.  The  hymns  of  heaven  are  hushed.  There 
is  silence  beneath  the  wild  conclave.  Not  an  angel  has  a  thought 
to  present  as  the  solemn  fact  has  been  announced.  The  council 
proceeds,  and  still  there  is  silence  in  heaven.  And  when  silence 
has  fallen  upon  the  whole  of  the  heavenly  ranks,  the  Son  is 
described  as  rising,  as  opening  outtheplanof  His  salvation,  and  as 
announcing  how,  by  His  tasting  death  for  every  man,  man  should 
be  redeemed.  For  my  part  I  could  wish  that  I  had  the  least  tinge 
of  the  elevation  of  style  of  Milton  in  dealing  with  a  subject  of 
this  character.  For  is  it  not  true  that  it  seems  to  transcend 
human  speech  and  even  human  thought  ?  Who  shall  depict  all 
the  points  of  contact  between  the  death  of  Jesus  and  our  mortal 
life  ?  It  is  one  of  those  things  where  one  is  compelled  to  stand 
and  gaze  and  almost  wonder,  feeling  little  more  than  a  sense  of 
wonderment,  feeling  as  though  explanation  is  beyond  our  human 
reach.  Still,  though  that  is  so,  though  I  acknowledge  the  mystery 
that  must  ever  belong  to  mortal  man  as  he  comes  to  deal  with 
this  question  of  the  Atonement,  whilst  I  recognise  our  limitation 
of  faculty,  there  are  two  points  that  comfort  me.  One  is  this — 
limitation  of  faculty  is  never  an  argument  for  abstinence  from 
thought — limitation  of  faculty,  I  say,  is  never  an  argument  for 
ceasing  to  think.  Look  at  the  common  facts  of  our  everyday  life. 
The  poet — is  he  not  ever  telling  you  that  to  feel  is  easy,  but  to 
express  is  impossible  ?  Looking  to  the  deeper  ranges  of  human 
thinking,  what  is  the  whole  of  human  philosophy  but  simply  an 
attempt  to  understand  where,  after  all,  our  faculties  are  limited  ? 
Nay,  take  commoner  illustrations.  We  gather  round  our  fireside, 
say  at  Christmas-time  ;  curtains  are  drawn  ;  we  will  not  yet  light 
the  lights,  and  in  that  interval  of  half  light  and  half  darkness 
thoughts  begin  to  travel.  We  talk  to  each  other  ;  there  seems  a 
sort  of  flood  of  talk  that  we  can  scarcely  restrain.  What  is  our 
talk  about  ?  Our  joys,  our  sorrows,  our  experiences  of  the  pre- 
ceding portion  of  the  twelve  months  perhaps,  or  it  may  be  of  our 
past  lives.  And  yet,  though  we  occupy  this  interesting  half-hour 
in  such  a  way,  are  we  not  each  one  of  us  convinced  that  our 
special  joys  and  our  special  sorrows  no  words  can  describe  ?  So 
is  it  ever.  We  feel  more  than  we  are  able  to  express,  and  limita- 
tion of  faculty  is  not  an  argument  for  ceasing  to  talk  or  ceasing 
to  think. 

It  is  so  with  these  great  truths  of  God.  I  imagine  that  the 
mind  of  man  will  grapple  with  this  truth  of  the  Atonement  for 


Tasting  Death  for  Every  Man.  227 


age  after  age,  possibly  even  in  the  heavenly  world  when  that  shall 
be  revealed  ;  but  to  think  about  it  seems  to  be  our  duty.  Further, 
there  is  another  point  of  comfort — we  must  think  about  it  whether 
we  will  or  not.  Here  is  the  finest  jewel  of  our  faith.  Set  it  in 
even  the  vulgarest  setting,  it  will  yet  sparkle  and  attract. 

Now  I  ask  you  for  a  little  while  to  give  me  all  the  energy  of 
thought  that  you  are  capable  of,  that  we  may  strive  to  grapple 
with  some  of  the  Scriptural  points  attached  to  this  truth  of  tast- 
ing death  for  every  man. 

First  of  all  I  ask  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  death  is  the  penalty 
decreed  by  God  upon  sin.  Perhaps  we  ought  to  say  incidentally 
that  we  mean  therefore  by  death  much  more  than  mere  decease. 
In  the  geological  world  it  is  proven  that  you  may  see  there  re- 
mains of  death,  death  after  our  ordinary  sense  of  decease,  in  the 
old  geological  ages.  When,  therefore,  death  is  spoken  of  as  a 
special  decree  upon  sin,  we  ought  to  see  in  death  more  than  mere 
decease.  Think  on.  Jesus  even  in  the  past,  the  pre-existent 
Jesus,  was  the  medium  of  divine  revelation.  Here  you  have  one 
of  those  remarkable  truths  that  bind  together  the  whole  Bible 
from  the  beginning  to  the  close.  It  is  not  only  that  the  Father 
takes  part  in  creation,  but  creation  is  claimed  by  the  Son.  And 
you  will  see  how  He  also  in  all  the  relationships  with  man  is  the 
special  medium  of  revelation.  I  am  not  going  to  pretend  to  ex- 
plain the  matter.  I  am  only  anxious  to  state  a  Biblical  fact ; 
but  I  say  that  when  man  was  created  he  was  created  in  the  image 
of  the  pre-existent  Christ,  by  the  pre-existent  Christ.  And  I  see 
further  some  reason  why  if  some  marring  hath  taken  place  of  the 
humanity  that  hath  been  created,  it  shall  be  the  specific  work  of 
the  Son  to  restore  that  marring.  Therefore,  remember  that  Jesus 
is  by  His  very  office  as  a  revealer.  Judge..  Nay,  more,  that  by 
His  office  and  connection  with  man,  Jesus  is  the  Saviour,  the 
Redeemer.  Think  again ;  death  is  the  penalty  of  sin.  Jesus 
Himself  has  announced  the  penalty  as  Judge.  More  than  that, 
of  Himself — I  am  not  arguing  the  matter,  I  am  again  stating  the 
Biblical  fact — of  Himself  Jesus  is  not  amenable  to  death.  Here 
is  one  of  those  peculiar  points,  those  side  lights  upon  the  truth  of 
.the  Bible  that  is  given  to  us  again  and  again.  Notice  how  Jesus, 
I  say,  is  not  born  under  ordinary  conditions.  Had  he  been  born 
under  ordinary  conditions,  he  must  have  died  the  death  penalty. 
But  He  is  born  under  exceptional  conditions,  and  therefore  He  is 
able  to  taste  death  for  every  man.  One  point  more.  May  I  ask 
you  to  be  good  enough  to  bear  in  mind  that  death,  as  the  death 
penalty,  is  not  simply  passing  out  of  this  world  into  the  world  to 
come.  The  whole  Bible  is  also  bound  together  by  this  truth 
further,  that  death  is  a  penalty,  that  it  is  not  simply  the  dying, 
the  passing  out  of  this  world  into  another  life,  that  there  is  asso- 
ciated with  that  hour  of  death  far  more ;  if  I  may  put  it  in  a 
word,    it  is,  this  death  is  a  great   evolution  of  penalty,  and  it 


228  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


moves  on  from  the  very  first  hour  of  a  man's  life  right  to  the 
close.  Do  you  remember  the  words,  "  In  the  day  that  thou 
eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die,"  and  in  the  common  sense 
of  decease  Adam  did  not  die.  Therefore  commentators  mostly 
take  themselves  to  what  seems  to  me  a  little  out  of  concert  with 
the  reading  of  the  matter,  whereas  if  they  would  ask  themselves 
what  is  meant  in  the  Bible  by  death  as  a  death  penalty,  they 
would  have  seen  that  already  that  that  we  read  of  as  death  in 
trespasses  and  sins,  the  disturbance  of  man's  nature,  had 
actually  begun,  the  spirit  had  lost  its  supremacy.  Man  was 
already  a  slave  to  the  body,  and  as  slave  to  the  body  he  was  at 
the  commencement  of  that  that  we  call  death.  Read  on  the  un- 
folding history  of  our  sinful  race,  and  you  will  see  how  again  and 
ao-ain  you  have  that  interposition  of  God  to  restore  the  spiritual 
side.  You  will  see  how  as  the  race  unfolds  you  have  at  the  same 
time  this  depraving  that  you  know  by  the  name  of  death  come 
on,  death  itself  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  word ;  and 
there  again  in  the  death  of  the  sinner,  in  the  death  of  those  that 
know  not  reconciliation,  you  have  also  thoughts  that  are  presented 
before  you  of  something  terrible  in  the  extreme.  Read  on  and 
on,  about  the  intermediate  state,  and  you  come  to  the  final  stage 
that  is  called  the  second  death.  Death  is  the  great  unfolding 
penalty,  the  evolution  of  penalty,  something  that  begins,  and  will 
have  its  infinite  history. 

One  point  more,  and  I  think  you  will  see  what  I  am  aiming  at. 
Ask  yourself  what  is  the  very  core  and  essence  of  death,  and  I 
think  you  will  find  that  it  is  this  :  God's  withdrawal  from  man. 
Man  began  to  die  immediately  he  sinned ;  that  is  to  say,  that 
divine  life,  by  means  of  which  the  balance  between  soul  and  body 
was  kept  alive,  was  removed  partially,  and  man  was  allowed  to  see 
what  it  was  to  be  in  the  world  without  divine  assistance.  Ask 
yourself  what  is  the  core  of  death  in  our  natural  acceptation  of  the 
word  and  you  will  see  again  that  it  is  God's  withdrawing,  with- 
drawing Himself  to  a  somewhat  greater  distance.  Ask  yourself 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  second  death.  I  know  no  way  of 
describing  it  so  ably  as  this,  that  it  is  the  withdrawal  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  from  the  spirit  of  man. 

Those  points  remaining,  let  us  for  a  moment  or  two  look  at 
certain  incidents  in  our  Saviour's  life.  I  will  ask  you  to  come 
with  me  for  a  moment  or  two  to  Gethsemane  and  to  the  cross.  I 
do  not  care  for  word-painting.  It  seems  to  me  iniquitous  to  come 
to  such  scenes  with  word-painting.  I  ask  you  simply  that  we 
should  stand  for  a  while  in  the  garden  and  hear  those  words  as 
they  come  forth  from  the  Master's  lips  :  "  If  it  be  possible  let  this 
cup  pass."  Do  you  say  that  is  the  mere  shrinking  of  the  man, 
the  shrinking  of  the  man  that  we  all  know  in  the  thought  of  the 
great  passage  from  this  world  into  the  world  to  come.  Why, 
mark  you,  that  passage  was  the  very  thing  that  would  be  the 


Tasting  Death  for  Every  Matt.  229 

stepping-stone  to  our  Saviour's  glory.  It  would  be  His  release 
from  the  difficulties  of  this  earth,  and  would  be  that  that  should 
be  welcomed  as  the  ending  of  all  His  years  of  pain  and  sorrow. 
Mark  you,  again,  that  you  should  beware  lest  you  represent  this 
death  of  Jesus  as  less  glorious  than  the  death  of  a  martyr,  nay,  as 
less  glorious  than  the  death  of  a  medical  man  who  will  go  into 
the  infected  wards  carrying  his  life  in  his  hand.  You  should  see 
that  when  He  shrank  from  this  cup  it  was  something  more  than 
mere  mortal  demise.  He  knew  what  you  and  I  cannot  tell.  He 
knew  the  meaning  of  this  mystery,  this  mystery  of  the  withdrawal 
of  God  from  the  soul  of  man ;  and  He  who  had  found  His  greatest 
joy  in  communion  with  God  dreaded  above  all  things  even  the 
momentary  separation  in  the  sense  that  it  must  come  upon  Him. 

Follow  on  to  Calvary.  We  are  standing  here  before  the  cross. 
You  hear  word  after  word  falling  from  His  lips.  Will  you  not  for 
a  moment  dwell  upon  that  utterance,  recorded  by  more  than  one 
of  the  evangelists — on  that  utterance  that  is  so  full  of  its  own 
terrible  significance,  that  utterance  that  tells  us  that  for  a  little 
while  there  was  the  veiling  of  the  Father's  face  ?  You  know  how 
He  Himself  speaks  of  the  darkness  and  the  gloom  that  have  come 
across  Him.  Here  is  the  tasting  death,  here  is  the  tasting  of  that 
death  penalty  in  its  remarkable  evolution.  He  knows  that  neither 
you  nor  I  can  know  from  our  limitation  of  faculty  the  meaning  of 
the  withdrawal  of  the  Father,  and  there  comes  that  cry,  "  Why 
hast  Thou  forsaken  Me  ?  "  which  to  me  is  full  of  the  truths  that 
bind  the  whole  Bible  together,  which  to  me  is  full  especially  of 
this  truth  that  He  was  tasting  death  for  every  man.  He,  Son  of 
the  Father,  born  under  exceptional  conditions,  Himself  the  Judge 
who  will  interpose  on  our  behalf,  and  as  He  bears  in  one  moment 
of  time  in  His  infinite  heart  that  sense  of  the  Divine  withdrawal. 
That  law  may  stand  that  the  word  of  God  which  was  drawn  up 
manifestly  for  man's  good  shall  stand.  He  who  utters  the  words 
as  judge  will  Himself  suffer  the  penalty. 

Let  us  put  away  from  ourselves  the  mere  physical  idea  of  demise. 
Let  us  take  to  ourselves  His  idea  that  in  tasting  death  He  tasted 
of  that  death  penalty  on  our  behalf.  The  law  stands,  and  He  who 
was  Judge  bears  the  penalty  of  our  sins.  That  little  spot  called 
'Calvary,  we  know  not  where  it  is  to-day,  and  yet  it  is  the  place  to 
which  the  thoughts  recur  again  and  again,  as  there  come  home 
to  us  thoughts  of  our  own  alienation  from  the  Father,  and  there 
looking  upon  Him  who  tasted  death  for  every  man  we  find  that 
there  is  music  for  us  in  the  word  "  reconciliation."  Again  and 
again  as  we  fall  in  the  midst  of  this  mortal  life  of  ours,  as  we  fall 
and  have  forgotten  the  reality  of  the  life  that  was  ours,  as  we  have 
put  away  from  ourselves  that  divine  help,  and  of  necessity  we  come 
back  again  in  our  hour  of  pain  and  of  agony  to  the  same  spot 
called  Calvary,  and  we  hear  again  the  same  words,  "  for  your 
reconciliation,"  and  so  man  in  his   sin,  and  man  as  he  strives  to 


230  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

shake  his  sin  off,  recurs  to  this  place  called  Calvary  that  he  may 
hear  ever  and  anon,  reconciliation. 

In  the  mysterious  government  of  God  the  law  had  been 
pronounced  that  the  death  penalty  should  go  forth.  In  the 
working  out  of  the  omnipotent  mercy  of  God  we  see  also  how  this 
death  penalty  is  borne  by  Him  who  was  made  for  a  season  a  little 
lower  than  the  angels ;  and  so  He  tasted  death  for  every  man, 
felt  in  His  own  soul  the  very  quintessence  of  pain  that  a  human 
spirit  that  is  rightly  moved  can  feel,  separation  between  itself  and 
God  ;  He,  who  all  through  His  life  had  turned  away  from  the 
pain  and  agony  of  man — man  had  caused  Him  to  feel  pain  and  the 
severity  of  pain — He,  Who  in  those  hours  had  found  His  one 
refuge  in  the  Father,  comes  to  this  hour  of  death  and  is  alone. 
You  and  I,  as  we  hope  to  pass  through  those  waters,  also  hope 
that  though  alone  we  shall  not  be  alone ;  that  when  we  pass 
through  the  waters  the  great  Presence  shall  be  with  us.  But  He 
who  tastes  death  for  every  man  comes  to  that  hour,  and  the  very 
face  of  the  Father  is  for  a  while  clouded. 

When  on  Sinai's  top  I  see, 
God  descend  in  majesty, 
To  proclaim  His  holy  law, 
All  my  spirit  sinks  with  awe. 
When  in  ecstasy  sublime, 
Tabor's  glorious  steep  I  climb, 
At  the  all-transporting  light, 
Darkness  rushes  o'er  my  sight. 
When  on  Calvary  I  rest, 
God  in  flesh  made  manifest 
Shines  in  my  Redeemer's  face, 
Full  of  beauty,  truth,  and  grace. 
Here  I  would  for  ever  stay, 
Weep  and  gaze  my  soul  away  ; 
Thou  art  heaven  and  earth  to  me, 
Lonely,  mournful  Calvary. 

I  pass  to  the  other  side  of  the  subject,  this  tasting  of  death  as 
the  ground  of  our  Saviour's  kingship.  As  the  Apostle  John  sat  in 
his  prison  at  Patmos,  hearing  possibly  the  dash  of  the  waves 
against  the  prison  walls,  a  vision — a  prophetic  vision — suddenly 
steals  before  his  sight,  and  the  prison  walls  and  the  dash  of  the 
outer  sea  are  forgotten  in  the  wall-less  heaven  that  reveals  itself 
and  that  roll  of  the  infinite  sea ;  and  as  he  looks,  becomes 
collected  enough  to  look,  vision  after  vision  passes  before  his 
gaze. 

First  of  all  comes  the  vision  of  the  Lamb  in  the  midst  of  the 
candlesticks  ;  then  the  messages  are  sent  to  the  seven  churches. 
Then  follows  the  second  vision.  Now  I  quite  admit  that  very 
many  of  these  visions  are  almost  incapable  of  interpretation  to  us 
as  yet.  But  the  earlier  chapters  seem  to  us  as  clear  as  can  be. 
This  second  vision  is  that  of  a  door  thrown  wide  open  in  heaven. 


Tasting  Death  for  Every  Man.  231 

and  as  the  Apostle  looks  through  the  open  door  he  sees  the  throne 
and  those  who  are  around  the  throne  in  lowly  adoration  of  the 
Son,  and  there  breaks  upon  his  ear  a  sound — is  it  the  sea  or  is  it 
music  ?  Now  he  knows  that  the  words  have  actually  shaped 
themselves,  and  he  hears  what  is  called  the  song  of  creation  : 
"  Thou  art  worthy  to  receive  glory  and  honour  and  power,  for 
Thou  hast  created  all  things."  But  as  the  seer  looks  there  comes 
a  change  around  the  throne.  He  is  still  looking  through  the  open 
door  across  the  sea  of  glass  at  the  throne,  but  a  change  is  pro- 
duced. There  stands  before  the  throne  a  Lamb  as  it  had  been 
slaughtered,  and  instantly  the  song  changes.  There  is  given  a 
new  song.  It  is  not  the  sor^  of  creation,  but  now  it  is  the  song 
of  redemption  :  "  Thou  art  worthy  because  Thou  hast  redeemed 
all  nations  by  Thy  blood."  So  no  sooner  has  the  news  reached 
the  heavenly  kingdom  of  this  death  of  Jesus  than  the  song  there 
is  changed  from  the  praises  of  creation  to  the  praises  of 
redemption. 

The  same  thing  is  true  throughout  Christian  history.  We,  too, 
see  Jesus  crowned  with  glory  and  honour.  If  there  was  a  power 
drawing  men  to  God  before,  there  is  a  greater  power,  a  more 
magnetic  force  since  Jesus  has  died.  We  feel  the  true  basis  of 
the  Kingship  of  God  lies  in  this  death  of  the  Redeemer. 

Follow  the  Bible  history,  and  do  you  not  see  how  the  death  of 
Jesus  is  the  ground  of  His  greatest  conquest  ?  No  sooner  has 
He  passed  into  the  grave  than  He  preaches  redemption  to  the 
spirits  in  prison.  No  sooner  has  He  passed  there  than  the  Old 
Testament  saints  themselves  hear  new  words  that  were  unfamiliar 
to  them  before.  Look  on,  too ;  soon  there  comes  the  bursting  of 
the  resurrection  morning.  Peter  rises  up  a  few  days  afterwards, 
and  the  one  message  upon  which  he  dwells  is  this  tasting  death 
for  every  man  ;  and  the  Christian  Church  is  born.  Morning  after 
morning,  as  Sabbath  days  returned,  the  Apostles  preached  in 
Jerusalem  this  same  message  of  the  Christ  Who  had  died.  Who 
had  tasted  death  for  every  man.  And  the  little  church  grows 
stronger,  grows  to  its  thousands.  Before  long,  as  the  Apostles 
go  forth  with  exactly  the  same  message,  you  see  how  the  very 
thrones  of  the  Caesars  are  shattered,  and  how  the  very  temples  of 
heathendom  are  emptied.  Follow  throughout  the  course  of 
Christian  history,  and  I  dare  to  aver  that  we  have  known  many 
intervals  that  may  be  called  dark  ages  ;  but  I  dare,  at  the  same 
time,  to  aver  that  those  have  been  the  ages  in  which  this  truth 
about  the  tasting  of  death  for  every  man  has  been  permitted  by 
church  leaders  to  recede.  Wherever  the  truth  has  been  brought 
to  the  front,  bright  days  have  been  seen  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
Christian  history.  Turn  back  to  those  days  associated  with 
Augustine,  or  with  Bernard,  or  afterwards  with  Luther,  or  after 
still  with  the  great  movement  in  Germany,  or  after  still  with 
those  that  are  nearer  to  our  own  time,  the  great  movement  of 


232  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Wesley  and  Whitefield,  and  I  aver  that  the  one  truth  that  stands 
foremost  there  as  they  preach  redemption  to  men  is  that  He,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death  for  every  man.  And  we,  whilst  to- 
day we  revel  in  the  thought  of  a  new  life ;  whilst  to-day  we  realise 
as  the  world,  I  imagine,  has  never  realised  before  the  meaning  of 
a  new  life,  that  Christianity  is  something  super-added  to  the 
natural  man — whilst  that  is  so,  let  us  never  forget  that  the  only 
great  truth  that  enables  men  to  see  that  there  is,  after  all,  a  new 
life  possible  to  us  is  always  this — the  tasting  of  death  for  every 
man.  Where  the  great  truth  of  the  dying  of  Jesus  is  put  to  the 
front,  men  take  new  heart.  Where  this  great  truth  of  the  dying 
of  Jesus  for  every  man  is  emphasised  as  almost  the  cardinal  truth 
of  our  faith,  we  see  at  once  how  conversions  follow,  testifying  to 
a  Divine  interference  with  human  affairs.  And  it  is  necessary  for 
us  at  all  times  to  bear  in  mind  that  here  we  have  the  great  truth 
that  is  the  very  quintessence  and  marrow  of  the  Gospel. 

I  cannot  expand,  but  I  would  ask  you  to  see  that  there  is  some 
ground  for  the  kingship  of  Jesus  in  His  death.  I  would  turn 
away  for  a  season  from  directly  Christian  utterances  as  such. 
Have  you  ever  remarked  how  the  greatest  efforts  of  the  world's 
genius  seem  to  have  been  called  out  by  the  recognition  of  this 
tasting  death  for  every  man  ?  Have  you  seen  how  men  of  genius 
have  seemed  to  rise  to  their  highest  water-mark  as  they  come 
face  to  face  with  this  death  of  Jesus  ?  They  may  realise  it  but 
insufficiently.  They  may  hold  almost  any  Christian  views  con- 
cerning it,  yet  there  is  a  something  about  this  dying  of  Jesus  that 
acts  as  a  spell  upon  the  heart  of  humanity.  Shall  I  speak  of 
poetry  ?  I  have  mentioned  Milton.  There  are  times — I  do  not 
know  whether  it  is  an  improper  thing  to  say — but  there  are  times 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  exquisite  music  of  Milton  touches  the 
deeper  springs  of  my  spiritual  life.  I  turn  to  "  Paradise  Re- 
gained "  again  and  again.  It  puts  me  into  a  meditative  mood  as 
I  see  the  features  of  the  life  of  the  Redeemer  steadily  unfolding  ; 
they  seem,  too,  by  their  exquisite  simplicity  of  utterance  to  put  me 
to  a  quiet  and  calm  mood.  True,  the  poet  does  not  hold  the 
views  that  I  hold  about  Jesus.  True,  he  seems  to  mar  much  that 
he  has  to  say  by  his  Unitarian  conception.  Nevertheless,  as  I 
come  under  the  spell  of  his  words  it  seems  to  me  that  the  very 
noblest  and  best  that  was  ever  called  forth  even  from  Milton  was 
called  forth  as  he  stands  before  this  cross  of  the  Redeemer.  I 
would  turn  to  the  one  that  might  be  called  the  German  Milton,  I 
mean  Klopstock.  As  I  have  read  his  "  Messias "  I  have  seen 
how  the  best  he  could  write  has  been  evoked  from  him  as  he 
comes  face  to  face  with  the  cross  where  Jesus  is  tasting  death  for 
every  man.  He  represents  for  us  those  three  crosses  on  the  hillside. 
We  see  the  soldier  as  he  rises  forth  with  his  spear  to  pierce  the 
side ;  we  hear  the  clank  of  the  armour  as  the  soldiers  go  away 
after  their  deed  is  done ;    our  eyes  fall   upon   the  circle   of  the 


Tasting  Death  for  Every  Man.  233 

weeping  women,  and  then  for  a  season  one  is  left  alone  with  the 
three  crosses ;  and  then  as  I  read  these  words  of  Klopstock's 
again,  there  is  in  them  the  highest  poetry ;  and  I  am  perfectly 
sure  of  this,  that  the  highest  and  best  thing  that  Klopstock  did, 
he  did  as  his  eye  fell  upon  this  cross  of  the  Redeemer, 

And  of  painting  is  not  the  same  ■  thing  true  ?  Will  not  great 
picture  after  great  picture  rise  before  your  minds  ?  Perhaps  some 
of  you  may  have  heard  that  touching  story  in  the  plains  of 
Lombardy.  You  step  a  little  out  of  the  ordinary  track  to  a 
common  monastery  by  the  roadside,  and  there  you  find  it  has  its 
little  portion  of  history.  You  turn  within,  and  you  are  shown  a 
somewhat  faded  picture  of  the  crucifixion,  and  its  story  is 
more  interesting  than  the  picture.  A  monk  towards  the 
close  of  his  life  had  come  to  feel  that  he  had  a  gift  of  painting, 
and  an  order  comes  to  him  from  his  Superior,  that  after  having 
embellished  cell  after  cell  of  his  brethren,  he  should  paint  a  cruci- 
fixion for  the  altar.  "  No,"  he  says,  "  it  is  beyond  my  faculty." 
However,  the  order  is  supreme,  and  he  obeys.  He  feels  it  im- 
possible to  get  the  sort  of  face  that  he  requires,  and  he  finishes 
the  altar-picture^finishes  it  in  unusual  form,  leaving  the  face  out. 
In  the  interval  the  man  becomes  seized  with  epilepsy  ;  so  terrible 
is  the  thought  upon  him  that  one  night  he  was  found  in  the  chapel 
with  the  picture  unfinished,  and  in  the  morning  he  lay  dead,  and 
the  face  looks  out  there  from  the  canvas.  Do  you  not  see  how,  by 
the  very  presence  of  this  great  thought  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  man 
is  laid  under  a  tremendous  spell  ? 

Should  I  speak  of  music  ?  You  know  Bach's  Passion  music, 
decidedly  the  grandest  thing  that  Bach  himself  ever  wrote.  I 
shall  never  forget  hearing  Handel's  "  Messiah  "  for  the  first  time. 
The  opening  notes  of  the  overture  soon  put  me  in  touch  with  the 
great  thought  of  the  composer,  and  as  the  beautiful  words  of  the 
tenor  rang  forth,  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye  My  people,"  as  they 
sang,  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  a  Son  is  given,"  as  the  music 
unfolded  we  saw  also  the  unfolding  of  that  Old  Testament  expec- 
tation of  the  Redeemer.  Then  we  are  amongst  the  Bethelehem 
mountains  as  the  touching  strains  of  the  Pastoral  Symphony  fell 
upon  our  ears.  And  as  the  life  of  Jesus  unfolds  now  and  again 
you  can  see  that  the  old  prophetic  ecstasy  is  forgotten.  They 
are  face  to  face  with  facts,  facts  very  largely  of  pain.  Minor 
chords  prevail.  You  see  how  sadness  is  beginning  to  make  itself 
felt  in  the  life  of  the  Redeemer.  And  as  you  listen  on,  soon  can 
you  not  hear  the  very  hiss  of  the  lash  as  He  gives  His  back  to  the 
smiters  ?  Then  the  music  seems  to  become  more  and  more  to 
the  minor  key,  until  almost  unconsciously  you  are  brought,  almost 
against  your  will,  involuntarily  before  the  cross.  And  the  music 
falters,  falters,  falters,  seems  to  cease.  "  It  is  finished  !  "  almost 
involuntarily  comes  to  your  lips.  Finished  !  Hark  again.  The 
very  heavens  are  split  with  the  chorus,  "  Lift  up  your  heads,  Oye 


234  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

gates,  even  lift  them  up,  ye  everlasting  doors."  "  Hallelujah, 
King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords."  The  angels  are  shouting  to 
welcome  Him.  Listen  again.  **  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords."  Hark  !  What  voice  is  that — tremulous  yet  triumphant 
— like  words  from  the  chamber  where  death  is  ?  "I  know  that 
my  Redeemer  liveth."  Listen  again.  **  Since  by  man  came 
death,  by  man  came  also  the  resurrection  from  the  dead."  Reason 
is  catching  the  strain,  and  since  He  has  tasted  death  for  every 
man  again  and  again  comes  the  outbreak  of  the  old  strain  of  the 
chorus,  "  Hallelujah  !  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,"  until,  as 
the  music  swells  towards  the  end  of  the  great  piece,  you  catch, 
"  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  "  ;  and  then  I  think  east 
and  west,  and  north  and  south,  all  unite  in  the  great  cry,  "  Amen  ! 
Hallelujah  !  Amen  !  Hallelujah  !  "  I  do  say  that  the  grandest 
thing  that  ever  Handel  wrote  he  wrote  as  he  came  under  the  spell 
of  this  tasting  death  for  every  man. 

And  to-day  is  not  the  same  fact  true  that  the  one  thing  that 
exercises  a  spell  over  humanity  in  connection  with  our  preaching 
is  this  tasting  death  for  every  man  ?  For  a  little  season  it  may  be 
that  the  great  truth  of  the  Atonement  has  been  receding  from 
public  view.  But  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  in  the  heart  of  men 
there  is  nothing  that  it  finds  so  effective  about  this  Gospel  as  this 
truth  of  tasting  death  for  every  man.  It  must  come  to  the  front, 
we  shall  see  a  further  coronation  of  Jesus  as  the  world  recognises 
that  He  tasted  death  for  every  man.  The  ground  of  His  kingship 
is  His  tasting  of  death. 

Do  not  think  that  I  hold  pessimistic  views  about  the  present 
state  of  our  religious  life  in  England.  On  the  contrary  ;  wherever 
I  look  I  see  signs  of  the  keenest  hope.  Men  are  getting  tired  of 
mere  party  names,  and  are  asking  what  we  know  about  this  Christ 
that  is  to  be.  There  is  nothing  that  makes  its  marks  in  our  time 
like  the  life  of  Christ.  And  so  men  are  getting  away  from  Calvin, 
It  may  be,  and  from  Luther,  and  from  Wesley,  and  from  any  indi- 
vidual exponent  of  Christianity  that  they  may  ask  about  this 
Christ  that  is  to  be.  And  so,  for  me,  I  can  find  in  the  present 
attitude  of  our  religious  life  nothing  but  hope.  All  I  say  is  this— 
you  who  owe  to  Jesus  your  salvation,  keep  to  the  front  this  truth, 
that  He  tasted  death  for  every  man.  Here  is  the  ground  of  our 
new  life,  here  is  the  ground  of  our  reconciliation,  here  is  the 
ground  of  the  deepest  feelings  that  move  our  Christian  nature. 
Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the  grand  truth  is  that  Jesus  is  King, 
and  that  He  is  King  because  He  tasted  death  for  every  man. 

What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  There 
are  some  questions  of  purely  intellectual  interest  in  this  world  of 
ouis.  Many  a  scientific  question  is  purely  a  matter  of  intellec- 
tual interest.  There  are  large  portions  even  of  Christian  truth 
that  are  only  matters  of  intellectual  interest.  But  I  venture  to 
say  that  what  you  think  of  Christ  is  the  most  supremely  practical 


Ctirrent  Opinion  in  Theology.  235 


question  that  can  be  brought  home  to  any  man's  soul.  And  I 
ask  you,  therefore,  What  think  ye  of  Christ  ?  Is  He  to  you  the 
Son  of  the  Father  ?  Is  He  to  you  the  image  in  which  you  were 
created  ?  Is  He  to  you  your  Redeemer  ?  Has  He  tasted  death 
for  you  as  He  has  tasted  death  for  every  man  ?  Are  you  con- 
scious of  it  ?  Think  upon  the  matter,  for  you  will  find  that  the 
spring  of  our  Christian  life  comes  as  we  stand  in  front  of  the 
cross  of  the  Redeemer.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is,  but  I  am  per- 
fectly sure  that  if  we  move  our  eyes  when  we  are  in  mental 
perplexity  away  from  the  cross  of  Jesus  we  are  in  darkness  and 
bewilderment  at  once.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is,  but  I  am  sure  it 
is  a  fact  that  if  we  can  keep  our  eyes  fixed  upon  the  cross  of  Jesus, 
asking  ourselves  what  it  means,  and  what  it  means  for  us,  it  is 
true  that,  as  has  been  represented  for  us,  the  burden  falls  from 
our  backs.  I  ask  you,  therefore,  What  think  ye  of  Jesus  ?  and 
in  one  word  I  close,  that  He  should  taste  death  for  every  man. 
Universalism  ?  By  no  means.  I  ask  you  if  you  are  able  to  turn 
to  the  original,  when  you  will  see  that  you  will  have  no  guarantee 
for  universalism ;  "  that  He,  by  the  grace  of  God,  should  taste 
death  for  the  individual  man  who  will  believe  upon  Him,"  is  the 
far  more  accurate  translation  of  what  we  have  there.  I  ask  you, 
therefore,  again,  What  think  ye  of  Christ?  May  the  Spirit  of  all 
promise  take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  show  them  unto  you 
May  God  add  His  blessing ! 


CURRENT  OPINION  IN  THEOLOGY. 

Notes  of  a  Sermon^ 
By  Rev.  President  Patton,  D.D.,  Princeton. 

"To  wit,  that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself."— 
2  COR.  V.  19. 

Among  the  many  ways  of  looking  at  the  Christian  religion  there 
are  these  two  : — (i)  The  way  in  which  Christianity  makes  an 
impression  upon  us  in  its  totality — i.e.,  its  general  features,  and 
its  general  effects  upon  human  life  ;  and  (2)  the  way  in  which  its 
specific  doctrines  affect  us.  In  other  words,  these  are  the 
apologetic  and  dogmatic  aspects  of  Christianity.  There  are 
common  ways  of  looking  at  various  things.  The  impression 
made  upon  you  by  a  friend,  in  the  general  outhne  of  his  character 
and  by  his  influence  upon  you,  is  one;  the  anatomist  and 
psychologist  view  him  in  a  different  light.  Let  us,  then,  glance 
at  these  two  views. 

I.  The  apologetic  aspect  of  Christianity. — It  is  manifest  that  this 
is  at  present  the  popular  view.  It  has  a  certain  fascination  for 
some  minds:  they  like  to  view  Christianity  in  the  large,  without 
troubling  themselves  with  its  particular  doctrines.  They  con- 
sider it  to  be  a  beneficent  system,  and  well  fitted  to  advance  the 


236  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

highest  interests  of  men,  and  as  such  it  has  their  support  and 
their  best  wishes.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  a  spirit  of  doubt 
abroad.  People,  it  is  said,  doubt  more  now  than  they  used  to. 
That  is,  perhaps,  not  quite  correct ;  it  would  be  truer  to  say  that 
we  hear  more  about  the  doubts  of  men  than  we  used  to.  At  any 
rate,  the  tendency  in  the  Churches  is  to  meet  this  spirit  of  doubt 
in  this  way  :  "  Let  us  narrow  our  area  of  dogma  ;  let  us  get  men 
to  believe  as  much  as  we  can ;  and  let  us  be  glad  to  receive  them 
into  communion  with  us  on  these  terms."  Alongside  this  sph-it 
of  doubt  there  has  sprung  up  a  spirit  of  unity.  It  prevails  every- 
where. Men  are  beginning  to  get  their  eyes  opened,  and  they  are 
able  to  see  the  vast  agreements  that  exist  between  their  own  and 
other  forms  of  religion.  This  view  is  irenic.  You  look  to  those 
parts  of  Christian  doctrines  upon  which  men  agree,  and  not  those 
upon  which  they  differ ;  and  you  find  that  the  Roman  Catholic, 
for  instance,  believes  a  great  deal  exactly  as  you  do.  He  believes 
in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  in  the  Incarnation  of  Christ,  in  the 
Atonement,  as  firmly  as  you  can.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign  of  the 
times,  then,  when  men  are  able  to  overlook  differences,  and  clear 
the  way  to  a  consideration  of  agreements. 

But,  now,  what  is  this  Christianity  ?  How  is  it  to  be  stated 
or  defined  in  that  which  is  essential  to  it  ?  You  cannot  define 
Christianity  as  Presbyterianism  nor  as  Episcopacy,  as  Predestina- 
tion nor  as  Apostolical  Succession.  How,  then,  are  you  to  put 
it  ?  What  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  It  may  be  answered  from 
this  text.  To  be  a  Christian  is  to  accept  this  statement  of  the 
Apostle  Paul,  "  To  wit,  that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself."  The  man  who"  accepts  that  accepts 
Supernatural  Religion — Supernatural  Christianity.  It  is  the 
minimum  of  Christian  belief.  You  cannot  go  lower,  and  at  the 
same  time  conserve  what  is  essential  to  a  Christian. 

If  this,  then,  is  the  fundamental  Christian  premiss,  how  is  it  to 
be  defended  ?  How  vv^ould  you  proceed  from  the  standpoint  of 
Apologetics  to  make  it  good  ?  Now  I  cannot  answer  this  question 
fully,  but  I  shall  just  indicate  the  line  upon  which  this  fundamental 
Christian  premiss  might  be  made  good. 

(i)  To  be  a  Christian  is  so  far  in  alliance  with  your  intellectual 
nature.  It  meets  the  general  conditions  of  thought.  You  don't 
have  to  undo  anything.  You  don't  have  to  go  back  upon  your 
thinking,  and  undo  your  conceptions,  and  reconstruct  your  ideas 
upon  different  principles.  If  you  became  a  Pantheist,  for  example, 
you  would.  You  would  have  to  undo  all  your  thinking  about 
matter  and  mind,  disbelieve  in  the  distinction  you  have  been 
accustomed  to  make  between  the  ego  and  the  non-ego,  and  deny 
what  5'ou  have  been  wont  to  affirm,  that  extension  is  a  quality  as 
peculiar  to  matter  as  thought  is  to  mind.  To  be  a  Christian 
makes  no  such  demand  upon  you  :  it  is  in  correspondence  with 
the  general  structure  of  your  intellectual  life. 


Current  Opinion  in  Theology.  zyj 


(2)  Christianity  is  in  alliance  with  your  fundamental  religious 
conceptions.  You  are  born  religious ;  certain  definite  religious 
ideas  are  common  to  man  as  such,  {a)  For  instance,  there  is  this 
hungering  and  thirsting  after  God,  a  longing  on  the  part  of  the 
human  soul  to  bring  God  within  reach,  to  have  Him  such  as  the 
soul  can  know  and  love.  This  is  the  hunger  of  the  world,  and 
you  have  it  satisfied  when  God  became  Man,  i.e.,  Christianity 
meets  this  desire  to  know  God  in  the  Incarnation  of  Christ.  Now 
of  course  the  question  may  be  raised,  Is  the  Incarnation,  this 
human  longing,  taking  shape  and  form,  or  is  it  an  objective, 
divine  manifestation  meant  to  satisfy  the  longing  ?  That  must  be 
settled  by  evidence.  All  I  say  here  is  that  the  longing  exists,  and 
prima  facie  Christianity  meets  it.  (6)  Again,  there  is  the  idea  of 
human  guilt,  a  feverish  restlessness  at  the  thought  of  God  and 
judgment.  Now  this  is  no  peculiarly  local  or  Christian  idea.  It 
is  common  to  all  races  and  all  religions,  and  hence  arises  the 
desire  for  expiation,  (c)  Once  more,  man  everywhere  looks  for 
help  from  a  source  higher  than  himself,  he  doesn't  like  to  feel  that 
he  is  alone.  Pantheism  tries  to  meet  this.  It  brings  God  down 
to  our  help,  it  tells  us  He  is  everywhere  and  everything,  but  it 
does  so  only  by  extinguishing  us.  Now  Christianity  does  two 
things  for  us  :  it  brings  God  near  to  us,  and  it  conserves  our  in- 
dividuality. It  raises  us  up  into  fellowship  with  God.  That  is, 
the  human  longing  for  fellowship  with  God  is  met  by  the  doctrine 
of  the  regeneration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  These  three  facts,  then, 
incarnation,  expiation,  regeneration,  are  embedded  in  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  and  they  meet  the  subjective  religious  ideas  of  men. 

(3)  As  one  would  expect,  basing  itself  as  it  does  in  general 
human  needs,  Christianity  is  the  only  religion  capable  of  catho- 
licity. It  flourishes  anywhere ;  it  suits  every  clime  and  every 
condition  of  men.  Other  religions  have  good  points,  but  Chris- 
tianity has  all  their  excellencies  and  none  of  their  defects.  All 
this  is,  of  course,  not  direct  proof  of  the  verity  of  the  Christian 
religion,  but  it  is  presumptive  proof.  If  it  suits  the  great  and 
universal  longings  of  human  nature,  then  it  is  presumably  true. 

(4)  Further,  not  only  is  the  Christian  religion  presumably  true 
from  its  suitableness  to  human  needs,  but  it  comes  to  us  specifi- 
cally and  historically  accredited.  There  are  two  ways  in  which 
you  may  look  at  Scripture,  {a)  You  may  hold  that  Scripture  is 
the  word  of  God,  or  (6)  you  may  say  it  contains  the  word  of  God. 
The  last  might  be  enough  for  apologetic  purposes,  but  I  prefer 
and  hold  the  former. 

Now,  when  you  ask  me  my  reason  for  holding  that  the  Bible  is 
the  word  of  God,  you  lead  at  once  to  the  subject  of  inspiration. 
Some  men  argue  in  this  way :  they  say  the  Bible  is  inspired 
because  the  Bible  says  it  is.  But,  of  course,  that  is  no  proof.  A 
man  may  say  he  is  the  king  of  China,  but  that  doesn't  make  him 
so.     To  get  at  the  real  proof  of  inspiration  you  must  go  to  the 


238  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

material  of  which  the  Bible  is  formed.  You  take  up  the  book 
and  you  examine  its  texture,  and  you  say  this  is  Divine ;  it  has 
one  purpose  from  first  to  larst ;  the  whole  mosaic  is  stamped  with 
the  cross  of  Christ.  It  is  the  organic  structure  of  Scripture  that 
demonstrates  its  inspiration.  Now,  if  I  found  this  in  English 
literature  I  should  say  the  same.  If  the  whole  stream  and  volume 
of  English  literature,  from  Chaucer  downwards,  were  directed  to 
one  purpose  and  governed  by  one  idea,  I  should  say  at  once  that 
that  looked  exceedingly  like  inspiration.  It  is  precisely  this  that 
you  find  in  the  collection  of  books  which  constitute  the  Bible ; 
they  were  written  at  widely  different  periods  of  time,  and  yet 
they  are  bound  together  by  an  organic  unity  of  thought  and  pur- 
pose. But  you  say,  "That  isn't  demonstration;  that  is  not  a 
strict  proof  of  your  assertion."  What  do  you  mean  by  demon- 
stration ?  If  you  want  me  to  prove  inspiration  by  mathematics, 
then  I  reply  at  once  that  I  cannot ;  but  I  do  say  this,  that,  taken 
as  a  whole  and  in  its  parts,  the  Bible  presents  to  you  a  phenomenon 
that  you  cannot  reasonably  account  for  short  of  the  doctrine  of 
inspiration. 

Apologetic,  then,  necessitates  this  minimum  of  Christian  belief, 
"that  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself": 
but  you  cannot  stop  there  ;  you  can't  for  the  life  of  you ;  you 
must  go  further.  Of  course,  if  you  want  to  be  a  fool,  you  have  a 
perfect  right  to  be  ;  but  if  you  use  your  ordinary  intellectual  powers, 
you  will  be  forced  into  the  consideration  of  dogmatic  Christianity. 

II.  When  y oil  pass  over  to  dogmatics  you  come  at  once  face  to 
face  with  the  Christological  problem,  you  must  believe  something 
about  Christ.  You  must  say  that  Christ  is  God,  or  man,  or  both, 
or  neither. .  You  will  be  forced  logically  to  assert  or  deny  some- 
thing about  Christ — that  is,  you  formulate  your  dogma  about  His 
person.  Similarly  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  There  is 
no  more  difficulty  in  believing  in  ten  persons  than  in  three ;  the 
point  is,  you  must  assert  unity  or  plurality :  you  must  say  that 
there  is  only  one  person  in  the  Godhead  ;  or,  to  make  room  for 
your  doctrine  of  Christ,  you  must  say  there  are  more.  But  this 
is  not  all.  If  it  be  true  that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God,  and  that 
He  became  Incarnate,  and  lived  and  died  as  sacred  history  repre- 
sents, that  leads  you  to  the  question,  Why  did  Christ  come  ?  and 
immediately  you  are  in  contact  with  the  doctrine  of  sin.  In  this 
way  you  are  forced  step  by  step  to  climb  the  hill  until  the  whole 
field  of  doctrine  included  under  the  terms  Creation,  Providence, 
and  Grace  stretches  out  before  you,  with  the  doctrine  of  Pre- 
destination as  central.  Intellect  will  force  you  step  by  step  on 
this  journey  through  dogmatics. 

I  have  indicated  enough  to  show  you  that,  however  important 
the  Apologetic  position  may  be,  it  is  impossible  constantly  to  rest 
there.  The  position  of  those  people  who  tell  us  that  we  don't  want 
doctrine,  but  religion,  is  absurd.     They  always  seem  to  me  to  be 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  239 

a  grotesque  compound  of  John  Wesley  and  Matthew  Arnold. 
There  is  no  religion,  just  as  there  can  be  no  morality,  which  does 
not  rest  upon  the  activity  of  thought ;  that  is,  religion  must  rest 
ultimately  upon  belief.  The  text,  therefore,  brings  you  up — if  you 
are  true  to  history,  true  to  philosophy,  and  true  to  Scripture — to 
the  Westminster  Confession,  the  Thirty-nine  articles,  or  the 
Heidleberg  Catechism. 

Many  of  the  modern  scientific  discoveries  are  old  doctrines  with 
new  names.  Darwinism  fixes  a  man  into  the  conditions  of  his 
birth  and  makes  him  the  result  of  his  antecedents  ;  but  we  have 
have  had  what  heredity  teaches  us  for  nineteen  hundred  years 
under  the  doctrine  of  Predestination. 

ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Sunday,  Augtist  17,  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

THE  TEN  LEPERS. 

St.  Luke  xvii.  11— 19. 

"There  Met  Him  Ten  .  .  .  Lepers." — Nothing  in  the  East  has 
remained  more  unchanged  and  stereotyped,  from  the  earliest  times,  than 
the  treatment,  the  ways  and  manners,  of  the  lepers.  That  dread  disease, 
which  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  into  Western  Europe  from  Syria  in 
the  eighth  century,  and  was  a  scourge  for  several  centuries  (though  it 
seemed  to  have  died  out  until  its' recent  sporadic  appearance),  never  inter- 
mitted its  virulence  in  Palestine.  To  each  successive  race — Jew,  Syrian, 
Turkoman,  and  Arab  alike — it  has  descended  as  a  curse,  dreaded,  shunned, 
and  counted  a  heaven-sent  visitation  by  all  aUke.  The  introduction  of 
the  Moslem  creed  has  done  anything  but  mollify  the  social  isolation  and 
jealousies  of  jarring  faiths.  Jew,  Christian,  Mohammedan,  stand  as  angrily 
apart  as  did  ever  Jew  and  Samaritan  two  thousand  years  ago.  But  there  is 
one  exception.  The  old  proverb  says  "Adversity  makes  strange  bed- 
fellows." And  thus  we  find  that  as,  while  the  Jews  had  no  dealings  with 
the  Samaritans,  yet  a  Samaritan  leper  was  in  the  same  band  with  his  Jewish 
fellow-sufferers,  so  Jewish,  Moslem,  and  Christian  victims  of  the  fell 
disease  herd  together  in  the  same  cluster  of  hovels  outside  any  town  or 
village  of  Central  Palestine  to-day, 

"  Which  Stood  Afar  Off."— It  is  quite  certain  that  the  isolation  of  the 
lepers  was  simply  in  accordance  with  the  law,  and  not  from  any  dread  of 
contagion  from  casual  contact.  At  this  day  there  is  no  such  fear,  yet  the 
isolation  is  maintained.  So  far  were  the  severest  restrictions  relaxed,  in 
New  Testament  times,  that  the  Talmud  gives  special  directions  for  the 
admission  of  sufferers  to  the  services  of  the  synagogue.  For  the  leper,  grates 
or  bounds  are  to  be  made,  ten  hands  high  and  four  cubits  broad.  Within 
these  he  stands ;  but  he  must  enter  the  first  and  depart  the  last,  lest  they 
should  be  defiled  that  stand  in  the  synagogue.  Even  in  the  Temple  lepers 
were  admitted  to  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles ;  that  is,  to  the  part  which  was 
open  to  the  uncircumcised  and  to  those  under  ceremonial  uncleanness. 

*  Abridged  from  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


240  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE    FOR   CHILDREN   ON   THE    LESSON.* 

No  men,  one  would  have  thought,  had  more  reason  to  thank  God  than 
those  nine  lepers.  "Where  are  the  nine  ?"  Jesus  exclaimed  in  sorrowful 
amazement.     He  felt  as  if  all  His  benefits  "  were  falling  into  a  deep  silent 

grave." 

"  Blow,  blow,  thou  winter  wind  ; 
Thou  art  not  so  unkind 
As  man's  ingratitude. " 

It  was  in  our  Lord's  last  journey  towards  Jerusalem  that  He  saw,  on 
the  road  outside  a  village,  ten  lepers.  They  might  not  come  nearer  to 
anyone  than  one  hundred  paces,  because  they  were  tainted  with  the  fatal 
disease.  They  kept  together  in  a  band.  Misfortune  makes  strange 
neighbours,  and  of  these  lepers  one  was  a  Samaritan.  You  know  he  would 
not  have  been  allowed  to  associate  with  Jews  had  he  been  well,  bat 
leprosy  wiped  out  all  religious  distinctions.  In  Jerusalem  to-day  one  finds 
in  the  leper-houses  Jews  and  Mahometans  living  together.  Nowhere  else 
would  they  live  together.  Conscious  of  their  misery,  they  appealed  to 
Jesus.  "  Jesus,  Master,  have  mercy  on  us."  Illness  often  will  make  men 
go  to  God  who  have  never  thought  of  Him  before.     So  it  was  in  this  case. 

Their  prayer  was  an  act  of  faith,  and  Jesus  puts  it  to  the  test.  "  Go," 
He  said,  "show  yourselves  to  the  priest."  He  did  nothing  for  them  at 
the  moment.  He  bids  them  go  in  their  uncleanliness,  as  if  they  were 
already  cleansed.  Could  they  trust  Him  sufficiently  to  make  the  venture  ? 
Yes  !  they  took  Him  at  His  word,  and  set  out  on  their  way  to  the  priests. 
As  they  went,  before  they  had  gone  far,  the  glad  change  was  upon  them. 
"  As  they  went,  they  were  cleansed."  It  was  in  the  very  act  of  obedience 
that  they  were  blessed.  Now  they  were  restored  to  their  families,  their 
homes,  their  rights  as  citizens,  to  all  that  makes  life  worth  living.  If  such 
a  blessing  had  come  to  us,  should  we  have  thought  any  thanks  too  great  ? 
Should  we  have  gone  away,  like  those  nine,  without  a  word  of  thanks  to 
the  Lord  ?  But  it  is  very  humbling  to  think  that  we,  perhaps,  might  have 
acted  in  the  same  way.  You  know  one  proverb — "  Out  of  sight,  out  of 
mind."  When  the  miracle  was  wrought  upon  them  the  Worker  was  out  of 
sight.  Jesus  would  have  walked  on  to  the  village,  and  they  were  pursuing 
their  way  to  the  priests.  So  the  Benefactor  was  forgotten  by  the  nine. 
Nine  out  of  ten  of  us  are  ungrateful  likewise  to  God  for  all  His  benefits  to 
us — and  even  more  ungrateful  than  those  nine  lepers.  For  which  of  the 
two  is  better  off,  the  man  who  loses  a  good  thing  and  then  gets  it  back 
again  ;  or  the  man  who  never  loses  it  at  all  ?  And  which  of  the  two  has 
more  cause  to  thank  God  ?  Think  how  well  and  happy  those  of  us  are, 
and  how  many  of  us  give  God  the  glory,  or  Christ  the  thanks  !  And  if 
we  have  bodily  blessings  to  be  thankful  for,  what  gratitude  we  should  show 
for  our  spiritual  blessings.  Has  not  God  given  us  His  Son,  and  the  hope 
of  a  joyful  life  after  death. 

We  are  so  much  accustomed  to  be  blessed  by  God  that  we  take  His 
blessings  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  so  we  wound  His  love.  May  God  for- 
give us  for  our  ingratitude. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


243 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  I20,  Vol.  III.]  AUGUST  22,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  QUEEN  OF  SHEBA. 

A  Serfnon, 

By  the  Rev.  A.  R.  Buckland,  M.A. 

Pt-eached  in  the  Chapel  of  the  Foiindling^  Hospital,  LondoJt,  on  Sunday  morning, 
August  3,  1890.* 

"  The  queen  of  the  south  shall  rise  up  in  the  judgment  with  this  generation, 
and  shall  condemn  it." — St.  Matthew  xii.  42. 

It  was  in  those  far-off  days  that  seem  to  live  for  us  in  a  kind  of 
tv^^ilight.  There  were  still  250  years  or  so  to  pass  before  Romulus 
should  found  his  city  by  yellow  Tiber,  and  twice  as  many  years 
had  to  come  and  go  before  Thermopylae  should  teach  the 
Orientals  the  unwisdom  of  relying  upon  mere  numbers.  In  those 
days  so  far  off  there  was  found  in  the  south-western  corner  of 
Arabia  a  kingdom,  not  great  perchance,  not  widely  known,  neither 
renowned  in  war,  nor  accomplished  in  the  arts  of  peace.  Like 
many  another  kingdom  and  nation,  it  has  left  to  posterity  but 
little  evidence  on  which  to  base  a  verdict  about  such  things. 
But  if  we  know  but  little  of  the  kingdom,  we  know  somewhat 
•  of  one  of  its  sovereigns.  It  is  odd  how  strangely  fame  is  obtained 
and  meted  out  in  this  world.  It  may  possibly  be  that  to-day 
Alexander  the  Coppersmith  is  more  widely  known  in  many 
quarters  than.  Alexander  the  Great.  And  perchance  Peter  the 
Wild  Boy  has  a  much  wider  fame  than  Peter  the  Great. 

It  was  some  such  strange  freak,  from  one  point  of  view,  which 
has  conferred  upon  the  Queen  of  Sheba  eternal  memory.  Others 
have  gained  fame  by  great  deeds,  profound  wisdom  ;  some  also  by 
great  infamy.  Eratostratus  set  fire  to  the  magnificent  temple  of 
Diana  at  Ephesus  that  he  might  make  the  world  to  remember 
him.  They  remembered  him,  they  of  his  day,  and  we  remember 
him  as  well.  But  the  Queen  of  Sheba  has  won  far  more  enduring 
and  better  renown  in  a  far  simpler  fashion.  She  merely  yielded  to 
the  instinct  of  her  sex.  The  characteristic  weakness  of  woman — 
curiosity — has  handed  her  name  down  to  eternal  memory  so  long 
as  the  words  of  Christ  shall  be  read  and  taken  note  of. 


*  Mr,  Buckland's  first  sermon  as  Morning  Preacher  at  the  Foundling. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

240 


Ruling  in  those  far  off  days,  given,  as  Josephus  tells  us  in  his 
quaint  fashion,  very  much  to  philosophy,  and  also,  he  adds,  to 
many  other  kinds  of  discipline— ruling  in  those  far-off  days, 
whether  as  wife,  or  widow,  or  maid,  we  know  not,  there  came  to 
her  news  ever  and  anon  of  a  grand  kingdom  stretched  away  to 
the  north  of  her  own.  She  had  heard  perchance  whence  that 
kingdom  came.  There  were  statements  as  to  strange  doings  on 
its  behalf  by  God  of  old  time,  rumours  of  a  wondrous  escape  from 
a  still  greater  power  in  Egypt,  rumours  of  strange,  hard  things 
done  to  the  nations  and  the  people  who  obstructed  their  early 
path  to  Canaan's  land.  And  now  she  heard  that  it  had  grown  and 
spread  until  it  was  in  a  way  worthy  to  be  counted  with  the  great 
empires  of  the  East.  And  now  they  told  her  that  a  new  king  sat 
upon  its  throne,  young  when  he  ascended  the  throne  of  his  father 
David — but  nineteen,  perchance,  or  twenty.  He  was  fair  to  look 
upon,  they  said,  and  the  beauty  of  his  person  was  equalled,  too, 
by  the  powers  of  his  mind.  He  inherited  the  full  treasury  and 
the  glory  of  the  power  to  be  found,  he  expanded  his  alliance  with 
Egypt,  for  he  took  a  daughter  of  Pharoah  as  his  wife.  When 
his  power  was  well  consolidated  he  created  a  mercantile  marine  ; 
manning  his  ships,  perhaps,  with  Phoenecian  allies,  he  sent  them 
away  to  Tartessus,  on  the  distant  coast  of  Spain,  and  others  away 
down  right  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  perchance  going  on  to  the  most 
southern  port  of  India,  or  even  to  the  island  of  Ceylon,  which  might, 
as  they  returned,  bearing  their  strange  and  precious  cargoes,  their 
gold,  their  ivory,  their  apes,  their  peacocks,  their  spicery — might, 
as  they  returned,  passing  Sheba's  land,  have  even  stopped,  and 
have  been  seen  by  the  queen  herself. 

But,  after  all,  it  was  not  the  power,  it  was  not  the  strange 
things  that  were  said  of  this  kingdom  and  its  ruler  from  that  point 
of  view  that  most  won  her  attention.  She  leant  the  most  willing 
ear  when  they  talked  of  his  wisdom,  and  when  they  connected  that 
wisdom,  not  so  much  with  his  own  personal  individual  character- 
istics as  with  those  of  the  God  he  worshipped,  that  God  to  Whose 
name  he  had  built  a  magnificent  temple,  the  story  of  which  had 
gone  into  all  lands.  And  when  she  heard  of  him,  when  she  recog- 
nised in  that  wisdom  something  more  than  mere  Oriental  astute- 
ness, a  solidity  of  intellect,  and  rectitude  of  judgment  that  marked 
him  out  as  something  far  different  from  his  contemporaries,  she 
desired  to  see  him.  Should  she  go,  or  should  she  stay  ?  It  was 
a  far-off  land ;  there  were  many  dangers  by  the  road,  especially 
for  a  woman.  She  may  have  debated  it  long,  or  possibly  some- 
body contradicted  her  at  last,  and  said  she  should  not  go.  At  all 
events,  she  made  up  her  mind,  and  she  went. 

It  was,  indeed,  a  bold  enterprise.  Going  as  a  queen,  she  must 
have  a  proper  retinue  ;  as  a  woman,  a  large  guard,  no  doubt ;  and 
as  an  Oriental,  she  must  carry  tempting  gifts  in  her  hands.  How 
they  fared  upon  that  long  journey — as  far,  perhaps,  as  from  Lon- 


The  Queen  of  Sheba.  243 


don  to  Rome,  but  without  the  multiple  conveniences  of  modern 
travel,  of  course — we  cannot  tell.  But  it  is  easy  to  think,  as  the 
long  train  neared  its  destination,  how  the  villagers  in  Egypt  gazed 
in  wonder  as  they  heard  of,  and  saw,  perchance,  the  person  of  the 
Queen  herself,  as  they  looked  on  the  swarthy  countenances  of  the 
men  that  formed  her  train,  and  as  they  saw  the  slow-passing 
camels  with  their  precious  burdens  of  gold  and  gems  and  spices. 
At  last  they  came  to  Solomon's  capital  and  to  the  King  himself. 
She  was  admitted  and  received,  we  can  hardly  doubt,  with  the 
traditional  hospitality  of  the  East.  She  was  permitted  to  put  to 
the  King  all  those  hard  questions  which  she  seemed  to  have 
looked  forward  to  with  so  much  satisfaction ;  some  questions,  in- 
deed, which,  from  the  nature  of  her  subsequent  answer  and 
exclamations,  it  would  almost  appear  she  thought  would  pose 
this  wise  monarch  himself. 

What  was  it  that  she  asked  ?  Here,  unhappily,  history  fails  us. 
But  where  history  fails  you  always  find  tradition  stepping  in  to 
offer  all  it  can.  And  so  legend  is  quite  ready  to  assure  us  of  the 
kind  of  things  that  the  Queen  of  Sheba  asked  King  Solomon. 
Enigmas,  mere  jests,  these  are  the  kind  of  questions  the  legend 
puts  into  her  mouth.  A  single  instance  may  suffice  to  indicate 
their  character.  The  Queen,  they  say,  chose  boyish  girls  and 
girlish  boys  and  dressed  them  precisely  alike.  Setting  them 
before  the  king,  she  asked  him  to  discriminate  accurately  the  sex 
of  each.  Solomon,  says  the  legend,  called  for  water,  and  then 
when  he  required  the  girls  softly  to  stroke  their  cheeks  and  the 
boys  honestly  to  rub  theirs,  he  determined  which  were  boys  and 
which  were  girls. 

Amusement  is  all  very  well  in  its  way,  but  we  can  scarcely 
conceive  that  a  woman  of  the  strong  personality  of  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  would  have  come,  at  no  small  danger  to  herself  and  no 
little  inconvenience  to  her  kingdom,  so  long  a  journey  merely  to 
trifle  with  the  time  of  a  busy  king.  Nay,  is  it  not  fair  to  think 
that  they  were  far  more  important  questions  than  these  that  she 
had  to  ask  ?  that  she,  much  given  to  philosophy,  earnestly  desired 
to  ask  this  man  questions  concerning  life  and  death,  and  possibly 
whether  beyond  death  there  might  not  be  for  man  something  else 
yet  to  look  for  ?  What  she  asked  we  cannot  tell,  but  she  received 
her  answer  in  full.  And  it  seems  but  natural  and  right,  and  in 
the  fitness  of  things,  that  one  who  had  come  so  far  with  such 
honest  curiosity  should  have  been  repaid  by  Solomon  by  the 
knowledge  of  that  God  Whose  glory  he  was  making  known  by 
his  own  personal  testimony  and  by  the  magnificent  temple  at 
Zion. 

It  is  an  old  familiar  story,  yet  never  by  its  romantic  character 
losing  its  charm  for  us,  and  never  let  us  also  hope  ceasing  to 
supply  a  convenient  lesson  or  two  for  later  generations.  We 
live,  do  we  not,  in  an  age  which  is  unceasingly  busy ;  in  an  age, 


244  ^^'^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

too,  which  is  sadly  self-centred  ;  in  an  age,  people  tell  us,  is  \tvy 
largely  one  of  scepticism.  But  surely  the  great  difficulty,  the 
great  spiritual  difficulty  of  to-day,  is  not  the  critical  difficulty,  nor 
yet  the  spiritual  difficulty.  Amongst  the  comfortable,  the  well- 
educated  classes  it  is  the  difficulty  of  getting  a  fair  hearing  for 
the  claims  of  God.  Much  that  passes  for  severe  and  well-thought- 
out  scepticism  amongst  the  fairly  well  educated  people  of  to-day 
is  based  upon  nothing  more  than  a  full  purse  and  an  unceasing 
round  of  engagem.ents.  Take  away  the  one  or  the  other,  give 
time  for  thought,  for  contemplation,  try  their  souls  with  the 
sterner  agonies  that  life  in  this  world  can  bring,  and  the  old,  cold, 
miserable,  self-satisfied  philosophy  that  says  in  its  heart,  **  There 
is  no  God,"  takes  to  itself  wings  and  flies.  Better,  yea,  thrice 
happier  are  they  who  prefer  the  honest  curiosity  of  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  to  the  miserable  indifference  to  the  claims  of  God  we  too 
often  know  of  amongst  ourselves. 

And  she  has  her  warning  also,  not  only  for  those  who  are  far 
too  busy  in  an  age  that  swiftly  hurries  on  men  and  women  to  the 
grave,  and  to  some  place  beyond  it — far  too  busy  to  think  of  God, 
or  of  death,  or  of  judgment — she  has  a  lesson  too,  I  say,  for  those 
so  properly  styled  in  the  language  of  our  incomparable  Prayer 
Book,  "  those  who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians."  It  is 
an  age  of  much  scepticism  after  a  sort,  also  of  much  belief  after 
a  sort.  There  are  many,  are  there  not,  children,  they  would  say, 
of  the  light,  with  great  praise  of  God  upon  their  lips,  little  practice 
of  His  precepts  in  their  lives  ?  There  are  many,  are  there  not,  who 
justify  the  saying  that  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  advance  of 
Christianity  to-day  is  nothing  that  the  outsider  may  say  :  it  is 
simply  this,  the  poor  quality  of  what  may  be  called  the  average 
Christian  life. 

If  that  be  so,  how  sad  a  responsibility,  yea,  and  how  stern  a  duty  is 
laid  upon  every  one  of  us.  How  does  the  matter  stand  so  far  as 
God's  will  declared  by  Himself  goes  ?  He  puts  the  matter  with  most 
extraordinary  simplicity.  None  can  escape  His  meaning,  surely. 
He  will  have — if  we  will  let  Him — He  will  have  all  or  He  will 
have  nothing.  Why  is  it  not  more  often  all  ?  Surely  there  are 
lying  round  about  us,  at  our  own  doors,  sometimes  fast  locked  in 
the  hearts  of  our  own  neighbours  to  whom  we  speak  too  much  of 
other  things,  too  little  of  things  that  concern  eternity.  Surely 
there  lie  round  about  us  the  saddest,  the  most  perplexing  problems 
of  sorrow,  life  problems  that  shall  never  be  fully  solved  until  the 
heart  of  our  nation  is  more  truly  and  distinctively  Christian,  that 
is  following  the  precepts  of  Christ.  And  if  such  problems  lie  at 
our  own  doors  more  surely  they  also  lie  a  little  way  from 
them  ;  surely  there  will  be  kingdoms  where  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
would  be  received  with  as  much  jo}-  as  ever  the  Queen  of  Sheba 
heard  the  story  of  God  from  the  lips  of  Solomon. 

Then  if  God  asks  all  we  command  should  we  not  give  it  Him  ? 


Pilate's  Question.  245 


Why  should  not  the  man  who  has  been  too  much  taken  up  with 
the  things  of  this  world,  drawn  on  by  the  hope  of  wealth,  or 
enamoured  by  the  grosser  pleasures  of  this  life,  why  should  not 
such  an  one  come,  and  in  humble  confidence  upon  the  mercy  of 
God  in  Christ  declare  that  he  too  would  offer  his  all  to  Him  ? 
May  he  not  come  with  hope  ?  Yea,  with  firm  assurance,  may  come 
and  find  in  the  great  heart  of  God  the  warmest  of  welcomes,  may 
come  and  find  with  Christ  the  deepest  peace,  may  come  and  find 
a  power  so  to  live  in  this  perplexing  life  that  men  should  see  His 
S^ood  works,  and  glorify  his  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

P  I  L  ATE'S      QUESTION. 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nevius. 

A  Sermon  preached  at  the  Yokohama  Union  Church. 

"What  shall  I  do  then  with  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ?" — St.  Matt,  xxvii.  22. 

In  these  words  of  the  Roman  Procurator,  we  have :  (ist)  a  conceded 
fact — Jesus;  (2nd)  a  contested  claim — Jesus  who  is  called  Christ;  (3rd) 
a  question  which  cannot  be  evaded,  pressing  for  immediate  decision — 
What  shall  I  do  with  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ  ? 

It  is  often  said  that  religion,  treating  as  it  does  of  things  unseen  and 
spiritual,  cannot  be  a  system  of  positive  truth  and  knowledge.  It  is 
insisted  that  truth  can  only  be  ascertained  by  a  careful  study  of  phenomena 
cognisable  by  the  senses,  and  capable  of  being  proved  beyond  the  possi- 
bility of  doubt.  Christianity,  which  treats  of  the  soul,  a  future  state,  and 
the  relations  between  man  and  God,  is  relegated  to  the  region  of  the  un- 
known and  the  unknowable.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  basis 
of  Christianity  is  Jesus  ;  and  Jesus  is  a  fact  of  history.  It  is  true  Chris- 
tianity treats  of  another  world,  but  it  has  its  evidences  in  this.  Like  the 
symbolical  ladder  in  Jacob's  vision,  while  its  top  reaches  to  heaven,  it 
starts  from  and  rests  upon  the  earth.  It  is  very  important,  both  for  the 
purpose  of  strengthening  our  faith  and  also  of  answering  qbjectors,  to 
insist  on  the  historical  evidences  of  Christianity.  I  believe  that  it  was  to 
emphasise  these  evidences,  rather  than  to  put  a  stigma  upon  Pilate's  cha- 
racter, that  we  have  in  the  Apostle's  Creed  "  suffered  under  Pontius 
Pilate." 

Before  proceeding  further,  it  may  be  remarked  here,  that  not  only  the 
fact  of  our  Saviour's  existence,  but  the  main  statements  forming  the  history 
of  His  life  as  recorded  by  the  four  evangelists,  are  almost  universally 
acknowledged  as  fully  authenticated. 

And  now  the  question  recurs,  who  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ?  Whence 
came  He  ?  What  was  His  character  ?  What  His  mission  ?  Different 
theories  have  been  propounded  to  explain  the  facts  of  Jesus'  life ;  and  His 
character,  life,  and  death  have  been  viewed  in  different  lights.  Rational- 
ists have  attempted  to  explain  the  facts,  without  admitting  anything  super- 
natural.    We  have  not  time  to  speak  of  those  theories  at  present. 

There  is  one  theory  which  harmonises  and  explains  all  the  facts  of  our 
Saviour's  life.  It  is  the  Scriptural  theory  that  He  is  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh  ;  the  theory  which  has  been  held  out  by  the  Church  in  all  ages,  and 


246  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

I  believe  the  only  consistent  one.  It  is  also  the  theory  of  our  text,  and  is 
fully  expressed  by  it.  Jesus  is  Christ.  This  was  the  contested  claim  which 
created  the  clearly  defined  issue  between  our  Saviour  and  the  Jews. 
Jesus  said  "  I  am  the  Christ."  This  claim,  asserted  by  Jesus  before  His 
death,  was  repeated  by  the  Apostles  after  His  resurrection,  in  every 
synagogue  in  Judea,  and  throughout  the  Roman  provinces.  Everywhere 
the  unvarying  theme  when  preaching  to  the  Jews,  was  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ." 

Let  us  consider  the  full  import  of  this  claim.  Christ,  or  rather  Christos, 
is  the  Greek  word  used  to  translate  the  Hebrew  Messiah,  both  meaning 
anointed.  Anointing  was,  among  the  Jews,  the  symbol  of  confirming 
authority.  The  title  was  applied  to  our  Saviour  as  the  anointed  of  God  to 
be  the  King,  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  Christ  then  is  King,  and  King  in 
the  highest  sense — King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  It  was  said  in  pro- 
phecy, I  have  set  my  king  upon  my  holy  hill  of  Zion  and  His  glorious 
kingship  and  universal  and  enduring  kingdom  are  the  great  theme  of 
inspiration.  Our  text  as  recorded  in  the  Gospel  according  to  Matk, 
"  What  will  ye  then  that  I  shall  do  unto  Him  whom  ye  call  the  King  of 
the  Jews,"  presents  only  a  verbal  variation.  This  word  Christ  brings  out 
the  marked  distinction  between  the  Christian  religion  and  all  others.  Christ 
was  God-appointed  and  God-sent.  He  was  not  simply  an  agent  made 
use  of  by  God,  as  other  men  have  been  for  communicating  truth  and  con- 
ferring blessings.  He  declared  that  He  came  out  from  God ;  that  He  was 
a  divinely  commissioned  messenger  from  the  Court  of  Heaven,  testifying 
of  the  things  which  He  had  seen  and  speaking  with  divine  authority.  But 
what  is  the  evidence  of  this  ?  Such  assumptions  require  the  clearest 
proofs  and  credentials. 

The  answer  is,  the  acknowledged  facts  of  Christ's  life  are  the  all-suffi- 
cient evidences  of  his  claims.  His  character  as  a  man  ;  His  teachings  as 
compared  to  any  and  all  of  the  great  and  wise  of  the  earth ;  and  His 
wonderful  works,  one  and  all  claim  that  they  are  what  unaided  man  never 
has  and  never  can  attain  to.  The  conclusion  to  which  Nicodemus  came 
is  a  logically  necessary  one.  We  know  that  Thou  art  a  teacher  come  from 
God,  for  "no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that  Thou  doest,  except  God  be 
with  him."  (See  Matthew  xi.  4 — 6.)  The  works  which  He  did  in  God's 
name  were  Qod's  testimony  to  the  truths  which  He  taught.  Those  who 
deny  that  Jesus  was  what  He  claimed  to  be,  or,  in  other  words,  who  reject 
the  Scriptural  theory  of  Christ's  life,  are  bound  to  present  to  the  world 
another  consistent  theory  to  account  for  what  He  was,  what  He  did,  and 
what  His  religion  has  done  and  is  still  doing.  Such  a  theory  has  rarely 
been  attempted,  and  who  will  have  the  hardihood  to  say  that  such  a  con- 
sistent theory  now  exists  ? 

And  now  we  come  to  the  3rd  point,  the  question  which  pressed  upon 
Pilate  for  a  decision — "  What  shall  I  do  with  Jesus  ?  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
stands  arraigned  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Roman  Procurator.  That  the 
concise  and  clearly  defined  charge  against  Him  was  the  claim  presented 
in  our  text  is  further  shown  by  the  inscription  of  the  accusation  written  on 
the  cross,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  King  of  the  Jews."  The  question  as 
between  Jesus  and  His  accusers  is  one  of  fact  and  evidence.  Is  He  or  is 
He  not  the  Christ  ? 

If  He  is  the  Christ — and  the  evidences  of  His  claims  are  sufficient — 
His  accusers  are  guilty  of  the  most  stupendous  crime  that  the  world  has 


Pilate's  Question.  247 


ever  known.  If  He  is  not  the  Christ  (I  say  it  with  all  deliberation  and 
reverence),  the  Jews  were  right  in  saying,  "  He  is  worthy  to  die."  Let  us 
dwell  upon  this  point  for  a  moment.  Consider  the  impious  presumption 
of  a  mere  man  claiming  to  be  a  messenger  from  heaven,  and  presenting  to 
the  world  his  own  dicta  as  the  commands  of  God.  No  greater  insult  to 
the  majesty  of  heaven  is  possible;  and  no  greater  misfortune  could  happen 
to  the  world  than  to  be  deluded  by  one  falsely  assuming  such  a  character. 

Let  us  pause  here  to  consider  what  a  deep  personal  interest  we 
have  in  the  question  now  presented  to  Pilate — Christ  is  anointed  of  God  to 
be  the  Saviour  not  of  the  Jews,  but  of  the  world.  His  claims  are  pre- 
sented not  to  nations  or  communities  collectively,  but  to  every  member  of 
our  race  individually.  This  question  comes  home  directly  to  us  all,  and 
we  must,  each  one  of  us,  decide  it.  Perhaps  the  intense  individuality  which 
marks  the  sacred  narrative  is  intended  to  be  significant.  All  Christ's 
disciples  had  forsaken  Him  and  fled  ;  and  so  far  as  it  appears,  Pilate  had 
no  associates  or  advisers.  He  stands — and  so  must  we,  face  to  face,  with 
Jesus  alone.  What  will  we  do  with  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ?  This 
purported  to  be  the  trial  of  Jesus  before  Pilate — in  a  deeper  and  more 
awful  sense  it  was  Pilate's  trial  before  Jesus. 

Let  us  consider  how  he  met  the  question,  and  if  in  doing  so  we  recognise 
in  his  perplexity  and  anxiety  and  duplicity  our  own  inward  experiences,  let 
us  take  the  lessons  and  warnings  of  his  trial  to  heart. 

Pilate's  decision  of  the  case  seems  toiijjave  been  unhesitating  and  un- 
changing. We  do  not  read  of  his  call  the  r'fjtnesses  or  comparing  and 
weighing  testimony.  From  what  he  had  f^rnals  ;/  heard  before,  from  what 
he  saw  in  the  bearing  and  spirit  of  the  accubcd  and  His  accusers ;  and 
from  the  few  answers  that  Jesus  gave  to  his  questions,  he  came  at  once  to 
the  conclusion  from  which  he  never  receded,  "  I  find  no  fault  in  this  man." 

Christ  is  the  light  of  the  world  ;  and  when  He  and  His  truth  are  pre- 
sented, they  carry  with  them  their  own  evidence.  It  needs  no  lengthened 
process  of  reasoning  to  prove  that  light  is  light.  He  who  created  alike  the 
sun  and  the  human  eye,  is  the  author  of  the  mutual  adaptations,  between 
the  human  eye  and  the  sun-light.  So  between  the  human  soul  and  Christ 
and  His  truth  there  are  such  mutual  relations  and  adaptations,  that  the 
soul,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  according  as  its  moral  state  is  normal  and 
healthy,  perceives  at  once  that  Jesus  is  the  way,  the  truth  and  the  life. 
Pilate  wavered  as  to  what  he  should  do  with  Christ ;  but  never  as  to  what 
he  should  think  of  Christ. 

With  a  clear  judgment  of  the  case  before  him,  and  absolute  power  to  do 
as  he  chose,  whence  the  perplexity  and  struggle  which  ensued  ?  It  was 
the  struggle  between  duty  and  interest ;  between  conscience  and  a  sinful 
nature.  There  is  a  necessary  antagonism  between  Christ  and  our  evil 
nature,  and  whenever  Christ  is  presented,  the  conflict  begins.  Our  Saviour 
Himself  declared  "  I  came  not  to  send  peace  on  the  earth,  but  a  sword." 
The  effect  of  Christianity  is  not  only  to  set  one  man  at  war  with  another, 
but  each  man  at  war  with  himself.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon." 
The  essence  of  Christianity,  as  manifested  in  the  outward  life,  is  self 
sacrifice  ;  the  essence  of  worldliness  is  selfishness.  The  immediate  ques- 
tion before  Pilate  was,  whether  he  should  side  with  Christ,  or  his  accusers  ; 
but  this  question  involved  another — whether  he  should  sacrifice  Christ,  or 
himself.     The  calm  composure  of  Jesus,  with  meekness  and  dignity,  truth 


248  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

and  divinity  stamped  on  his  every  feature  and  every  act,  tended  powerfully 
to  call  out  in  Pilate  whatever  was  noble  in  him  as  a  man  and  just  as  a 
Roman  officer.  But  on  the  other  hand,  that  significant  but  covert  threat 
— "  If  thou  release  this  man  thou  art  not  Caesar's  friend,"  confronted  him. 
To  release  Jesus  was  to  brave  the  fury  of  a  mob,  with  the  immediate  pros- 
pect, even  if  his  life  should  not  be  sacrificed,  of  being  himself  accused 
before  the  bar  of  Cffisar,  by  these  same  Jews,  of  complicity  with  rebelHon 
and  sedition.  Could  he  who  already  ruled  supreme  over  a  Roman  pro- 
vince, afford  to  sacrifice  his  hopes  of  future  promotion.  What  would  his 
associates  and  compeers  say  of  his  espousing  the  cause  of  a  Jewish  fanatic  ? 
What  serious  complications,  and  responsibilities,  might  his  connection  with 
this  sect,  everywhere  spoken  against,  entail  upon  him  ?  Taking  a  stand 
for  Christ  meant  then,  as  it  must  always  mean,  self  renunciation. 

Let  us  notice  more  particularly  the  course  that  Pilate  took.  He 
endeavoured  at  first  to  get  rid  of  his  dilemma  by  shifting  the  responsibility. 
He  tried  to  refer  the  whole  matter  to  the  Jews.  "  Take  ye  him  and  judge 
him  according  to  your  law."  No — they  would  have  him  crucified  by 
Roman  law.  Pilate  hears  that  Jesus  is  from  Galilee,  and  hopes  to  get  rid 
of  the  case  by  referring  it  to  Herod.  But  he  only  saved  a  little  time,  for 
Jesus  was  sent  back  to  him.  Again  he  must  consider  "  what  shall  I  do? " 
The  responsibility  of  deciding  the  question  is  not  transferable  either  for 
Pilate  or  for  us. 

We  cannot  shift  it  upon  the  T"  urch  ;  or  parents  from  whom  we  have 
received  a  religious  bias ;  r  •''  "jn  religious  teachers  and  guides.  The 
question  is  to  us  personally,  ^  .nay  be  put  off  for  a  time,  but  it  will  come 
back  to  us,  and  it  must  be  decided. 

The  next  effort  was  to  compromise  the  matter — I  will  chastise  him  and 
let  him  go.  He  would  try,  so  far  as  possible,  to  conciliate,  and  be  the 
friend  of  both  parties.  He  would  yield  to  the  Jews  so  far  as  to  punish 
Jesus  as  an  ordinary  criminal ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  show  his  kindness 
to  Jesus  by  saving  Him  from  death.  He  would  drag  this  tremendous  issue 
down  to  the  low  level  of  a  petty  offence,  and  dismiss  it  by  flogging.  How 
many  since  the  time  of  Pilate  have  endeavoured  to  be  friends  of  the  world 
and  of  Christ  at  the  same  time ;  who,  like  Him,  affirm  and  re-affirm  His 
innocence,  but  treat  Him  as  guilty ;  who  professedly  take  sides  with  Him, 
but  really  with  His  murderers,  forgetting  that  to  give  Christ  anything  less 
than  He  claims  is  to  reject  and  dishonour  Him. 

Pilate  had  left  the  strong  vantage  ground  of  truth,  right,  and  justice,  and, 
in  his  weak  vacillation,  had  already,  though  unconsciously,  given  himself 
up  to  the  Jews. 

Only  one  desperate  effort  to  clear  himself  of  guilt  remained.  "  He 
washed  his  hands  in  the  presence  of  the  multitude,  and  said,  I  am  inno- 
cent of  the  blood  of  this  Just  Person.  Here  we  have  the  plea  of  necessity, 
which  is  made  use  of  so  often  even  now.  "  I  could  not  help  it " — "  I 
have  done  all  I  could."  "  My  action  was  necessitated  by  circumstances 
beyond  my  control."  My  position,  my  business,  my  deep-rooted  habits, 
my  natural  disposition  or  temper,  my  public  duties  render  it  impossible  for 
me  to  be  a  consistent  Christian  or  to  do  what  I  would  like  to  do,  and  what 
I  feel  I  ought  to  do."  This  language,  while  it  professedly  honours  and 
exalts  Christianity,  really  dishonours  and  degrades  it.  It  implies  a  delibe- 
rate preference  for  the  favour  of  man  rather  than  God,  for  the  fleeting 


Pilate's  Question.  249 


vanities  of  earth  rather  than  the  perfect  and  eternal  blessedness  of  heaven. 
The  guilt  of  deliberately  and  finally  rejecting  Christ  can  never  be  excused, 
never  washed  away. 

Josephus,  in  speaking  of  Pilate's  subsequent  history,  says  that  it  was 
marked  by  personal  and  political  disasters.  A  well-known  legend  says 
that  he  sought  to  hide  sorrows  in  the  mountain  by  the  lake — now  called 
Mount  Pilatus — and  that  after  spending  years  in  the  recesses  of  the 
mountains,  in  remorse  and  despair  rather  than  penitence,  he  closed  his  life 
by  plunging  into  the  dismal  lake  which  occupies  its  summit.  It  is  further 
said  that  a  form  is  often  seen  to  emerge  from  the  gloomy  waters  and  go 
through  the  action  of  washing  hands.  And  then  dark  clouds  encircle  the 
lake,  and  a  tempest  sweeps  over  the  mountain  top. 

We  must  not  suppose  that  Pilate  was  the  only  one  to  whom  this  question 
came,  and  who  had  to  bear  the  responsibility  of  deciding  it.  Every  man 
in  Judea  had  to  meet  it ;  decide  it ;  and  be  answerable  for  his  decision. 
The  manner  in  which  it  was  met  by  different  classes,  epitomised  and  fore- 
shadowed the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  met  by  different  classes  ever  since. 

The  Jews  who  clamoured  for  Christ's  death  were  the  children  of 
Abraham,  the  professed  worshippers  of  Jehovah,  but  in  fact  His  most  bitter 
enemies.  Christ  has  ever  received  His  severest  wounds  in  the  house  of 
His  friends.  History  teaches  us  that  it  is  very  easy  and  not  uncommon 
for  men  to  think  they  are  serving  God,  when  they  are  most  effectually 
serving  Satan,  and  the  greatest  crimes  have  been  committed  in  the  sacred 
name  of  religion.  The  Pharisees  were  the  ritualists  and  formalists  of  that 
day,  scrupulous  in  the  observance  of  externals  ;  teaching  for  doctrines  the 
commandments  of  men ;  drawing  nigh  to  God  with  their  lips  while  their 
hearts  were  far  from  Him.  They  were  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Christ  and 
the  principal  source  of  weakness  and  corruption  in  His  Church.  They 
have  had  their  successors  in  every  age,  and  they  are  to  be  found  in  every 
branch  of  the  Church  at  the  present  day. 

The  Sadducees  affected  the  current  philosophy  or  culture  of  the  day, 
which  was  Grecian.  They  proposed  to  walk  by  sight  rather  than  by  faith, 
however  imperfect  their  sight  might  be,  or  rather  to  follow  with  un- 
questioning faith  human  teachers  and  adopt  human  hypothese?,  rather  than 
trust  to  Divine  guidance.  The  would-be  scientific  Sadducees  were  never 
more  numerous  than  at  present.  These  two  sects  represent  the  most 
dangerous  tendencies  of  the  human  mind  toward  formalism  on  the  one 
hand  and  infidelity  on  the  other.  The  solemn  warning  of  our  Saviour  is 
applicable  in  every  age,  and  especially  in  ours.  Beivare  of  the  leaven  of 
the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees. 

The  Jewish  populace  presents  another  type  showing  us  how  ready  the 
masses  are  to  follow  their  leaders,  and  what  a  fearful  responsibility  those 
have  who  lead  them  on  to  sin. 

The  Roman  soldiers  who  stood  guard  before  the  cross,  who,  touched 
with  pity,  ran  for  vinegar  to  cool  the  Saviour's  thirst  and  in  view  of  all  the 
circumstances  of  His  death  declared,  "truly  this  is  the  Son  of  God," 
represent  a  large  class  who  simply  see  the  outside  surface  of  Christianity, 
and  appreciate  and  admire  much  in  it  which  is  noble  and  beautiful,  but 
know  little  or  nothing  of  its  hidden  truth  and  transforming  power.  Of 
Pilate  and  the  class  of  men  which  he  represents,  nothing  more  need  be 
added. 


250  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Nicodemus  and  Joseph  were  Jesus'  disciples,  secretly  for  fear  of  the 
Jews.  When  He  was  dead  they  asked  of  Pilate  the  body  of  Jesus.  They 
have  their  type  of  believers  now.  What  shall  we  say  of  Joseph  and  Nico- 
demus? It  is  not  for  us  to  judge.  We  will  hope,  however,  that  this  public 
act,  though  a  very  tardy  acknowledgment  of  discipleship,  was  accepted  as 
a  confessing  Him  before  men  by  Him  who  is  so  ready  to  pity  and  forgive 
the  weaknesses  of  His  followers,  Indeed,  in  some  respects,  their  courage 
and  devotion  are  more  to  be  commended  than  that  of  the  twelve  chosen 
Apostles. 

In  this  dark  hour  of  trial,  what  promise  did  these  disciples  give  of  the 
future  triumph  of  Christ's  Church  ?  Nearly  all  forsook  Him,  and  fled. 
Peter  followed  to  deny  Him.  Sad  type,  but  too  true,  of  what  the  Church 
as  a  whole  has  been  in  all  ages — weak  in  faith,  knowledge,  courage,  zeal, 
and  love — slow  to  believe  all  that  the  prophets  have  spoken.  How  hum- 
bling, and  at  the  same  time  how  encouraging,  for  our  Saviour  still  acknow- 
ledged them  as  His  disciples,  and  loved  them  still.  He  will  not  break  the 
bruised  reed,  or  quench  the  smoking  flax.  He  knoweth  our  frame,  He 
remembereth  that  we  are  dust. 

But  there  is  another  type.  In  the  darkness  which  shrouded  Calvarj'^  at 
noon-day,  and  the  darkness  which  shrouded  the  infant  Church  there  is 
still  a  bright  spot  to  look  upon  ;  a  bright  beacon  of  hope  for  the  future. 
Before  the  cross  there  stands  a  little  group  composed  of  the  disciples  whom 
Jesus  loved,  and  there  women  last  at  the  cross  and  first  at  the  sepulchre. 
Can- we  doubt  that  it  was  a  comfort  to  the  suffering  and  forsaken  One  to  see 
them  there;  and  what  an  honour  to  them  to  be  recognised  by  Him  at  sucha 
time,  and  to  hear  from  His  Hps  those  precious  words,  addressed  first  to  the 
disciple  whom  He  loved  : — "  Behold  thy  mother,"  and  then  addressed  to 
His  mother  : — "  Behold  thy  son."  Christ  has  ever  had  and  will  have  in 
every  age  His  chosen  ones,  and  His  banner  over  them  is  love. 

One  question  still  remains.  What,  dear  friends,  will  you  do  with  Jesus 
who  is  called  Christ?  Age  after  age  has  pnst,  and  left  on  record  the 
answers  to  this  question  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us.  This  is  our 
day  of  visitation ;  of  all  the  questions-  of  life  this  is  the  greatest — it  is  the 
question.  In  the  case  of  Pilate  his  decision  fixed  his  fate,  and  that  of  the 
Jewish  nation.  So  the  decision  of  each  one  of  us  will  be  individual  and 
public  (so  far  as  our  influence  goes)  for  no  one  man  liveth  to  himself  or 
dieth  to  himself.  Christ  stands  before  you  as  He  did  before  Pilate,  silent. 
He  has  nothing  more  to  say.  His  claims  and  their  evidences  are  before 
you,  and  before  the  world.  I  beseech  you  reject  Him  not.  Look  at  His 
pierced  hands  and  side,  and  say  to  Him,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God."  Cast 
everything  behind  you,  and  take  Him  to  be  your  all;  and  He  will  be  to 
you  wisdom,  and  righteousness,  and  sanctification,  and  redemption.  He 
will  guide  you  by  His  counsel,  and  afterwards  receive  you  to  glory. 


The  Will  of  God.  251 


THE  WILL  OF  GOD. 

By  Professor  Drummond.'""- 
In   answer   to   the   question,    How   to   find  out   God's   will?    Professor 
Drummond  read  the  following  from  the  fly-leaf  of  his  Testament  :— 

"  First,  pray.  Second,  think.  Third,  talk  to  wise  people,  but  don't 
regard  their  judgment  as  final.  Fourth,  beware  of  the  objection  of  your 
own  will,  but  don't  be  too  much  afraid  of  it.  God  never  unnecessarily 
thwarts  a  man's  nature  and  likings— it  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  His  will 
is  always  in  a  Ime  of  the  disagreeable.  Fifth,  meanwhile  do  the  next  thing, 
for  doing  God's  will  in  small  things  is  the  best  preparation  for  doing  it  in 
great  things.  Sixth,  when  decision  and  action  are  necessary,  go  ahead. 
Seventh,  you  will  probably  not  find  out  till  afterwards,  perhaps  long  after- 
wards, that  you  have  been  led  at  all." 

The  Professor  then  went  on  :  "I  am  reminded  by  the  address  to-night, 
and  by  this,  the  second  last  night  of  conference,  that  in  a  few  hours  we 
shall  all  be  oft"  the  mountain  top  and  down  again  into  the  valley,  and  I 
remember  that  mountain  tops  were  never  made  by  God  to  be  inhabited. 
They  are  places  to  go  up  to  and  have  a  look  around,  and  rest  a  little,  and 
take  a  good  view,  and  get  near  heaven,  and  then  come  down  again.  The 
use  of  a  mountain  in  nature  is  to  send  streams  down  into  the  valleys, 
\yhere  are  villages  and  towns,  and  cities,  and  that  is  the  use  of  a  conference 
like  this.  What  we  are  to  take  with  us  is  some  running  stream  of  this 
mountain,  that  it  may  refresh  and  satisfy  the  body  of  the  world  that  God 
has  given  us  to  influence.  But  for  the  most  part  we  shall  have  to  go  and 
live  common-place  lives.  Most  of  us  will  not  have  to  go  home  to  pulpits, 
but  to  household  duties  and  business,  and  professional  cares.  I  shall  have 
to  lay  down  my  Bible,  and  take  my  geological  hammer,  and  open  my  closet 
and  take  out  my  fossils  and  skeletons.  Is  it  a  down-come,  or  all  the 
same  to  God  ?  The  answer  is  contained  in  the  words  which  I  have  read 
to  you. 

"I  wish  that  we  could  all  get  into  our  minds  one  other  little  principle: 
What  is  the  end  of  life  ?  The  end  of  life  is  not  to  do  good,  although  many 
of  us  think  so.  It  is  not  to  win  souls,  although  I  once  thought  so.  The 
end  of  life  is  to  do  the  will  of  God.  That  may  be  in  the  line  of  doing 
good  or  winning  souls,  or  it  may  not.  For  the  individual,  the  answerto  tne 
question,  'What  is  the  end  of  my  life  ?  '  is,  To  do  the  will  of  God,  what- 
ever it  may  be.  Spurgeon  replied  to  an  invitation  to  speak  to  an  excep- 
tionally large  audience,  '  I  have  no  ambition  to  preach  to  ten  thousand 
people,  but  to  do  the  will  of  God,'  and  he  declined.  If  we  could  say,  '  I 
have  no  ambition  to  go  to  the  heathen,  I  have  no  ambition  to  win  souls  ; 
my  ambition  is  to  do  the  will  of  God,  whatever  that  may  be,'  that  makes 
all  lives  equally  great,  or  equally  small ;  because  the  only  great  thing  in 
Hfe  is  what  of  God's  will  there  is  in  it. 

"  The  maximum  achievement  of  any  man's  life,  after  all  is  over,  is  to 
have  done  the  will  of  God.  No  man  or  woman  can  have  done  any  more 
with  a  life;  no  Luther,  no  Spurgeon,  no  Wesley,  no  Melanchthon  can  have 
done  any  more  with  their  lives ;  and  a  dairy-maid  or  a  scavenger  can  do 
as  much.     Therefore  the  supreme  principle  upon  which  we  have   to  run 

•  From  an  address  delivered  at  Northfield  Conference,  1888. 


252  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

our  lives  is  to  adhere,  through  good  report  and  also  through  temptation  and 
prosperity  and  adversity,  to  the  will  of  God,  wherever  that  may  lead  to. 
It  may  take  you  away  to  China  ;  or  you,  who  are  going  to  Africa,  may 
have  to  stay  where  you  are  ;  you,  who  are  going  to  be  an  evangelist,  may 
have  to  go  into  business  ;  and  you,  who  are  going  into  business,  may  have 
to  become  an  evangelist.  But  there  is  no  happiness  or  success  in  any  life 
till  that  principle  is  taken  possession  of. 

"  How  can  you  build  up  a  life  on  that  principle  ?  Let  me  give  you  an 
outline  of  a  little  Bible  reading  : — 

"The  definition  of  an  ideal  life: — 'A  man  after  my  own  heart,  who 
will  fulfil  all  My  law.'  The  object  of  life  :— '  I  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O 
God.' 

"  The  first  thing  you  need  after  life  is  food  : — *  My  meat  is  to  do  the 
will  of  Him  that  sent  Me.' 

"  The  next  thing  you  need  after  food  is  society  : — '  He  that  doeth  the 
will  of  My  Father  in  heaven,  the  same  is  My  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother.' 

"You  want  education  : — '  Teach  me  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.' 

''  You  want  pleasure  : — '  I  delight  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.' 

"A  whole  life  can  be  built  up  on  that  one  vertical  column,  and  then, 
when  all  is  over  :  '  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for  ever.' " 


THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS. 

By  the  Rev.  Dr.  Robinson. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  was  written  to  meet  a  danger  and  a  want 
among  the  Jewish  converts  to  Christianity.  They  had  been  accustomed  to 
believe  that  (according  to  the  teachings  of  the  Old  Dispensation)  "Whom 
the  Lord  loveth,  \\t  prospereth  "  ;  they  were  perplexed  and  troubled  to  find 
that  they  were  now  outcasts,  exiles,  poor,  persecuted.  They  were  tempted 
to  give  up  their  confidence  in  the  new  faith,  and  to  return  to  the  old.  The 
Epistle  was  written  to  meet  this  liability,  and  to  re-assure  them  of  the 
superiority  of  the  New  Dispensation  over  the  Old ;  Christ,  the  Apostle  of 
the  New,  is  superior  to  angels,  to  Moses,  to  the  High  Priest ;  the  sacrifice 
offered  by  Christ  was  superior  to  the  sacrifices  offered  by  the  High  Priest ; 
the  sacrifice  offered  by  the  High  Priest  was  offered  without  the  assent  of 
the  victim ;  that  offered  by  Christ  was  a  willing  sacrifice  ;  the  one  cleansed 
the  body  from  outward  and  ceremonial  impurity ;  the  other  cleansed  the 
soul  from  inward  moral  defilement  and  from  consciousness  of  sin. 

We  said  that  the  purpose  of  the  book  may  often  shed  light  on  a  difficult 
passage.  For  example,  in  Heb.  iii.  5,  we  find:  "Moses  was  faithful  in 
all  his  [that  is,  God's]  house  as  a  servant ;  ....  but  Christ  as  a  son,  over 
His  house."  The  moment  we  consider  this  passage,  we  are  aware  of  a  lack 
of  congruity  and  force ;  the  rendering  does  not  meet  the  demands  of  the 
connection ;  the  contrast  or  comparison  between  Moses  and  Christ  is  not 
in  reference  to  the  moral  character,  to  the  trustworthiness  of  the  one  and 
the  other.  The  comparison  >.vas  of  the  exaltation  of  the  one  and  the  other ; 
"  Christ  is  counted  worthy  of  more  glory  than  Moses."  If  the  comparison 
had  been  on  the  point  of  character  and  trustworthiness,  then  the  com- 
parison would   tend  to  give  the  superiority  to  Moses,  since  one  who  is 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  253 


faithful  as  a  servant,  over  that  in  which  he  has  no  interest,  is  deserving  of 
more  honour  than  he  who  is  faithful  in  that  which  he  hopes  one  day  to 
possess,  of  which  he  is  the  heir  expectant.  What  the  purpose  of  the  entire 
book,  and  the  especial  connection  of  the  passage  demands,  is  a  comparison 
of  the  one  and  the  other  as  to  dignity.  We  examine  the  Septuagint,  and 
we  find  that  the  Hebraistic  Greek  justifies  us  in  translating  the  word 
^^ trusted";  Moses  was  trusted  as  a  servant;  Christ  was  trusted  with  the 
absolute  confidence  which  a  father  places  in  a  son,  to  whom  he  seems  to 
say,  "  Son,  thou  art  ever  with  me,  and  all  that  I  have  is  thine.  We  can 
have  no  divided  interest.  I  trust  you  absolutely  and  completely."  And 
now  all  is  clear,  consecutive,  logical.  For  this  view,  we  are  indebted  to 
Dr.  George  Campbell,  the  translator  of  the  four  Gospels. 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Sttnday,  August  24,  1890. 
By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

PREVAILING  PRAYER. 
St.  Luke  xviii,  i— 14. 

"  A  Judge,  Which  Feared  not  God." — From  the  dawn  of  history  the 
venality  of  judges  and  the  miscarriage  of  justice  has  been  one  of  the  chief 
abominations  which  have  called  down  the  indignant  remonstrances  of 
prophets  and  holy  men.  The  Book  of  Job,  the  Psalms,  the  prophetical 
writings,  the  Gospels  themselves,  are  full  of  denunciation  of  unrighteous 
judges.  Nor  is  the  corruption  less  notorious  throughout  the  whole  Eastern 
world  at  the  present  day.  Still  a  man  who,  like  Midhat  Pasha,  sternly 
refused  bribes  on  the  judgment  seat,  is  looked  upon  with  wonder  and 
admiration.  This  character  of  a  judge  is  contrary  to  our  impressions  of 
that  office,  as  we  see  it  in  happier  Western  lands,  where  public  opinion 
bears  strongly  on  all  functionaries,  and  Christianity  has  introduced  a  high 
standard  of  rectitude  ;  but  it  is  still  to  be  seen  in  all  its  frightful  corruption 
and  malignity  throughout  the  whole  of  Asia. 

**  Avenge  Me  of  Mine  Adversary." — I  well  remember  witnessing  a 
scene  which  vividly  re-enacted  before  my  eyes  the  parable  of  the  unjust 
judge.  It  was  at  the  ancient  city  of  Nisibis,  in  Mesopotamia.  Imme- 
diately on  entering  the  gate  of  the  city,  on  one  side  was  the  prison,  with 
its  barred  windows,  through  which  the  prisoners  thrust  their  arms,  and 
begged  for  alms.  Opposite  was  a  large,  open  hall, — the  court  of  justice 
of  the  place.  On  a  sHghtly  raised  dais,  at  the  farther  end,  sat  the  cadi,  or 
judge,  half  buried  in  cushions.  Round  him  squatted  various  secretaries 
and  other  functionaries.  The  populace  crowded  into  the  rest  of  the  hall, 
a  dozen  voices  clamouring  at  once,  each  that  his  cause  should  be  first 
heard.  The  more  prudent  litigants  joined  not  in  the  fray,  but  held  whis- 
pered communications  with  the  secretaries,  passing  bribes  into  the  hands 
of  one  or  another,  euphemistically  called  fees.  When  the  greed  of  the 
underlings  was  satisfied,  one  of  them  would  whisper  to  the  cadi,  who 
would  promptly  call  such  and  such  a  name.      It  seemed  to  be  ordinarily 

*  Abridged  from  the  American  Sutiday  School  Timei% 


254  ^^»^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

taken  for  granted  that  judgment  would  go  for  the  litigant  who  had  bribed 
highest. 

"Because this  Widow Troudleth  Me." — But  meantime  a  poor  woman 
on  the  skirts  of  the  crowd  perpetually  interrupted  the  proceedings  with 
loud  cries  for  justice.  She  was  sternly  ordered  to  be  silent,  and  reproach- 
fully told  that  she  came  there  every  day.  "  And  so  I  will,"  she  cried  out, 
"till  the  cadi  hears  me."  At  length,  at  the  end  of  a  suit,  the  judge  im- 
patiently demanded,  "What  does  that  woman  want?"  Her  story  was 
soon  told.  Her  only  son  had  been  taken  for  a  soldier,  and  she  was  left 
alone,  and  could  not  till  her  piece  of  ground ;  yet  the  tax-gatherer  had 
forced  her  to  pay  the  impost,  from  which,  as  a  lone  widow,  she  should  be 
exempt.  The  judge  asked  a  few  questions,  and  said,  "  Let  her  be 
exempt."  Thus  her  perseverance  was  rewarded.  Had  she  had  money  to 
fee  the  cadi,  she  might  have  been  excused  long  before. 

"  Two  Men  Went  Up  ...  to  Pray." — The  temple  stood  open,  not 
only  at  the  hours  of  morning  and  evening  sacrifice  (nine  o'clock  and  three 
o'clock),  but  throughout  the  day  for  private  worship.  The  same  custom 
continues  in  the  mosques ;  and,  though  every  true  Mohammedan  always 
recites  his  prayers  at  the  regular  hours,  wherever  he  be,  carefully  turning 
his  face  towards  Mecca,  for  which  purpose  the  stricter  followers  of  the 
prophet  carry  a  pocket-compass,  that  they  may  be  sure  of  the  right  direc- 
tion ;  yet,  if  within  reach  of  a  mosque,  the  prayer  there  uttered,  with  the  face 
towards  the  kiblah,  or  recess,  which  is  always  towards  the  east,  is  considered 
of  more  value  than  if  uttered  on  common  ground.  As  of  old,  the  wor- 
shipper commences  by  reciting  verses  of  the  Koran,  standing  with  the  face 
to  the  east,  and  then  kneels  upright,  resting  on  his  heels ;  and  at  each 
occurrence  of  the  name  of  God  bending  forward,  and  touching  the  ground 
with  his  forehead.  The  rule  of  the  rabbis,  according  to  the  Talmud,  was, 
"  Let  him  that  prayeth  cover  his  head  and  look  downward."  "  The 
disciple  of  the  wise  men,  when  he  standeth  praying,  let  him  look  down- 
ward." The  publican,  thus  looking  downward,  stood  afar  off,  not  in  the 
inner  Court  of  Israel,  much  less  in  the  Court  of  the  Priests,  whither,  pro- 
bably, the  Pharisee  directed  his  steps,  not  even  in  the  Court  of  the  Women, 
but  remained  outside,  in  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  where  even  pagans  were 
permitted. 

PERFECT    SOUNDNESS. 

.   Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  P.  Perkins,  Norwich. 

"  And  His  name  through  faith  in  His  name  hath  made  this  man  strong,  whom  ye  see 
and  know  :  yea,  the  faith  which  is  by  Him  hath  given  him  this  perfect  soundness  in  the 
presence  of  you  all." — Acts  iii.  i6. 

Christ's  withdrawal  the  signal  for  Spirit's  descent.  Apostles  filled  with 
new  power  in  Christ's  name.  Impotent  man  totally  healed.  Perfect 
soundness,  usually  an  ideal  only.  Many  points  in  which  it  is  to  be  desired 
and  sought. 

I.  Soundness  of  Body. — Many  born  unsound.  Strange  that  the  body 
exposed  to  many  dangers  should  keep  in  tune  so  long.  Few  have  perfect 
health.  Ways  of  rendering  body  unsound  :  {a)  laziness,  {l>)  overwork, 
(c)  excessive  indulgences. 

II.  Soundness  of  Mind. — Dethrone  reason,  and  man  a  kingdom  in  ruins! 
Genius  borders   on   insanity.     Pathos  of  great  lives,  e.g.,  Byron,  Chas. 


A  Strange  Sight.  255 


Lamb's  sister,  Julian  the  musician,  and  Robert  Hall.  Commonplace 
mind,  if  sane,  preferable  to  genius  deranged.  Christ's  pity  for  deranged 
and  demon-possessed  souls.  Faith  in  His  name  gives  peace,  and  that  aids 
mental  soundness. 

HI.  Soundness  of  Heart. — Talleyrand  said  a  bad  heart  and  easy 
life  made  happiness.  Christianity  says  a  sound  heart  and  true  life.  Sound 
heart  essential  to  a  tree,  so  to  a  man.  As  a  man  thinketh,  &c. 
Sound  heart  may  exist  with  erroneous  belief.  Leads  to  search  for 
truth.     Seek  by  faith    "a  clean  heart  "  (Psalm  1.  7,  10). 

IV.  Soundness  of  Conduct. — A  link  here  of  important  characteristics. 
Character  (what  a  man  is).  Let  that  be  sound,  then  conduct  (what- he 
does)  will  be  right ;  then  in  long  run,  reputation  (what  men  say  and  think  of 
him)  will  be  sound  too. 

Apply. — Christ  comes  to  us  as  to  bedridden  impotent  (John  v.).  Wilt 
thou  be  made  whole  ?     He  will  also  say  :  "  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee." 

A  STRANGE  SIGHT. 

Outline  Sermo7i. 

By  the  Rev.  R.  Brewin,  Loughborough. 

"  I  have  seen  servants  upon  horses,  and  princes  walking  as  servants  upon  the  earth." — 

ECCLESIASTES  X.  8. 

The  books  from  which  God  teaches  man  are  many.  Nature,  reason, 
history,  experience,  revelation — all  speak  to  him  great  and  valuable  lessons. 
Observation  will  greatly  enrich  our  minds  with  facts  and  wisdom.  See  Job 
iv.  8,  V.  3  ;  Psalm  xxxvii.  35,  36,  cxix.  96.  The  Preacher  frequently 
uses  the  phrase,  "  I  have  seen,"  i.  14,  iii.  10,  v.  13,  vi.  i,  text.  The 
language  is  mainly  figurative.  Much  more  is  meant  than  the  words  literally 
state.  They  are  to  be  thought  over,  that  they  may  yield  spiritual  teaching. 
The  text  implies  or  suggests  : — 

I .  That  the  moral  world  presents  some  strange  illustrations  of  the  unfit- 
ness of  persons  and  things  for  the  places  a?id  circuf?istances  occupied  by  them. — 
Servants  upon  horses  and  princes  walking,  &c.  As  (i)  when  a  nation 
sets  wicked  or  ignorant  men  in  its  highest  places,  and  treats  its  best  citizens 
with  neglect  or  contempt.  Charles  II.  on  the  throne,  and  John  Bunyan  in 
Bedford  Gaol.  See  Jotham's  fable,  Herod  and  John  the  Baptist,  Nero 
and  Paul,  &c.  (2)  When  debasing  passions  and  appetites  are  allowed  to 
rule  the  man,  and  intellect,  reason,  and  noble  affections  are  trampled  under 
foot.  Felix,  Herod,  Prodigal  Son.  See  Benzon's  "  How  I  lost 
;^25o,ooo  in  two  years."  (3)  When  recreations  and  amusements  which, 
at  best,  are  but  servants  of  the  soul  are  placed  upon  the  throne  of  the 
heart  and  the  great  and  earnest  work  of  life  is  left  neglected  and  undone. 
Some  students  at  Universities.  Church  members.  Time  for  lawn  tennis, 
but  no  time  to  attend  the  prayer-meeting,  «S:c.  Novels  often  become  the 
only  mental  pabulum.  Good  solid  reading  is  neglected.  (4)  When  the 
world  is  seated  on  the  throne  of  the  affections,  and  Christ  the  "  King  of 
kings  "  is  allowed  to  be  but  a  beggar  at  our  feet  pleading  in  vain  for  our 
attention  and  love. 

II.  That  this  state  of  things  is  surprising,  wrong,  and  ruinoiis. — (i)  Sur- 
prising :  reason,  common  sense,  and  Divine  revelation  teach  this  ought  not 
to  be  so.  (2)  Wrong.  Insults  virtue,  humanity,  and  God.  (3)  Ruinous, 
(i)  Here.     (2)  Hereafter 


256  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE    FOR    CHILDREN    ON    THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

August  24  :  Luke  xviii.  i — 14.  Golden  Text :  Verse  14. 
Two  Went  up  into  the  Temple  to  Pray. 
Many  children  cannot  remember  the  time  when  they  first  began  to  pray. 
When  quite  babies  they  have  been  taught  to  clasp  little  hands  and  bend 
little  knees  and  repeat  words  of  prayer,  simple  words,  such  as  "  Gentle 
Jesus,  meek  and  mild."  But  the  time  comes  when  they  are  bigger  and 
they  are  trusted  to  pray  alone.  When  this  time  comes,  a  boy  or  a  girl 
is  often  exposed  to  great  danger.  You  may  be  tempted  to  neglect  prayer 
when  there  is  no  mother's  eye  watching  you,  or,  at  least,  to  slur  it  rapidly 
and  carelessly  over.  And  when  you  leave  home  will  you  have  courage  to 
kneel  down  in  the  presence  of  strangers  and  pray,  or  will  you  be  ashamed 
of  your  prayers  and  deny  your  Saviour  ?  This  is  often  a  crisis  at  which 
many  a  life  makes  shipwreck.  But  many  a  one,  too,  wins  a  signal  victory, 
and  just  at  this  point  the  battle  of  life  is  won.  Ask  God  to  give  you 
grace  never  to  neglect  your  prayers,  and  never  to  be  ashamed  of  them. 
A  boy  or  girl  who  never  prays  is  certainly  on  the  road  to  eternal  ruin. 
How  will  he  or  she  do  when  the  day  of  trouble  comes,  and  when  the  day 
of  death  comes  ?  In  to-day's  lesson  Jesus  puts  a  genuine  prayer  and  a 
counterfeit  one  side  by  side. 

I.  The  counterfeit  prayer.  This  prayer  was  prayed  by  a  Pharisee  who 
trusted  in  himself  that  he  was  righteous,  and  who  despised  others.  His 
prayer  was  wordy  and  full  of  the  large  "  I."  "  /  am  not  as  other  men 
are.  /  fast  twice  in  the  week  ;  /  give  tithes  of  all  I  possess."  This 
Pharisee  was  full  of  spiritual  pride,  and  his  prayer  had  no  need  in  it ;  it 
was  a  prayerless  prayer. 

"  Two  went  to  pray  ?     Oh  !  rather  say 

One  went  to  brag,  the  other  to  pray. 

One  stands  up  close,  and  treads  on  high, 

Where  the  other  dares  not  lend  his  eye ; 

One  nearer  to  God's  altar  trod, 

The  other  to  the  altar's  God." 
There  are  three  things  to  condemn  in  this  prayer  of  the  Pharisee, 
(i)  He  despised  others.  We  have  no  right  to  sneer  at  our  neighbours, 
and  say  we  are  better  than  them.  We  do  not  know  their  circumstances 
and  temptations.  God  may  be  more  angry  with  you  for  an  unkind  word 
than  He  is  with  another  for  stealing  a  pair  of  boots.  (2)  He  paraded  his 
virtues.  Under  pretence  of  praising  God  he  praised  himself.  (3)  He  was 
self-righteous.  He  thought  he  was  absolutely  perfect.  The  best  of  men 
come  far  short  of  that.  The  worst  sort  of  pride  is  grace  pride,  and  it  is 
the  most  subtle  and  difficult  to  root  out. 

II.  The  genuine  prayer.  This  was  the  prayer  of  a  publican  or  a  tax- 
gatherer,  whose  occupation  was  one  beset  with  evil.  But  a  publican  might 
become  a  good  man,  though  no  good  man  would  become  a  publican.  He 
was  unrighteous,  but  he  was  not  self-righteous.  The  first  cry  of  true 
prayer  is  the  cry  for  mercy,  pardon.  The  publican  prayed — "  God  be 
merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  This  was  a  heart  prayer,  and  it  was  heard.  He 
confessed  his  sin  and  he  pleaded  for  mercy,  and  this  man  went  down  to 
his  house  justified,  with  a  sweet  sense  of  pardon  in  his  heart. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  121,  Vol.  III.]  AUGUST  29,  1890.  One  Penny. 


LIFE  MORE  ABUNDANTLY. 

A  Sermo?i  by 
The  Rev,  Principal  Dykes,  D.D., 

Preached  ift  Regent-square  Presbyterian  Church,  Lofidoti,  on  Sunday 
morning,  June  15. 

"  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  hfe,  and  that  they  might  have  it  more 
abundantly." — St.  John  x.  10. 

The  question  this  morning  with  us,  brethren,  is  that  of  degrees  of 
vitality.  There  are  many  organisms  on  the  globe  which  manifest, 
as  you  know,  a  very  low  degree  of  vitality.  The  more  simple  or 
undeveloped  the  organism,  we  are  told,  the  more  feeble  does  the 
life  of  the  poor  creature  appear  to  be.  And  this  feeble  vitality 
discovers  itself  by  defective  sensation,  by  limited  range  of  motion, 
by  less  sensibility  to  pain  and  pleasure,  by  the  comparative  absence 
of  intelligence.  A  sponge,  a  jelly-fish,  a  sea-anemone — these  are 
creatures  that  possess  life,  and  yet  they  are  far  from  possessing  it, 
as  our  Lord  here  says,  in  abundance. 

Now  these  striking  words  of  Jesus,  dropped  here  by  the  way  and 
left  unexplained  by  Him,  imply  a  similar  variety  in  the  higher 
region  of  human  life,  especially  of  spiritual  life.  As  to  the  natural 
powers  of  man,  we  may  quite  satisfy  ourselves  that  people  do  vary 
greatly  in  the  amount  of  health  they  enjoy.  Delicacy  of  consti- 
tution is  often  nothing  else  but  the  result  of  low  physical  vitality. 
The  life-fire  burns  feebly  and  is  readily  extinguished.  And  so  the 
mental  and  emotional  activity  of  man  differs  in  an  equal  degree. 
We  speak,  you  know,  of  the  slow  understanding,  the  cold  heart, 
the  feeble  will,  and  when  we  speak  so  we  mean  that  life  is  low, 
scanty,  far  from  abundant ;  while  now  and  again  we  meet  with 
a  man,  on  the  other  hand,  who  seems  to  be  all  on  fire,  a  man  ot 
quick  perception  and  keen  feelings,  whose  sympathies  run  swiftly 
in  many  directions,  who  re-acts  vigorously  against  his  surroundings, 
who  is  prompt  in  decision  and  energetic  in  action,  infusing  into 
other  people   a   little   of  his    own    ardent   temperament.      And 


258  The  British  Weekly  Pulbit. 

we  recognise  in  him  one  possessed  of  a  strong  vitality,  not  only 
having  life  but  having  it  in  abundance. 

Well  now,  it  is  just  the  same  with  that  new  force  of  spiritual 
life  which  the  spirit  of  God  communicates  to  the  regenerate 
Christian  man.  Among  believers  in  the  Church  there  are  examples 
too  often  of  every  degree  of  spiritual  vitality.  Partly,  I  suppose, 
this  depends  on  natural  capacity,  but  still  more  it  depends  on  the 
degree  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  is  suffered  to  operate  and 
rule  within  the  religious  life  of  the  man.  This  accounts  for  it  that 
there  are  lukewarm  believers  and  believers  aflame  with  fervour ; 
molluscous  Christians,  torpid  and  feeble,  and  Christians,  again,  full 
of  faith  and  power.  And  if  the  feeble  type  of  Christianity  be  too 
much  the  rule  in  the  Church,  yet  we  are  now  and  then,  let  us 
confess,  taught  by  illustrious  exceptions  of  what  consecration  and 
what  saintliness  a  man  is  capable  when  he  not  only  has  the 
Christian  life  within  him,  but  has  that  life  abundantly. 

Assuming,  then,  that  such  inequalities  of  power  do  run,  as  I 
think  you  will  confess  they  do,  through  every  department  of  life, 
from  the  very  lowest  to  the  very  highest  things,  to  us  at  least  on 
earth,  what  I  gather  from  the  words  of  Jesus  is  this,  that  God  is 
not  satisfied  with  any  lower  type  of  vitality  where  a  higher  can  be 
attained  ;  and  that  it  has  been  one  design  of  His  Gospel  to 
intensify  human  life  through  every  region  of  it ;  not  to  enfeeble 
man's  life  powers  or  check  them  in  their  outflow  in  any  direction, 
but  on  every  side  greatly  to  exalt  them.  The  Son  of  God  visited 
us — He  tells  us  so  Himself — in  our  poor,  far-off,  half-dead  world 
to  make  ours  the  more  abundant  life. 

Now,  first  of  all,  I  think  this  is  quite  true  even  in  the  ordinary 
experience  of  men.  The  effect  of  Christianity  has  been  not  to 
deaden  men  to  the  interests  of  this  life,  with  its  common  joys  and 
sorrows,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  render  our  earthly  life  larger  and 
more  intense.  Now  I  know  that  that  is  not  a  prevalent  opinion. 
Both  the  injudicious  friends  of  Christianity  and  its  shrewd 
opponents  have  often  represented  it  as  making  its  disciples  dead 
to  this  world  in  a  very  different  sense  from  that  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Perhaps  the  old  error  of  the  Ascetics  is  in  part  responsible 
for  this  current  view.  Now  it  is  true  enough  that  the  Gospel  does 
deliver  a  man  from  exorbitant  and  unreasonable  concern  about 
his  own  petty  and  personal  affairs.  It  rids  us,  or  it  ought  to  do 
so,  of  excessive  longing  after  temporal  good  for  its  own  sake,  and 
it  makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  indulge  in  extravagant  regret  when 
we  lose  temporal  advantages.  It  teaches  us  to  care  a  good  deal 
less  about  this  world  and  what  it  has  to  offer  for  its  own  sake,  and 
to  use  this  world  rather  as  a  scene  of  trial  and  discipline,  the 
fashion  or  outward  form  of  which  is  passing  speedily  away. 

But  then,  when  you  have  said  that,  that  is  very  far  from  mean- 
ing that  ordinary  pleasure  and  pain,  gain  and  loss,  birth  and 
death,  toil  and  rest,  and  whatever  goes  to  make  up  this  daily  rest, 


Life  More  Abundantly.  259 

have  lost  their  interest  or  their  meaning  for  the  Christian. 
Quite  the  contrary.  Whatever  happens  to  a  child  of  God 
gains  in  meaning  and  in  interest  by  being  brought  now  into 
relationship  with  God  and  with  eternity.  This  world  itself 
becomes  a  graver  and  a  vaster  place  to  Christians  since  Jesus 
Christ  died  for  it.  Every  paltry  incident — say  when  a  sparrow 
falls — is  seen  now  to  be  linked  to  the  will  of  our  heavenly  Father, 
and  woven  into  a  plan  which  has  our  spiritual  good  for  its  issue. 
Homes,  therefore  are  very  paradises,  and  nurseries  for  Christ's 
little  ones  are  infinitely  more  sacred  spots — they  are  even  become 
awful  spots,  so  near  are  they  seen  to  lie  to  the  gate  of  heaven. 
And  common  business  rises  in  its  importance  for  you  when  by  it 
you  have  to  glorify  your  Saviour  and  serve  your  brother  men. 
Social  and  political  problems  of  the  hour  do  not  claim  less  atten- 
tion from  the  Christian,  but  more,  because  in  them  is  wrapped  up 
the  welfare  of  that  humanity  for  which  Jesus  suffered,  and  which 
He  calls  upon  us  to  seek  and  to  save  along  with  Him.  Christi- 
anity thought  to  be  a  deadening  influence,  alienating  men  from 
common  life,  dulling  their  healthy  concern  in  all  that  touches  the 
well-being  of  society  !  Why,  men  and  brethren,  it  is  Christianity 
which  has  elevated  this  mean  life  of  ours  and  made  it  worth  living, 
which  has  let  in  upon  it  the  light  of  eternity,  brought  into  relief 
all  its  possibilities  and  its  responsibilities,  and  so  made  every 
small  thing  grand  and  every  dull  person  noble,  by  linking  thwn 
each  one  to  the  destinies  of  the  whole  race,  to  the  everlasting  God 
and  His  Son's  cross. 

The  Christian  I  take  to  be  a  man  who  lives  near  to  the  sensori  u  rn 
of  the  universe — I  mean  to  that  heart  and  brain  in  which  every 
sensation  comes  to  be  felt  at  last  from  the  remotest  ends  of  this 
mighty  world  of  ours.  I  mean — you  know  what  I  mean — the 
heart  and  brain  of  Him  who  is  God  with  us,  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Shall  any  be  weak,  and  He  not  weak  ?  May  any  be  offended  and 
He  not  burdened  ?  Thus  I  take  the  Christian's  world  to  be  grown 
a  very  big  world  indeed.  Christian  civilisation  knows  less  and 
less  of  class  interests,  of  isolation,  of  indifference.  It  has  knit 
this  round  globe  of  ours  into  one,  and  it  has  taught  every  man  to 
concern  himself  for  all  mankind.  The  open-eyed  modern  Chris- 
tian who  is  in  touch  with  Jesus  Christ  and  inspired  by  His 
thoughts  about  men,  cares  more  for  the  interests  of  other  people 
than  any  man  who  ever  lived  before ;  and  he  cares  far  more 
seriously  about  the  interests  of  other  people,  he  is  in  sadder 
earnest  about  graver  things,  and  lives  a  quicker,  keener,  larger, 
more  multiple  life,  a  life  that  has  in  it  the  abundance  of  living. 
That  is  what  Jesu«s  Christ  has  done.  The  affairs  of  our  daily 
existence  and  those  of  our  neighbours  can  no  longer  be  regarded 
as  they  used  to  be,  with  a  merely  parochial  or  provincial  interest. 
They  are  grown  imperial  now.  They  are  affairs  of  the  Kingdom. 
ofCjiod,  and  our  little  life-horizon,  obscure  and  petty  as  it  maybe, 


26o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


is  no  longer  like  a  land-locked  lake,  set  by  itself  apart  ;  but,  lo  I 
it  has  an  inlet,  an  open  channel,  uniting  it  to  the  awful  ocean 
beyond,  and  through  it  there  pour  into  this  little  life  of  ours,  from 
day  to  day,  nriysterious  tides  of  life  and  feeling  which  come  irom 
the  very  infinite  heart  of  God  Himself. 

But,  in  the  second  place,  Jesus  Christ  makes  life  to  His  disci- 
ples a  more  abundant  thing  by  conferring  upon  us  a  new  kind  of 
life  altogether,  a  life  which  has  fuller  pulses  than  the  old  one,  a 
deeper,  stronger  vitality.  What  I  mean  is,  that  the  experience 
which  we  call  Christian,  ihe  experience  of  a  regenerate  spiritual 
man,  is  a  more  intense  experience  than  that  of  nature,  because  it 
is  awakened  in  the  soul  by  far  grander  and  more  mighty  facts  and 
relationships.  Eternity  is  vaster  than  time ;  God  is  mightier 
than  the  world.  Unregenerate  men  are  surprisingly  moved  some- 
times by  temporal  losses  or  gains,  which  to  the  eye  of  Christian 
reason  appear  very  paltry  indeed.  But  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
whatever  else  it  is,  is  never  open  to  such  a  charge  of  pettiness  as 
that.  It  never  will  lay  you  open  to  being  accused  of  caring  too 
much  about  little  things.  It  sets  you  at  once  into  direct  contact 
with  infinite  forces,  with  the  awful  facts  and  relationships  of  the 
unseen  world.  The  first  thing  its  voice  wakes  in  you  is  the  sense 
of  personal  guilt.  Then  it  speaks  of  the  unquenchable  thirst  of 
your  soul  after  God.  Then  it  reveals  to  you  your  tremendous 
future  of  bliss  or  of  damnation.  It  lays  you  alongside  the  super- 
natural operations  of  God  working  for  the  redemption  of  mankind. 
It  opens  up  to  you  in  the  cross  of  your  Lord  the  whole  of  God's 
mighty  heart  of  love.  It  begets  in  you  a  divine  passion  for  holi- 
ness, a  superiority  to  transient  visible  concerns,  enthusiasm  for 
the  unseen  and  the  everlasting.  And  I  tell  you  this  is  the  very 
stuff  of  which  heroes  are  made  and  martyrs.  In  short,  it  sets  us 
within  the  sweep  of  a  whole  world  of  facts  which  transcend  this 
world,  and  stir  in  you  and  me  more  absorbing  desires,  more  rap- 
turous joys  than  any  that  are  born  of  time  and  sense. 

Surely  I  am  speaking  only  literal  truths — you  can  judge  for 
you  I  selves.  Does  not  a  man's  conversion  to  God  add  a  fresh 
department  to  his  life  ?  It  gives  him  new  thoughts,  it  quickens 
in  him  new  emotions,  it  begets  new  motives,  it  sets  before  him  a 
new  ambition ;  and  since  the  horizon  of  his  being  is  now  open, 
widened  to  take  in  hereafter  and  the  eternal  state,  since  this  fresh 
factor  which  has  entered  to  rule  him  is  no  less  a  force  than  an 
emotion,  since  the  interests  for  which  belabours  now  are  those  of 
the  life  that  is  never  to  end,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  man's  new 
life  must  be  a  fuller  and  a  deeper  life  than  the  old  one,  that  it 
must  give  birth  to  weightier  thoughts  of  it,  to  feelings  that  are 
more  profound,  to  hopes  that  are  more  vast.  In  a  word,  it  is  life 
that  is  more  abundant. 

I  do  not  say  that  the  new  life  of  a  Christian  man  is  more  noisy 
or  more  demonstrative,  because  it  is  heart-hidden,  interior  expe- 


Life  More  Abundantly.  261 


riences  of  the  soul  that  Jesus  Christ  brings  to  us.  He  comes  into 
the  very  focus  of  your  personal  life  and  mine,  where  we  have  to 
deal  with  moral  good  and  evil,  with  duty,  temptation,  sin,  respon- 
sibility, God.  And  it  may  be  that  the  struggles  and  vicissitudes 
and  sore  experiences  through  which  you  or  I  have  to  pass  leave 
less  trace  upon  our  outward  demeanour,  are  less  noticeable  to  the 
common  eye  than  some  sorer  passions  of  the  animal  life  might  be 
— rage,  jealousy,  or  revenge,  may  betray  themselves  in  voice  and 
gesture,  while  the  soul's  conflict  with  ghostly  adversaries,  such  as 
sin  and  doubt,  and  spiritual  darkness,  and  the  wrath  of  God  may 
transpire  in  secret  and  make  no  signs.  But  the  hidden  forces  are 
not  on  that  account  more  feeble.  You  cannot  always  judge  from 
external  experiences.  Every  good  student  of  human  nature  knows 
quite  well  that  the  materials  for  all  the  deeper  tragedies  of  our 
being  are  to  be  sought  within  ;  not  in  noisy  animal  passion,  but 
in  the  silent  private  wrestlings  with  temptation,  with  remorse, 
with  avenging  fate,  with  doubt  and  despair,  and  God.  It  was  in 
this  region  that  even  Greek  tragedy  found  materials  for  its  most 
moving  situations,  and  let  no  man  think  that  such  tragedies  exist 
no  longer.  Our  modern  life  is  simpler  than  the  picturesque  life 
of  the  ancients,  but  it  abounds  in  tragedies  of  moral  experience. 

There  is  many  a  Christian  who  looks  commonplace  enough  to 
you  wearing  the  garb  of  the  plain  trader  or  the  honest  craftsman, 
whose  inner  life,  if  you  could  but  unfold  it,  has  been  the  theatre  of 
an  unwitnessed  tragedy  too  sacred  to  be  dramatised,  and  too 
intense  in  its  pathos  for  any  sympathy  to  reach  it  save  the  sym- 
pathy of  Christ.  Because  it  is  the  very  characteristic  of  the 
Gospel  that  when  it  comes  to  a  man  it  uncloaks  the  Divine  in  that 
man,  and  fills  commonplace  and  vulgar  natures  with  the  abund- 
ance of  Divine  life.  This  is  why  it  has  proved  itself  to  be  the 
author  of  such  powerful  moral  movements  in  society,  in  the  strife 
of  religious  conviction  working  in  the  minds  of  burghers,  or  small 
farmers,  or  peasant  families,  in  Holland,  in  Huguenot  France,  in 
Puritan  England,  has  been  sufficient  to  create  whole  communities 
of  heroes  and  of  confessors  unto  blood.  The  life  of  these  people, 
otherwise  quite  undistinguished  and  ignoble,  had  been  touched 
from  above,  and,  in  the  closest  exercises  of  their  faith,  their  life  learned 
to  run  in  deep  channels.  For  when  they  were  brought  face  to 
face  with  God  in  His  wrath  and  in  His  grace  they  found  the 
secret  of  a  more  abundant  life,  weightier  truths  than  those  of 
politics  kindled  mightier  emotions  than  those  of  sense  and  the 
homely  nature,  and,  may  be,  rustic  fanatics  made  the  best  of  heroes 
and  saints. 

Let  me  ask  you  here.  Do  you  know  what  this  means  ?  Have 
you  ever  been  face  to  face  with  these  deeper  questions  of  the  soul, 
the  solution  of  which  is  to  be  wrung  out  in  the  sweat  of  an  inward 
agony  of  v/restling  with  God  ?  Has  religion  entered  into  your 
life  in  this  manner,  to  deepen  it  and  to  sober  it,  to  intensify  every 


2^2  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

bit  of  it  and  make  it  real ;  making  frivolity  for  ever  impossible 
for  you — compelling  you  to  live  seriously  ?  Do  you  really  recall 
any  experience  in  which  your  own  peace  with  God,  the  burden  of 
your  sin,  the  solid  hope  for  your  eternity  hereafter,  were  points 
that  pressed  on  you  for  settlement,  and  did  you  ever  emerge  from 
any  such  inward  crisis  as  that  with  your  horizon  widened  hence- 
forth for  ever,  with  new  thoughts  stirring  about  your  heart,  a 
quickened  pulse  throbbing  through  your  bosom  ?  Does  there  lie 
beneath  that  common  life  which  your  neighbours  see,  that  life  of 
daily  toil  and  rest  and  eating,  playing,  working,  sleeping,  another 
which  you  dare  not  let  go,  in  which  you  know  your  soul  is 
privately  touching  God  and  is  touched  day  by  day  by  Him,  a 
sacred  life  which  you  keep  for  other  eyes  than  yours,  a  life  which 
you  know  to  be  indeed  life  more  abundant  ? 

There  are  many  of  us,  I  dare  say,  who  can  answer  such  ques- 
tions fairly  to  satisfaction,  and  who  yet  do  feel  painfully  certain 
that,  as  to  them,  any  religious  life  they  may  possess  is  lamentably 
languid.  Have  we  not  all  room  to  bemoan  the  feebleness  of  our 
spiritual  experience  ?  If  we  have  that  true  life  of  faith  at  all,  it 
is  certainly  far  from  being  abundant.  Our  apprehension  of  Divine 
truth  at  best  is  faint,  and  our  personal  hold  on  it  seems  loose,  and 
our  emotions  towards  God  when  we  try  to  think  of  Him  are  sickly 
and  pale,  and  our  desires  after  communion  are  anything  but 
intense  ;  so  that  with  such  a  low  vitality  we  achieve  little,  and  we 
make  no  conscious  headway  in  our  religion.  We  feel  little  or  none 
of  the  buoyant  elasticity  of  spiritual  health.  Well,  what  do  we 
need  ?  What  do  we  need  to  brace  and  invigorate  us  for  all  our 
higher  work  on  earth  but  this  more  abundant  life  ? 

Now  if  this  be  at  all  descriptive  of  our  position  as  personal 
believers  or  as  a  church,  let  me  draw  out  of  the  words  of  Christ  this 
morning  this  stinging  lesson,  that  no  Christian  needs  to  be,  that 
no  Christian  ought  to  be,  content  with  a  low  degree  of  spiritual 
vitality.  He  is  bidden  to  seek,  is  bidden  to  attempt  the  Divine 
life  in  its  fulness  and  abundance.  I  protest  to  you,  sirs,  that  in 
our  religion,  as  in  everything,  God  wants  us  to  live  strongly.  The 
more  health  we  have  the  better  He  is  pleased.  For  He  is  life, 
and  the  glory  of  Him  is  to  give  life,  and  the  more  life  He  gives 
the  more  He  is  glorified.  He  would  have  your  life  stronger.  He 
came  on  purpose  that  we  might  have  life,  and  He  would  have  us 
respond  therefore  to  those  tremendous  truths  of  our  holy  faith  I 
have  been  trying  to  show  you.  About  the  Gospel  everything  is 
big,  intense,  powerful — the  enormity  of  your  guilt  for  which  Jesus 
died,  the  love  that  led  him  to  do  it,  the  hell  from  which  He 
delivered  you,  the  heaven  to  which  He  leads  you — everything 
about  the  Gospel  is  on  a  big  scale,  a  vast  scale,  as  becomes  a 
religion  that  pretends  to  sound  the  depths  of  human  nature,  touch- 
ing its  entire  compass  and  affecting  its  utmost  possibilities.  And 
your  response  and  mine  should  be  correspondingly  thorough.  Our 


Life  More  Abundantly.  263 


joy  is  in  God.  Our  grief  for  sin,  our  yearnings  and  regrets,  our 
trust  in  our  Saviour,  our  hope  of  His  reward,  our  struggle  for 
mastery  over  evil,  our  endeavours  to  achieve  good,  ought  not  these 
to  be  on  a  great  scale,  commensurate  with  the  Gospel  ?  Surely 
we  live  a  pigmy  life,  and  it  is  a  life  out  of  harmony  with  the  life  we 
profess,  when  we  think  about  spiritual  things  superficially,  and  feel 
indifferently,  and  resolve  languidly ;  if  we  can  chatter,  chatter 
with  the  same  shallow  glibness  about  the  gloom  of  Calvary  where 
God  died  for  us,  and  the  radiance  of  the  Celestial  City  He  has 
prepared  for  us;  if  we  never  tremble  for  dread  of  judgment,  and 
never  burn  beneath  the  words  of  mercy  ;  if  the  deeps  of  our  being 
are  never  stirred,  nor  its  currents,  its  mightiest  currents,  set  in 
motion  by  the  attraction  of  God's  great  self-sacrifice  upon  His 
cross.  And  yet  I  am  afraid  that  is  what  too  many  of  us  do. 
Dwarfed  we  are  in  our  spiritual  development. 

And  I  am  bound  to  remind  you  as  well  as  myself,  brethren,  that 
we  need  not  have  such  feeble,  colourless  experiences,  and  that  it 
is  not  God's  wish  that  we  should  have.  For  Jesus  came  on  pur- 
pose to  shed  into  your  heart  and  mine  the  spirit  of  Divine  love, 
not  in  a  feeble  measure,  but  in  abundance.  Of  that  fulness  may 
we  all  receive  if  we  choose.  For  we  have  actually  God  with  us 
here,  about  us,  within  us,  God  in  the  plenitude  of  His  life-power, 
the  quickener,  the  source  of  all  force  in  the  universe,  of  all 
vitality.  We  have  Him  working  upon  us  with  a  force  not 
straitened,  not  feeble,  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all 
that  we  can  ask  or  think.  I  pray  you  to  recollect  how  Paul 
prayed  for  the  Christians  at  Ephesus.  We  were  reading  it  this 
morning :  "  That  they  may  know  the  exceeding  greatness  of  God's 
power  towards  us  who  are  believers."  Power — well,  according  to 
what  standard  are  you  going  to  measure  it  ?  According  to  that 
working  of  the  strength  of  His  might  which  He  wrought  in 
Christ  when  He  raised  Him  from  the  dead  and  made  Him  sit  in 
the  heavenly  places.  You  hear  a  great  deal — not  too  much — 
about  the  Gospel  as  a  demonstration  of  the  mercy  of  God  to  a 
poor  sinner,  of  His  pitiful  love.  But  I  want  to  be  told  that  it  no 
less  reveals  His  mighty  strength,  that  it  is  His  power  unto 
salvation,  that  in  it  He  works  mightily  to  save.  And  I  tell  you 
that  to  be  a  Christian,  if  you  are  a  Christian  at  all,  means  that 
you  have  got  to  the  heart  of  this  new  force,  this  awful  activity  of 
God  ;  that  it  is  operating  on  your  spirits,  vitalising  you,  and 
ready  to  vitalise  you  more,  and  to  give  you  even  abundance  of  the 
life  that  is  in  you — keen,  high,  noble,  Godlike  life,  that  thinks, 
feels,  purposes  with  all  its  might.  We  have  got  that  in  Him. 
He  is  vital  energy.  He  is  the  world's  one  life-force,  and  we  are  in 
Him  as  in  an  atmosphere :  we  spiritually  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being  in  God,  who  is  life. 

Brethren,  let  us  open  our  nature  in  all  its  avenues  ;  let  us 
invite  Him  to  come  in ;  let  us  not  obstruct  His  working,  but  wel- 


264  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

come  His  lightest  movement,  answer  to  His  faintest  touch, 
entreat  His  fuller  entrance,  His  more  powerful  influence,  and 
yield  a  prompt  and  swift  obedience  to  His  Divine  touch. 

For  I  assure  you  if  you  and  I  can  but  find  the  secret  of  this 
living  in  God,  in  daily  close  communion  with  God  in  Christ,  keep- 
ing ourselves  in  the  love  of  God,  and  in  the  fellowship  of  the 
Spirit  Who  is  life,  we  shall  no  more  need  to  complain  of  a  low 
vitality.  God,  I  tell  you,  is  to  the  soul  like  oxygen  to  the  flame, 
like  air  to  the  lungs,  and  His  fuller  presence  in  contact  with  our 
inner  being  will  stimulate  the  pulses  of  our  Christian  life,  and 
rouse  to  fuller,  more  exuberant  activity  the  healthy  faculties  of 
our  souls.  Surely,  surely,  sirs,  it  is  our  sorest  need  ;  it  is  most 
of  all  our  want — more  life ;  life  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  more  abun- 
dant life.     May  God  grant  us  this  boon  !     Amen. 


CARE. 

By  the  Rev.  A.  F.  Forrest,  Glasgow. 

Delivered  in    the    Renfield-street    U.P.    Church    Mission    Hall,     Glasgow, 

August  17,  1890. 

"  Casting  all  your  care  upon  Him,  for  He  careth  for  you." — i  Peter  v.  7. 

Care  is  one  of  those  things  which  fall  to  the  lot  of  everybody. 
A  person  absolutely  free  from  care  does  not  exist  in  the  world. 
"  Man  is  born  unto  trouble."  At  every  age  and  in  every  position 
he  discovers  the  truth  of  this  familiar  adage.  The  youth  and  the 
old  man  have  each  his  burden  of  care.  Poverty  and  wealth  alike 
involve  us  in  anxiety  and  trouble.  There  are  happy  faces  in  the 
world ;  but  happy  faces  do  not  imply  happy  hearts.  How  often 
have  you  noticed  that  the  instant  the  smile  leaves  a  man's  lips 
his  eye  betrays  a  careworn  spirit  ?  Our  happiness  in  this  world 
is  superficial  and  fleeting.  Our  deepest  and  most  prevalent 
experiences  are  of  vexation  and  trouble. 

This  arrangement  of  Providence  has  been  instituted  for  the 
wisest  and  most  gracious  ends.  Care  keeps  us  from  getting  too 
fond  of  the  world.  If  everything  went  with  us  quite  smoothly 
and  pleasantly  here,  there  would  be  a  danger  of  our  settling  down 
and  making  this  our  home.  God  had  to  make  life  very  hard  for 
the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  or  they  never  would  have  left  it,  or 
thought  of  emigrating  to  the  land  He  had  promised  to  their 
fathers  as  an  inheritance.  Were  there  no  sighing  and  sorrow 
here,  what  would  be  the  attraction  of  heaven  ?  Do  not  our 
experiences  of  vexation  and  hardship  lead  us  to  seek  the  better 
country — even  the  heavenly  ? 

The  great  question  is,  What  to  do  with  our  care  ? 

The  Bible  does  not  say  :  "  It  is  very  wrong  to  have  cares ; 
God's  people  should  have  no  cares."     It  only  says:  "  It  is  wrong 


Care.  265 

to  be  engrossed,  to  be  harassed,  and  to  be  vexed  with  our  cares." 
They  are  meant  for  spiritual  discipline,  to  develop  Christian 
manhood.  It  is  sin  to  allow  them  to  absorb  our  attention  and 
energy. 

"  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord."  What  He  lays  on  thee 
lay  thou  on  Him.  If  it  is  God's  wisdom,  my  brother  or  my 
sister,  that  casts  a  burden  on  thee,  it  is  thy  wisdom,  in  return,  to 
cast  that  burden  on  God.  Accept  the  load  with  joyful  resigna- 
tion, and  give  it  up  again  with  unwavering  confidence.  "  Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul  ?  and  why  art  thou  disquieted 
within  me  ?  Hope  in  God,  for  I  shall  yet  praise  Him,  who  is  the 
health  of  my  countenance,  and  my  God." 

A  picture  memory  brings  to  me, 

I  look  across  the  years  and  see 

Myself  beside  my  mother's  knee. 

I  feel  her  gentle  hand  restrain 

My  selfish  moods,  and  know  again 

A  child's  blind  sense  of  wrong  and  pain. 

But  wiser  now,  a  man  grey  grown, 

My  childhood's  needs  are  better  known. 

My  mother's  chastening  love  I  own. 

Grey  grown,  but  in  our  Father's  sight 

A  child  still  groping  for  the  light 

To  read  His  works  and  ways  aright. 

I  bow  myself  beneath  His  hand 
That  pain  itself  for  good  was  planned 
I  trust,  but  cannot  understand. 

I  fondly  dream  it  needs  must  be 

That,  as  my  mother  dealt  with  me,  \ 

So  with  His  children  dealeth  He. 

I  wait  and  trust  the  end  will  prove 
That  here,  and  there,  below,  above. 
The  chastening  heals,  the  pain  is  love. 

The  reason  given  by  the  Apostle  why  we  should  cast  our  care 
upon  God  is  as  intelligible  as  it  is  satisfactory.  We  are  the 
objects  of  the  Divine  care  :  "  Cast  all  your  care  upon  God,"  says 
he,  "  for  He  careth  for  you." 

The  heathen  regarded  their  gods  as  beings  so  highly  exalted 
and  so  far  away,  that  they  took  no  interest  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
The  pagan  devotee  looked  on  himself  as  an  orphan  in  the  world. 
He  had  none  to  think  for  him  or  care  for  him,  but  was  the 
helpless  victim  of  chance. 

The  Christian  has  another  idea  of  God.  He  is  a  Father.  From 
His  place  in  heaven  He  watches  us  in  our  outgoings  and  in- 
comings, and  His  angels  have  charge  over  us  to  keep  us  from 
falling.  The  very  meanest  of  His  children  may  be  satisfied  of 
God's  constant  guardianship  and  help.  "  He  will  not  suffer  thy 
foot   to   be   moved ;    He  that    keepeth   thee  will  not   slumber." 


266  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

"  Delight  thyself  in  the  Lord ;  and  He  shall  give  thee  the  desires 
of  thine  heart." 

How  the  thought  and  assurance  of  the  Divine  care  have  sus- 
tained and  comforted  the  saints  of  God  in  the  most  trying  emer- 
gencies of  this  life  !  The  relief  has  been  as  real  and  as  full  of 
consolation  to  them  as  would  be  the  removal  of  a  load  from  the 
back  of  a  toilworn  and  fainting  traveller.  When  poor  and  needy, 
David  sang,  "  Yet  the  Lord  thinketh  upon  me  "  ;  and  that  sweet 
reflection  administered  comfort  and  joy  to  his  chastened  spirit. 
Despised  and  forsaken  of  the  world — when  poverty  and  affliction 
came,  and  friends  went — how  often  has  the  believer  felt  uncon- 
cerned and  undismayed,  because  he  could  say,  "  When  my  father 
and  my  mother  forsake  me,  then  the  Lord  will  take  me  up." 
When  some  trying  occasion  was  foreseen — a  temptation  of  the 
devil,  a  business  calamity,  or  death,  and  despair  was  about  almost 
to  settle  down  upon  the  soul — has  not  the  believer  many  a  time 
been  recalled  to  hope  and  joy  by  such  assurances  as  these  :  "  As 
thy  days  so  shall  thy  strength  be  " ;  '*  He  shall  never  suffer  the 
righteous  to  be  moved."  Do  you  see  that  old  man  ?  He  is  use- 
less now,  and  nobody  cares  about  him.  Why  is  he  so  happy  ? 
People  cannot  understand  why  he  takes  his  trial  so  easily  and 
unmurmuringly.  He  rests  his  soul  on  the  great  and  precious 
promise  :  "  Even  to  your  old  age  I  am  He  ;  and  to  hoar  hairs  will 
I  carry  you  :  I  have  made,  and  I  will  bear ;  even  I  will  carry  and 
will  deliver  you." 

The  Bible  nowhere  forbids  a  moderate  and  well-regulated  atten- 
tion to  worldly  interests.  "  If  any  provide  not  for  his  own,"  says 
Paul  to  Timothy,  "  and  especially  for  those  of  his  own  house,  he 
hath  denied  the  faith,  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel."  And,  again, 
writing  to  the  Thessalonians,  he  says,  "This  we  commanded  you, 
that  if  any  would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat."  Even  provi- 
sion for  the  future — for  old  age  or  for  our  families — is  not  antago- 
nistic, but  most  agreeable,  to  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  God 
allows  care,  but  not  anxious  care.  The  things  of  this  world — food 
and  raiment,  and  so  on — must  not  become  a  burden,  or  the 
supreme  concern  of  our  life.  We  are  in  this  world  to  take  things 
easily,  calmly,  and  hopefully.  We  ought  to  feel  satisfied  that 
everything  will  turn  out  right  in  the  end.  If  the  fig-tree  do  not 
blossom,  neither  fruit  be  in  the  vines,  the  labour  of  the  olive  fail, 
and  the  fields  yield  no  wheat,  we  should  still  rejoice  in  the  Lord, 
and  joy  in  the  God  of  our  salvation. 

God's  people  often  fall  into  the  sin  of  over-carefulness.  We  have 
frequently  to  remind  even  true  Christians  that  they  have  a  Father 
in  heaven.  They  behave  like  atheists  sometimes.  The  patience 
of  God  is  often  tried  b}  His  people  omitting  Him  from  their 
calculations.  "  Zion  saith.  The  Lord  hath  forsaken  me,  and  my 
God  hath  forgotten  me.  Can  a  woman  forget  her  sucking  child 
that  she  should  not    have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb  ? 


Care.  267 

Yea,  she  may  forget ;  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee.  Behold,  I  have 
graven  thee  uponthe  palms  of  My  hands — thy  walls  are  continually 
before  Me." 

How  common  it  is  for  people  to  borrow  trouble  !  Not  content 
with  to-day's  burden  they  must  pile  upon  it  also  to-morrow's 
burden.  "  Oh  !  what  am  I  to  do  ?  "  "  Oh  !  what's  to  become  Cif 
me  ?  "  they  say,  in  the  prospect  of  this  or  that  disaster.  What 
God  intended  for  them  piecemeal  they  take  upon  themselves  in 
one  heap. 

It  is  this  habit  that  causes  a  large  proportion  of  the  misery  in 
the  world.  Men  are  driven  distracted  not  so  often,  I  believe,  with 
present,  as  with  anticipated  affliction.  This  borrowing  of  trouble 
it  is  that  kills  men — drives  them  to  despair  and  often  to  suicide. 

Take  no  more  on  your  shoulders  than  God  lays  on  them.  It  is 
wholesome  advice  we  have  in  the  familiar  proverb  :  "  Never  cross 
a  bridge  till  you  come  to  it "  ;  and  in  that  other,  which  is  to  the 
same  effect,  "  Let  your  trouble  tarry  till  its  own  time." 

The  practice  of  borrowing  trouble  is  most  useless  practice.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  anybody  getting  rid  of  a  cross  by  carrying  it,  in 
this  manner,  aforehand  ?  The  dread  of  a  bad  harvest  never  pro- 
duced a  good  one.  No  business  difficulty  was  ever  got  over  by  a 
man  thinking  about  it  and  fretting  about  it  a  month  ahead.  The 
widow's  children  were  never  fed,  and  clothed,  and  educated  re- 
spectably, because  she  sat  down  in  her  great  sorrow  and  troubled 
her  soul  daily  with  the  vision  of  the  most  discouraging  and  insur- 
mountable obstacles.  A  merchant  buys  goods  because  he  thinks 
he  can  sell  them  with  profit ;  a  gardener  plants  seeds  because  he 
expects  they  will  grow  up  into  flowers  ;  and  a  sick  man  takes 
medicine  because  he  believes  it  will  make  him  well.  But  people 
borrow  trouble  knowing  all  the  while  it  will  be  to  no  purpose. 
How  foolish  !  how  foolish  ! 

But  not  only  is  it  useless,  it  is  positively  injurious  to  borrow 
trouble.  To-morrow  is  not  rid  of  its  burden  ;  but  to-day  is  rid  of 
its  strength.  By  means  of  this  habit  a  man  has  less  courage,  less 
faith,  and  less  composure  with  which  to  encounter  the  trials  of  the 
hour.  God  never  gives  men  strength  to  do  an  unnecessary  thing. 
He  offers  you  grace  with  the  affliction  He  lays  on  you — not  for 
the  affliction  He  is  going  to  lay  on  you,  perhaps,  a  year  hence,  or 
a  week  hence. 

There  was  a  pendulum.  One  dull  day  it  began  to  count  how 
often  it  had  to  swing  back  and  forward  in  an  hour — then  in  a  day 
—then  in  a  week — then  in  a  month — then  in  a  year — and  then  in 
ten  years.  The  final  sum  was  enormous.  How  could  it  ever  give 
all  those  beats  ?  It  was  impossible.  And  the  pendulum  stopped 
— utterly  paralysed  at  the  contemplation  of  its  work.  It  forgot 
that  in  each  hour  it  had  only  to  do  each  hour's  task. 

The  anticipation  of  trouble,  of  difficulties  and  disasters,  paralyses 


^'268  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

our  energies.     We  are  unfitted  by  it  even   for  our  present  obliga- 
tions.    "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof." 

Once  more.  This  habit  of  forecasting  trouble  greatly  enhances 
our  sorrow.  *'  He  vi'ho  foresees  calamities  suffers  them  twice 
over."  "  The  state  of  that  man's  mind,"  says  Seneca,  "who  feels 
an  intense  interest  as  to  future  events,  must  be  deplorable." 

But  I  have  spoken  as  if  we  were  always  right  in  our  anticipa- 
tion of  calamity.  The  truth  is  we  are  generally  wrong.  Tupper 
says :  "  Our  worst  misfortunes  are  those  which  never  befall  us." 

Jacob  heard  that  Esau  was  coming  to  meet  him  with  a  great 
company  of  armed  men.  He  got  terribly  frightened.  His  brother 
had  been  cruelly  wronged  by  him,  and  he  was  quite  certain  he 
was  coming  now  to  take  summary  revenge.  His  flocks  and  herds 
were  to  be  seized,  his  sons  carried  into  slavery,  his  wives  stolen, 
and  himself  put  to  death.  By  and  by  Esau  came  up,  surrounded 
with  his  hundreds  of  spearmen,  all  fierce  fellows  of  the  desert, 
whose  eyes  shone  at  the  sight  of  so  much  booty.  Jacob,  bowing 
and  trembling,  approached  his  brother,  crying  meekly  :  "  My  lord  ! 
my  lord  !  "  Was  he  killed  ?  Did  his  brother  hurl  a  spear  at  his 
breast  ?  Nay ;  Esau,  generous  soul  that  he  was,  ran,  and  fell 
upon  Jacob's  neck,  and  kissed  him,  and  entreated  him  that  he 
might  come  and  dwell  in  his  own  country. 

We  have  all  had,  I  am  certain,  once  and  again,  an  experience 
like  this  of  the  patriarch.  Ills  which  we  long  anticipated  with 
great  pain  and  sorrow  we  found  afterwards  to  have  been  entirely 
the  creatures  of  our  own  imaginations.  We  said :  "  Who  shall 
roll  us  away  the  stone  ?  "  and,  when  we  came  to  the  sepulchre,  it 
was  already  rolled  away. 

That  which  weeping  ones  were  saying 

Eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
We-  the  same  weak  faith  betraying, 

Say  in  our  sad  hours  of  woe. 
Looking  at  some  trouble  lying 

In  the  dark  and  dread  unknown, 
V/e,  too,  often  ask  with  sighing, 

"  Who  shall  roll  away  the  stone  ? " 
Thus  with  care  our  spirits  crushing, 

When  they  might  from  care  be  free, 
And  in  joyous  song  out-gushing, 
Rise  in  rapture,  Lord,  to  Thee. 
For  before  the  way  was  ended, 

Oft  we've  had  with  joy  to  own, 
Angels  have  from  heaven  descended, 

And  have  rolled  away  the  stone. 
Many  a  storm-cloud  sweeping  o'er  us, 

Never  pours  on  us  its  rain  ; 
Many  a  grief  we  see  before  us, 

Never  conies  to  cause  us  pain. 
Ofttimes  in  the  feared  "  to-morrow  " 

Sunshine  comes — the  cloud  has  flown  ! 
Ask  not,  then,  in  foolish  sorrow, 
"  Who  shall  roll  away  the  stone  ?  " 


Care.  269 

Burden  not  thy  soul  with  sadness, 

Make  a  wiser,  better  choice  ; 
Drink  the  wine  of  life  with  gladness, 

God  doth  bid  thee,  man,  "  Rejoice  !  " 
In  to-day's  bright  sunshine  basking. 

Leave  to-morrow's  cares  alone  ; 
Spoil  not  present  joys  by  asking, 

"  Who  shall  roll  away  the  stone  ? " 

Brethren,  we  will  get  through.  God  will  give  us  strength  equal 
to  our  need.  The  experience  of  the  past  should  make  us  confi- 
dent in  regard  to  the  future.  Consider  how  God  has  been  with 
us  in  the  most  trying  emergencies,  as  trying,  perhaps,  as  any  we 
have  yet  to  pass  through,  and  how  His  strength  has  been  perfected 
in  our  weakness.  "  There  hath  no  temptation  taken  you,  but 
such  as  is  common  to  men.  But  God  is  faithful,  Who  will  not 
suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that  ye  are  able,  but  will  with  the 
temptation  also  make  a  way  of  escape,  that  ye  may  be  able  to 
bear  it."  The  back  is  made  for  the  burden,  and  the  wind  is  tem- 
pered to  the  shorn  lamb.  In  this  assurance  go  forward  to  the 
future.  "  God  is  our  refuge  and  strength,  a  very  present  help  in 
trouble.  Therefore  will  not  we  fear,  though  the  earth  be  removed, 
and  the  mountains  be  carried  into  the  midst  of  the  sea ;  though 
the  waters  thereof  roar  and  be  troubled,  and  the  mountains  shake 
with  the  swelling  thereof." 

It  occurs  to  me  to  quote  to  you,  in  conclusion,  a  few  sentences 
from  the  pen  of  the  celebrated  Dr.  Payson.  They  are  fitted  to 
encourage  us,  I  think,  in  taking  a  more  hopeful,  and  more  cheerful 
view  of  any  disaster  we  may  be  anticipating,  and  that,  perhaps, 
not  without  good  occasion  : — "  Christians,"  he  says,  "  might 
avoid  much  trouble  and  inconvenience  if  they  would  only  believe 
what  they  profess — that  God  is  able  to  make  them  happy  without 
anything  else.  They  imagine  that,  if  such  a  dear  friend  were  to 
die,  or  such  and  such  blessings  were  to  be  removed,  they  should 
be  miserable ;  whereas,  God  can  make  them  a  thousand  times 
happier  without  them.  To  mention  my  own  case.  God  has 
been  depriving  me  of  one  blessing  after  another  ;  but,  as  everyone 
was  removed.  He  has  come  in  and  filled  up  its  place.  And  now," 
he  continues,  "  when  I  am  a  cripple,  and  not  able  to  move,  I  am 
happier  than  ever  I  was  in  my  life  before,  or  ever  expected  to  be. 
Had  I  believed  this  twenty  years  ago,  I  wouln  have  been  spared 
much  anxiety." 


270  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 


A  PULPIT  PRAYER. 
Bt  the  Rev.  Urijah  R.  Thomas,  Bristol. 

Trinity  Congregational  Churchy  Brixton,  Sunday  Evening  August  24. 
"  Praise  waiteth  for  Thee,  O  God,  in  Zion  :  and  unto  Thee  shall  the  vow  be 
performed.  O  Thou  that  hearest  prayer,  unto  Thee  shall  all  flesh  come." 
Lord,  teach  us  to  pray,  that  in  fellowship  with  Thy  whole  Church  through- 
out this  great  city,  and  throughout  our  country,  and  throughout  the  world, 
we  may  have  access  to  Thee,  may  take  our  places  at  the  footstool  of  the 
one  Father,  and,  pleading  the  name  of  the  one  Saviour,  maybe  taught  and 
comforted,  and  strengthened  by  the  one  Spirit.  May  we  know  to-night 
that  Jesus  is  in  the  midst.  May  there  be  no  heart  here  beyond  or  beneath 
His  reach,  no  one  of  us  too  sorrowful  to  be  cheered  by  His  love ;  no  one 
of  us  too  wayward  to  be  recalled  by  His  grace ;  no  one  of  us  too  sinful  to 
be  cleansed  by  His  blood.  We  have  come  into  this  place  of  prayer,  we 
have  listened  to  the  reading  of  Thy  Word,  and  we  are  awaiting  some  message 
from  Thee,  because  we  need  thus  to  gather  together,  to  prepare  for  the  week  that 
lies  before  us,  and  for  the  unknown  future  that  we  have  to  tread ;  for  the 
way  by  which  Thou  wilt  lead  us  till  we  end  the  journey  below,  and  then 
for  the  great  way  by  which  Thou  wilt  lead  us  for  ever  and  for  ever.  We 
are,  and  we  shall  never  cease  to  be.  O  God,  Thou  hast  made  us,  and 
Thou  hast  made  us  men.  Thou  hast  quickened  immortal  natures,  and  we 
come  to  Thee  and  pray  that  thus  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  we  may 
gain  some  strength  that  shall  help  us  for  the  hours  we  are  yet  to  pass 
through  before  time  is  over,  and  then  for  the  endless  years,  for  the  age 
after  age,  Thou  hast  reserved  for  those  who  love  Thee.  Teach  us  to  come, 
O  God,  with  intense  earnestness.  "  The  kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth 
violence,  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force."  We  would  have  some  of  the 
spirit  of  him  of  old  who  wrestled  with  Thee,  and  who  would  not  let  Thee 
go  till  Thou  didst  bless.  Thou  art  wrestling  with  us.  Thou  hast  yearned 
for  us  with  heart  of  infinite  pity,  and  hast  spoken  ro  us  by  voices  times 
without  number,  and  followed  us  with  influences  all  throughout  our  life ; 
and  some  have  not  yet  yielded  to  Thee  ;  some  are  not  yet  surrendered  to 
Thee  ;  some  are  not  yet  saved. 

Hear  the  prayer  of  the  people  wlio  know  Thee  and  love  Thee — that 
their  kindred,  that  their  friends,  th  t  their  neighbours,  that  those  for 
whom  they  work  in  the  Sunday-school  and  Bible-class,  and  those  for  whom 
they  labour  anywhere,  may  come  to  know  Thee,  may  see  Thy  glory  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ,  may  hear  Thy  call,  and  may  be  embraced  to-night 
in  the  arms  that  are  open  to  receive  us  all.  And  may  those  who  serve 
Thee  and  who  love  Thee,  serve  Thee  better  and  love  Thee  more.  Let 
our  lives  adorn  our  profession ;  help  us  to  add  to  our  faith  virtue,  and  to 
virtue  knowledge,  and  to  knowledge  temperance,  and  to  temperance 
patience,  and  to  patience  godliness,  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness, 
and  to  brotherly  kindness  charity.  Oh,  keep  us,  that  we  may  be  living 
epistles,  that  we  may  be  the  light  of  the  world,  the  salt  of  the  earth,  that 
we  may  leave  behind  us  the  land  of  night,  that  our  influence  may  be 
healthy  and  holy  everywhere,  till  the  end  shall  come.  Hear  our  prayer 
for  Thy  servant  the  minister  of  this  church,  and  his  family,  in  the  shadow 
that  rests  over  them  now.  Comfort  bereaved  hearts,  speak  hope,  speak 
of  resurrection,  speak  of  re-union  in  the  world  of.  lirM-^-^'i-^iUss  to  those 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  271 


who  mourn.  Bring  him  back  to  his  people,  renewed  and  strengthened  even 
by  the  discipline  of  sorrow,  that  his  bow  may  abide  in  strength,  and  that  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  may  prosper  in  his  hands.  We  pray  for  this  church, 
for  all  who  have  long  known  it  as  their  religious  home,  and  for  all  who 
from  time  to  time  enter  within  these  gates.  Let  this  be  the  place  of  'I'hy 
right  hand,  the  manifestation  of  Thy  power.  May  it  be  a  quiet  resting- 
place  to  many.  May  many  drink  of  the  brook  by  the  way,  and  lift  up  their 
heads.  May  many  find  it  a  Bethel — house  of  God  and  gate  of  heaven. 
Bless  the  absent— all  the  scattered  members  of  this  congregation  who 
at  this  season  of  the  year  are  seeking  health  and  strength  in  many  places 
and  in  many  lands.  We  pray  for  the  sick  and  suffering,  for  those  for 
whom  special  prayer  is  offered  to  Thee,  that  Thou  wouldst  prolong  be- 
loved Hves,  that  Thou  wouldst  strengthen  according  to  Thy  promise  the 
heart  of  those  who  are  in  weakness,  in  weariness,  and  prepare  for  the  going 
home  all  those  for  whom  death  is  appointed.  Bless  this  city.  Send  forth 
Thy  light  and  Thy  truth  that  it  soon  may  become  the  city  of  God,  for 
Christ  the  Saviour's  sake.     Amen. 

ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Sunday,  Atigust  31,  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

ENTERING  THE  KINGDOM. 
St.  Luke  xviii.  15 — 30. 

"  They  Reruked  Them." — It  seems  strange  that  the  disciples  should 
rebuke  those  who  brought  little  children  to  receive  their  Master's  blessing. 
But  their  disapproval  was  probably  connected  with  a  general  Jewish  preju- 
dice of  the  time,  as  to  the  capability  of  little  children  entering  into  the  world 
to  come.  It  might  reasonably  have  been  supposed  that  the  scribes  wouM 
have  taught  that  the  kingdom  was  open  at  least  to  all  those  who  had 
received  the  rite  of  circumcision.  But  we  find  that,  while  this  was  lield 
by  some,  yet  that  others  taught  that  the  child  of  a  son  or  daughter  of 
Abraham  was  in  the  kingdom  from  its  birth;  while  their  great  Rabbi 
Simeon  argued  that  a  child  was  capable  of  entering  the  world  to  come 
from  the  time  it  could  speak,  and  could  answer  Amen.  The  disciples 
probably,  therefore,  imagined  that  such  young  infants  were  below  the 
reach  of  spiritual  blessings.  It  was  the  custom  for  every  child,  on  its  first 
birthday,  to  be  brought  into  the  synagogue,  that  the  chief  rabbi  might  lay 
his  hands  on  it  and  bless  it ;  and,  from  this  time,  there  was  no  question  of 
its  salvability.  The  rich  were  also  expected  to  make  liberal  offerings  to 
■  the  synagogue  on  this  occasion.  These  infants  were  brought  to  Christ  by 
those  who  recognised  Him  as  greater  than  any  rabbi,  that  they  might 
receive  His  blessing,  even  though  they  had  not  reached  the  age  when  they 
might  be  blessed  in  the  synagogue. 

"Easier  for  a  Camel  to  go  Through  a  Needle's  Eye." — Much 
difficulty  has  been  most  unnecessarily  raised  respecting  this  expression, 
and  it  has  even  been  suggested  that  the  true  reading  should  be  "  a  cable,'' 
the  word  for  which,  in  Grtek,  only  differs  by  a  single  letter  from  that  tor 
camel.  But  no  such  change  is  needed.  The  fact  is,  that  our  word  was 
using  a  common  and  familiar  proverb,  which  expresses  in  terms  of  Oriental 
exaggeration  anything  difficult  and  almost  mipossible.  The  phrase  occurs 
*  Al>ri(Jged  from  the  Amcv'\cs.\\  Sunday  Sc/ioo!  Times. 


272  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

frequently  in  rabbinical  writings  for  anything  very  unusual  and  difficult. 
Thus,  in  a  discourse  in  the  Talmud  concerning  dreams  and  their  inter- 
pretation, we  read  :  "  They  do  not  show  a  man  a  palm-tree  of  gold,  nor 
an  elephant  going  through  the  eye  of  a  needle."  On  which  the  commen- 
tary is  :  **  That  is,  a  thing  which  he  was  not  wont  to  see,  nor  concerning 
which  he  ever  thought."  So  again,  one  rabbi  disputing  with  another,  who 
had  asserted  something  incongruous,  replies  :  '*  Perhaps  thou  art  one  of 
those  of  Pombeditha,  who  can  make  an  elephant  pass  through  a  needle," 
which  the  commentator  paraphrases,  **  Who  speak  things  that  are  im- 
possible." 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  August -^^i  :  Luke  xviii.  15—30.  Golden  Text:  Ver.  17. 
Jesus  Blessing  Little  Children. 
It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  of  Jewish  mothers  to  carry  their  babies 
to  great  and  eminent  rabbis  for  their  blessing.  So  these  mothers  we  read 
of  to-day  did  no  unusual  thing  when  they  brought  their  children  to  Jesus 
to  be  blessed.  And  Jesus  welcomed  them  all,  and  said,  "  Suffer  little 
children  to  come  unto  Me,  and  forbid  them  not." 

A  great  reason  for  children  coming  to  Jesus  is  His  special  love  for 
them.  There  never  was  a  shepherd  boy  that  did  not  think  more  of  the 
lambs  than  of  the  sheep.  The  young  animals  are  always  the  centre  of 
interest  in  the  farmer's  mind.  And  Jesus  has  a  peculiar  love  for  children. 
How  many  miracles  He  wrought  for  children  !  He  healed  a  nobleman's 
son  with  a  word,  and  cast  out  an  evil  spirit  from  the  young  daughter  of  a 
Syro-Phcenician  woman.  He  cured  a  lunatic  boy,  and  raised  from  the 
dead  the  son  of  a  widow  of  Nain,  and  brought  back  to  life  the  daughter 
of  Jairus.  But  most  beautiful  of  all  is  the  story  of  the  lesson.  Jesus  not 
only  spoke  to  these  children,  but  He  took  them  in  His  arms,  laid  His 
hands  on  them,  and  blessed  them.  Jesus  asks  all  children  to  come  to 
Him.  Are  you  five  years  old  ?  Jesus  says  you  may  come  to  Him.  He 
will  not  turn  you  away  to  wait  till  you  are  older.  Jesus  is  all  kindness 
and  goodness,  and  He  is  waiting  to  bless  you. 

Jesus  said  about  these  little  ones  that  "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  All  Christians  must  be  like  little  children.  Look  at  some  of 
the  characteristics  of  the  little  child  which  we  have  to  copy. 

I.  The  large  faith  of  a  Httle  child.  No  one  can  have  had  much  to  do 
with  a  young  child  without  being  struck  with  its  trustfulness.  The  child 
believes  because  it  loves.  Its  trust  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  intellect,  it 
comes  from  its  affection. 

II.  Little  children  live  in  the  present  monient.  They  have  few 
memories,  and  what  future  there  is  is  all  sunny.  A  child's  joy  is  always 
longer  than  a  child's  sorrow.  Jesus  wishes  all  Christians  to  copy  the  little 
child  in  this — to  have  no  dark  anticipations  and  anxieties,  to  live  a  day  at 
a  time. 

III.  Little  children  are  humble  and  obedient.  Jesus  would  have  all 
His  followers  to  be  obedient  and  humble.  God  loves  simple  faith  and 
simple  obedience. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  122,  Vol.  III.]  SEPTEMBER  5,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  ROOT  AND  FRUIT  OF  TRUE  LIFE. 

A  Serjnon 
By  the  Rev.  Urijah  R.  Thomas. 

Preached  in  Trinity  Congregational  Church,  Brixton,  on  Sunday  evening, 
August  24,  1890. 

"  The  Son  of  God,  Who  loved  me  and  gave  Himself  for  me." — Gal.  ii.  20. 

This  is  one  of  those  familiar  texts  that  I  suppose  to  many  to 
whom  I  speak  has  become  a  sort  of  nest  towards  which,  as  a 
wearied  bird,  from  time  to  time  they  wing  their  way  in  times  of 
need,  times  of  sorrow,  times  of  care,  of  conscious  sinfulness. 
And  if  to-night  we  come  to  this  familiar  verse  again,  it  is  that  we 
may  iind  the  old  truths  that  for  so  many  years — I  recollect  when 
I  was  a  child  I  sometimes  used  to  hear  preached  by  one  of  your 
former  ministers — have  been  preached  within  these  walls.  I 
remember  the  saintly  Samuel  Aldridge  talking  about  this  text 
when  I  was  a  child,  when  by  chance  I  came  once  or  twice  to 
evening  worship  here.  And  so  to-night  it  seems  proper  that  one 
should  most  simply,  and  yet  most  earnestly,  speak  of  some  of 
the  old  truths  of  this  familiar  text,  finding,  first  of  all,  that 

The  root  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ's  life  was  love.  The  life  of 
every  man  in  this  great  city  of  yours  is  like  a  plant,  in  so  far  as 
it  is  rooted  in  something.  Just  as  the  root  holds  the  tree  in  its 
place,  and  is  the  means  by  which  sustenance  passes  into  it, 
pleasure,  love  of  gain,  appetite,  selfishness,  are  the  roots  of  men's 
lives.  Every  life  has  its  root  that  holds  it  where  it  is,  and  that 
very  largely  makes  it  what  it  is.  And  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ's 
earthly  life  was  rooted  and  grounded  in  love.  We  may  turn  to 
any  page  that  we  will  of  the  Gospel  story,  and  we  may  ponder 
any  incident  that  either  of  the  evangelists  has  recorded,  and  we 
shall  come  to  the  conclusion  that  at  the  head  of  every  column 
and  at  the  base  of  every  column  we  may  inscribe  "  The  Son  of 
God  loved."  It  is  love  everywhere,  and  love  for  everyone,  and 
love  manifesting  itself  in  every  possible  form.  "  He  loved." 
There  is  no  incident  to  which  this  is  not  the  key,  there  is  no 
sermon  of  which  this  is  not  the  explanation,  there  is  no  suffering 


274  ^^^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

that  this  does  not  explain,  this  does  not  solve — "  the  Son  of  God 
loved,"  everywhere.  You  find  Him  amongst  children,  and  you 
find  that  He  is  loving  them  with  such  love  as  the  best  of  fathers 
and  the  tenderest  of  mothers  know,  and  yet  with  greater  and 
completer  and  more  lasting  love  than  father  or  mother  can  ever 
cherish.  He  calls  the  children  to  His  arms  and  puts  His  hands 
upon  them,  and  He  blesses  them.  He  calls  back  to  life  the  dead 
and  heals  the  sick,  and  leads,  as  Isaiah  declared  He  would  lead, 
the  lambs  into  His  very  bosom,  and  keeps  them  near  the  beating 
heart  of  His  love. 

And  when  He  passes  into  the  midst  of  those  who  are  not  so 
loveable  as  children,  to  the  proud  and  sinful,  the  outcast  and  the 
rebellious.  He  has  a  love  that  many  waters  cannot  quench.  He 
loved  Mary  in  her  dissolute  memories  and  her  penitent  and  broken- 
hearted contrition ;  loved  Peter  as  He  stood  upon  the  shore  and 
looked  into  his  face,  and  made  him  confess  that  he  loved  Him  too. 
Everywhere  was  love.  He  was  here  because  He  loved,  and  when 
He  was  here  He  was  what  He  was  because  He  loved ;  and  He 
did  what  He  did  and  suffered  what  He  suffered,  and  He  wrought 
all  that  He  wrought  because  He  loved.  This  is  the  root  of  His 
life.  The  Song  of  Solomon  seems  to  speak  about  His  love  which 
is  an  apple-tree  blossoming  among  the  trees  of  the  wood,  makes  it 
the  tree  of  life  whose  very  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations. 
And  now  one  pauses  for  a  moment,  my  friends,  to  say  to  one- 
self and  to  you,  if  our  lives  are  to  be  like  Christ's,  the  root  of  our 
lives  must  be  love.  Unless  towards  God  and  towards  man,  unless 
for  those  whom  we  can  love  with  honour  and  adoration,  for  whom 
we  can  love  with  pity  and  compassion,  we  are  filled  with,  possessed 
with,  charged  with  love,  we  cannot  live  a  life  that  resembles 
Christ's.  We  may  imitate,  we  may  caricature,  in  our  imitation 
we  shall  misrepresent,  but  we  cannot  reproduce  Christ's  life,  we 
cannot  be  in  the  world  as  He  was  in  the  world,  and  we  cannot  be 
to  the  world  what  He  was  to  the  world,  unless  it  is  true  of  us  all, 
he  loved,  she  loved;  everywhere  and  always  it  was  love — love  to 
God  and  love  to  men  that  moved  the  hand,  that  warmed  the  heart, 
and  that  guided  the  life.  The  root  of  every  true  life,  as  of  the  life 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  must  be  love. 

And  now,  yet  more  important  perhaps,  the  fruit  of  Christ's  love 
was  gift.  "  The  Son  of  God  loved  and  gave."  And  I  am  bold  to 
say,  and  you  will  agree  with  me  in  your  reason,  in  your  conscience, 
if  not  in  your  conduct,  that  love  always  means  gift.  If  a  man 
loves  his  church  he  will  give  to  his  church.  If  a  man  loves  his 
friend  he  will  give  to  his  friend.  The  warm  heart  always  means 
the  open  hand.  The  poorest,  the  neediest  of  the  children  I  know 
in  the  city  of  my  adoption,  when  they  want  to  show  that  they  have 
felt  at  all  any  glow  of  affection  towards  one,  will  somehow  manage 
to  give,  if  it  is  only  a  wild  flower  that  they  have  plucked  Irom  the 
field  or  from  the  hedgerow.     They  will  bring  the  flower,  that  they 


The  Root  and  Fruit  of  True  Life.  275 

may  give  according  to  the  passing  impulse  of  their  love.  Every 
birthday  gift  protests  that,  gift  of  lover  to  lover,  of  friend  to  friend, 
of  martyr  to  the  truth,  of  confessor  to  the  church,  the  patriot  on 
the  field  of  battle,  protest  that  where  there  is  love  there  will  be 
gift.  The  warm  heart  always  means  the  open  hand.  **  The  Son 
of  God  loved  and  gave."  And  so  is  it  not  only  of  the  little  child 
giving  its  posy  of  flowers  right  away  up  through  all  ranks  of  men, 
but  it  is  true  in  God  Himself.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He 
gave  His  only  begotten  Son."  God  could  not  love  without  giving 
away  more  than  you  or  I  can  love  without  giving. 

And  the  fruit  of  Christ's  love  was  gift.  "  The  Son  of  God  gave." 
But  oh,  one  stays  before  the  word  that  the  Apostle  penned  and 
marvels  at  the  depth  of  its  meaning,  the  loftiness  of  its  meaning, 
when  we  read  "  He  gave  Himself."  It  is  not  that  the  Lord 
Christ  gave  what  He  owned.  It  is  not  that  the  Lord  Christ  gave 
what  He  possessed.  It  is  not  that  out  of  His  great  kingdom  He 
gathered  treasure  and  lavished  His  treasures  upon  us.  But  it  is 
that  He  gave  Himself,  His  body,  to  toil,  with  unwearied  feet,  with 
hand  that  never  seemed  tired,  and  ear  that  never  seemed  heavy, 
and  eye  that  never  seemed  dim.  He  gave  His  body  to  toil  for 
men — to  toil,  to  suffer. 

"  Cold  mountains  and  the  midnight  air, 
Witnessed  the  fervour  of  His  prayer." 
They  brought  Him  to  the  judgment  hall,  they  spat  upon  Him, 
they  scourged  Him,  they  tore  the  tenderest  brow  with  thorns, 
they  nailed  the  kindest  hands  to  the  tree  of  shame,  they  crucified 
Him.  He  gave  His  body  when  He  gave  Himself,  to  suffer  and 
to  toil.  That  is  only  the  beginning  of  His  gifts.  He  gave  His 
mind.  I  remember  that  the  sainted  and  heroic  Robert  Moffat 
once  stood  in  the  pulpit  in  my  own  dear  chapel  and  talked  to  those 
of  us  who  were  there  about  his  life  in  Africa.  He  said  that 
amongst  all  the  things  he  had  endured  there  was  one  space  of 
time,  some  few  months  only,  in  which  he  had  gone  right  away  to 
a  dark  district,  where  men  were  sunken  as  low  as  they  could  be 
sunken  in  manifold  degradation ;  and  he  lived  alone  amongst 
.them,  and  tried  not  only  to  syllable  their  speech  but  to  think 
their  thoughts,  and  to  come  down  in  sympathy  to  their  low- 
thoughted  life,  and  to  be  a  brother  among  these  brethren.  For 
he  had  heard  what  Christ  in  the  father,  in  the  parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son,  said  to  the  elder  son,  and  he  was  trying  to  be  a 
brother  amongst  these  men,  living  amid  them  in  their  low- 
thoughted  life — their  dull,  almost  brutal,  intellectual  life— and  he 
said  that  it  was  terrible,  it  was  terrible.  And  that  is  only  a  hint, 
only  a  glimmer  of  what  is  meant  by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  coming 
down  from  the  supernal  glory,  from  the  clear  intelligence,  from 
the  perfect  love  yonder  to  live  amongst  men,  to  live  amongst  the 
poor  of  Nazareth,  to  live  among  the  Pharisees  and  the  publicans 
and  the  degraded.     He  came  to  this  world,  He  came  to  His  own, 


276  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

and  His  own  received  Him  not ;  and  He  thought  in  our  way, 
talked  in  our  way,  lived  amongst  us  by  an  infinite  self-sacrifice, 
compared  to  which  the  self-sacrifice  of  the  missionary  among  the 
Africans  is  as  nothing.     He  gave  His  life  as  well  as  His  body. 

But  He  gave  more.  We  have  not  given  to  those  who  are  about 
us  anything  of  the  real  treasure  of  our  life,  if  we  have  simply 
given  them  bodily  service  or  simply  given  them  mental  service. 
We  may  do  that  for  hire,  we  may  do  that  because  we  are  paid  for 
it.  He  gave  His  love.  And  it  is  when  we  have  opened  the 
treasure-house  of  our  love,  and  have  given  our  affection,  that  we 
have  given  ourselves  ;  when  there  has  gone  forth  from  us  all  that  is 
ourselves,  and  we  have  spent  that,  lavished  that,  sometimes  it  seems 
squandered  that,  upon  those  who  are  about  us,  that  we  have  given 
ourselves.  Christ  gave  His  love.  All  the  Niagara  of  His  love 
came  down  in  great  streams,  great  cataracts  of  compassion  and 
of  pity  towards  men,  unrestrained,  unhindered. 

He  gave  His  love,  but  He  gave  more— He  gave  His  will.  As 
far  as  one  can  understand  the  philosophy  of  the  Atonement  and 
can  get  at  the  secret  of  that  reconciling  power  by  which  men  are 
brought  back  to  God,  it  is  when  we  stand  by  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  Gethsemane,  and  when  we  hear  Him  pray  that  wondrous 
prayer,  "  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  Me,"  and  then 
take  it  back  and  amend  His  prayer :  in  all  points  made  like  unto 
us.  He  fashions  His  prayer  and  says,  "  Nevertheless,  not  as  I 
will,  but  as  Thou  wilt."  And  His  will  is  bent,  His  will  is  broken. 
His  will  is  surrendered,  and  He  gives  His  will.  The  citadel  of 
our  humanity,  the  secret  of  our  personal  life,  the  I  of  the  I,  He 
gives  for  us.     "Not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wilt." 

"  The  Son  of  God  loved,  and  gave  Himself."  Do  you  think  He 
sang  with  the  disciples  in  the  upper  room  at  that  paschal  feast 
any  of  the  paschal  psalms  ?  "  Most  likely,"  you  say ;  and  if  He 
did,  are  you  not  sure  that  whoever  led  the  singing,  it  must  have 
been  the  Christ  ?  Thomas  was  doubting,  and  doubters  cannot 
lead  song.  And  John  was  overwhelmed  with  anxiety,  and  anxious 
hearts  may  follow  but  they  cannot  lead  song.  I  think  Christ  led 
the  singing  that  night,  and  He  led  them  to  sing  this  :  "  Bind  the 
sacrifice  with  cords  to  the  horns  of  the  altar."  The  old  paschal 
psalm  that  for  generations  had  been  sung,  had  now  its  deepest 
meaning.  "  Bind  it  to  the  horns  of  the  altar."  And  He  was  bound 
to  the  horns  of  the  altar.  Loyalty  to  God,  compassion  for  men, 
love  for  you,  bound  Him  ;  and  you  will  wait  till  the  sacrifice  is 
consumed,  and  you  see  grey  ashes  there.  He  gave  Himself — 
kept  back  nothing.  "Thanks  be  to  God  for  the  unspeakable 
gift."  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in 
His  own  blood,  to  Him  be  glory."  "  The  Son  of  God  loved,  and 
gave  Himself  for  us." 

May  I  pause  for  a  moment  again  to  say  that  just  as  the  root  of 
every  true  life  will  be  love,  so  the  fruit  of  all  true  love  will    be 


The  Root  and  Fruit  of  True  Life.  277 

gift,  and  the  choicest  and  ripest  will  be  gift  of  self?  And  for 
what  is  God  waiting  to-night  ?  For  the  choicest  song  our  life 
can  sing  ?  Far  more  than  that.  For  the  largest  gifts  we  can 
offer  as  we  pass  out  through  the  doors  of  the  church  ?  Far  more 
than  that.  For  the  busiest  work  into  which  we  can  throw  our- 
selves this  week  ?  Far  more  than  that.  He  is  waiting  for  us,  for 
ourselves,  and  nothing  less  than  the  gift  of  self  will  satisfy  Him. 
He  gave  Himself  for  us.  Be  as  busy  as  you  will,  be  as  active, 
and  as  devoted,  and  as  earnest,  in  outward  labour  as  you  can, 
you  have  not  met  Christ's  heart  any  more  than  man  meets  the 
heart  of  brother  man  until  he  gives  love  ;  and  then,  when  love  is 
given,  all  labour,  all  song,  all  gift,  shall  but  add  fuel  to  the  flame 
and  glory  to  the  gladness  of  Christ.  Yield  yourselves  unto  God. 
*'  I  beseech  you  by  the  mercies  of  God  that  you  present  your 
bodies,  holy,  acceptable, which  is  your  reasonable  service."  "The 
Son  of  God  loved,  and  gave  Himself." 

And  yet,  with  all  these  wonderful  thoughts  gathering  round 
about  this  familiar  verse,  one  has  not  come  to  the  full  meaning  of 
it  until  one  reads  it  again,  and  until  one  reads,  "  The  Son  of  God 
who  loved,  and  who  gave  Himself?"  No;  "The  Son  of  God 
who  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  There  is  the  music  of 
the  Gospel.  There  is  the  quivering  tone  of  inspiration.  There 
are  the  deepest  depths  of  Christian  experience  welling  up.  "  The 
Son  of  God  loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me."  What  a  Gospel ! 
All  that  love  was  not  simply  love  to  the  world,  but  to  the 
individual  men  and  women  and  children  in  the  world.  All  that 
gift  was  not  gift  to  the  race  only,  but  to  the  men  and  the 
women  and  the  children  who  make  up  the  race.  Oh,  how  thankful 
often  some  of  you  have  been,  as  I  have  sometimes  been,  when  I 
have  remembered  who  wrote  this  sentence,  that  it  was  the  Apostle 
Paul,  of  all  the  Apostles,  who  wrote  this  sentence.  Because,  suppose 
some  of  the  others  had  written  it,  we  might  have  said  it  was  no 
wonder  that  they  could  write  that,  no  wonder  their  pen  could 
distinctly  trace  that  "  Me,"  no  wonder  their  lips  could  emphati- 
cally utter  that  "  Me,"  because  they  had  been  in  the  presence  of 
the  incarnate  Christ.  Why,  three  of  them — Peter,  James,  and 
John — if  they  had  said  this  of  Christ,  would  be  constrained  to  say 
it  with  the  fulness  of  experience.  They  had  been  with  Him 
through  three  years  of  intimate  friendship ;  they  had  listened  to 
His  words;  His  breath  had  fallen  upon  their  foreheads;  they  had 
seen  His  tears ;  they  had  looked  into  His  dear  face  again  and 
again ;  one  of  them  had  laid  his  head  upon  His  very  bosom.  Of 
course,  Peter,  and  James,  and  John,  and  the  rest  of  those  who 
were  with  Him,  could  say,  "  He  loved  me,  and  He  gave  Himself 
for  me,"  and  we  begin  to  think  that  we  could  sing  the  children's 
hymn : — 

"  I  think,  when  I  read  that  sweet  story  of  old, 
When  Jesus  was  here  among  men, 


278  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


How  He  called  little  children,  like  lambs,  to  His  fold — 
I  should  like  to  have  been  with  Him  then. 

"  I  wish  that  His  hands  had  been  placed  on  my  head, 
That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me  ; 
That  I  might  have  seen  His  kind  look  when  He  said, 
'  Let  the  little  ones  come  unto  Me.' " 

Men  and  women  feel  that  as  well  as  children.  But  Paul  writes 
this ;  Paul,  who  knew  Christ  just  as  you  know  Him,  by  faith,  by 
the  teaching  of  the  Spirit ;  Paul,  who  knew  the  risen  Christ ; 
Paul,  who  had  the  revelation  of  Him  that  we  may  have,  that  some 
of  you  have  had,  but  that  all  may  have  to-night — Paul  wrote  it 
after  Christ  had  passed  to  His  Father's  right  hand,  after  He  was 
the  ascended  and  the  glorified  Lord.  Paul  wrote,  "  He  loved  me 
and  gave  Himself  for  me."  There  was  foreknowing  love,  there 
was  love  that  went  beyond  the  three  years'  ministry,  beyond  the 
thirty-three  years  of  His  incarnate  life,  love  that  streams  down 
the  ages,  love  that  follows  us  as  the  river  that  came  out  of  Horeb, 
followed  the  Israelites  throughout  all  their  journeying,  and  will . 
follow  men  to  the  end  of  time — "  the  Son  of  God  loved  me  and 
gave  Himself  for  me."  There  is  no  child  of  Adam,  there  is  no 
son  of  man,  there  is  no  one  on  this  globe  that  is  girdled  with  the 
love  of  God  who  may  not  learn  to  say,  "  The  Son  of  God  loved 
me  and  gave  Himself  for  me ;  the  individual  love  of  the  personal 
soul,  the  distinct  and  definite  care  for  each  one  by  the  infinite 
heart  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  We  cannot  tell  whether  to-night  or  not 
the  clouds  shall  be  completely  cleared,  and  we  shall  look  into  a 
sky  that  is  studded  once  again  with  stars  ;  but  if  it  be  so,  and  we 
look  to-night  on  the  firmament,  and  gaze  at  those  wondrous 
worlds,  one  of  the  thoughts  that  will  come  in  upon  us  is  that, 
though. there  are  myriads,  there  is  room  in  between  them  for 
myriads  more.  The  intervals  are  vast,  the  splendid  spaces  are 
immense,  and  there  is  room  between  the  stars  for  myriads  and 
myriads  more.  And  so  I  look  into  the  heart  of  Christ,  and  I 
know  that  a  great  multitude  that  no  man  can  number  out  of  every 
kindred  and  nation  and  tongue  have  learned  to  love  Him  and  to 
find  a  place  in  his  heart.  But  there  is  love  in  that  heart  for 
more.  There  is  room  in  that  heart  for  all  of  us.  It  is  the  infinite 
heart  of  an  infinite  heaven  of  which  the  preacher  has  to  preach. 
Yet  there  is  room.  None  need  be  excluded  because  Christ  loved 
such  multitudes,  or  because  heaven  is  so  thronged.  There  is 
room  in  the  heart  of  Jesus  for  millions,  for  millions  more.  There 
is  room  for  me.  That  is  the  message  now :  "  The  Son  of  God 
loved  me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me." 

A  few  weeks  ago  I  saw  how  the  sunlight  fell  upon  some  of  the 
great  mountains  of  Scotland.  Then  I  looked  away  from  the 
mountains  upon  whose  great  white  heads  the  sunlight  was  rest- 
ing, to  the  heather  at  my  feet.  And  I  saw  that  the  heather  bell 
was  lit  up  by  the  same  sunlight  as  the  great  mountain  summit. 


The  Root  and  Fruit  of  True  Life.  279 

And  I  felt  it  was  so  in  the  world  of  souls.  It  is  not  only  theg^reat, 
the  noble,  the  heroic,  like  whom  we  would  fain  be,  but  it  is  the 
simplest,  the  humblest,  the  obscurest,  the  youngest  child,  the 
most  wayward  sinner  that  may  have  the  light  of  Christ's  love 
resting  upon  him,  and  glorifying  his  life,  and  making  it  as  gracious 
even  as  the  lives  of  the  great  and  noble.  "  The  Son  of  God  loved 
me,  and  gave  Himself  for  me." 

Once  again,  just  as  I  sought  to  tell  you  that  if  His  life  had  for 
its  root  love,  our  life  must  have  for  its  root  love  ;  and  if  His  love 
had  for  its  fruit  gift,  our  love  must  have  for  its  fruit  gift :  I  want  to 
pause  for  a  moment,  to  ask  whether  or  no,  if  He  loves  like  this, 
there  is  not  some  constraint  to  some  compulsion  upon  us  all  to 
love  Him  back  again  ?  Do  you  remember  reading,  five  or  six  years 
ago,  about  one  of  Her  Majesty's  ships  of  war  passing  through  the 
Bay  of  Bisca}'  one  dark  night,  and  there  was  a  cry  along  the  deck, 
**  Man  overboard  !  "  And  as  soon  as  they  heard  the  cry,  captain 
and  crew  sought  to  bring  the  great  ship  to,  that  if  possible  they 
might  rescue  the  man  who  was  overboard.  Young  Gregory,  one 
of  the  midshipmen,  flung  off  his  jacket  and  sprang  over  the  stern 
of  the  big  ship  into  the  dark  water  to  rescue  the  man  who  was 
overboard,  and  there  in  the  darkness  one  could  hear  the  plash 
and  splash  of  his  brave  arms  as  he  went  out  for  the  man  who  had 
fallen  in  ;  and  then  all  was  still.  Two  boats  were  lowered,  and 
brave  men  went  out  in  the  darkness  after  these  two — the  man  who 
had  fallen  overboard,  and  the  brave  young  midshipman  who  was 
rescuing  him.  After  a  few  minutes,  which  seemed  like  hours,  they 
came  alongside  the  big  ship,  and  up  the  rope  ladder  at  the  side  of 
the  vessel  the}'  soon  carried  the  sailor  who  had  fallen.  They  lay 
him  upon  the  deck,  and  they  chafe  his  hands,  and  they  give  him 
restoratives,  and  he  opens  his  eyes,  and  they  feel  he  is  saved,  it  is 
all  right.  He  stands  aghast,  wondering  and  grateful— he  is  saved. 
They  bring  up  soon  the  other,  and  they  lay  him,  young  Gregory, 
upon  the  deck,  but  he  is  very  ccld.  They  chafe  his  hands,  but 
they  become  more  icy  ;  and  they  look  into  his  face  and  there  is  the 
vacant  stare  of  death.  And  the  ship's  surgeon  kneeling  by  his 
side,  says  "  My  God,  he  is  dead  !  "  And  the  man  who  has  been 
rescued  hears  it,  and  in  a  passionate  agony  of  gratitude  paces  the 
deck,  and  no  one  can  still  him.  "  He  died  to  save  me,  what  can 
I  do  for  him  ?  He  died  to  save  me,  what  can  I  do  for  him  ?  " 
And  he  made  the  dark  night  vocal  with  his  cry,  and  the  ship's 
deck  almost  quivered  with  his  agony.  "  He  died  to  save  me,  what 
can  I  do  for  him  ?  " 

You  and  I  to-night  are  in  the  presence  of  Him  Who,  once  dead, 
lives  again  ;  not  before  a  crucifix  on  which  the  body  of  the  dead 
Christ  rests,  but  before  a  cross  from  which  Christ  has  ascended 
into  the  heavens  we  stand.  And,  brothers,  sisters,  you  and  I  have 
to  say,  and  to  say  it  solemnly,  some  for  the  first  time  and  some 


28o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

for  the  thousandth  time,  "  He  died  to  save  me ;  what  can  I  do  for 
Him?" 

What  can  I  do  ?  "  Go  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature."  What  can  I  do  ?  "  This  do  in  remembrance 
of  Me."  Eat  the  bread  and  drink  the  cup.  What  can  I  do  ?  "  If 
ye  love  Me  keep  My  commandments."  Oh,  there  is  plenty  to  do, 
song  enough  to  fill  eternity,  if  we  want  to  sing  the  song  of  praise 
to  Him  who  died  for  us,  "  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  us,  and  who 
gave  Himself  for  us."  May  the  teachings  of  this  familiar  text  be 
written  on  my  heart  and  on  yours  afresh  by  God's  Spirit,  for  His 
name's  sake  !     Amen. 


AN     EXPOSITION     OF    JOB    I. 
By  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

TAere  was  a  man  in  the  land  of  Uz — a  man  indeed,  a  man  of  God — whose 
name  was  Job.  That  inan  was  perfect  and  upright — he  was  thorough,  true, 
and  upright,  otie  that  feared  God  and  eschewed  evil.  He  had  both  sides  of 
character,  a  love  of  God  and  a  hate  of  sin. 

A7id  there  were  born  unto  him — for  he  was  no  hermit — seveti  softs  and 
seven  daughters — highly  favoured  with  such  a  family — his  sicbstance  also 
for  he  was  no  pauper  ;  he  was  a  man  of  God  and  yet  rich,  one  of  those 
camels  that  manage  to  go  through  the  eye  of  the  needle — his  substance 
also  2vas  seven  thousand  sheep  and  three  thousand  camels,  atid  five  hundred 
yoke  of  oxen  and  five  hundred  she  asses,  and  a  very  great  household,  so  tliat 
this  man  was  the  greatest  of  all  the  men  of  the  East.  Yet  a  perfect  and  an 
upright  man  !  You  often  hear  it  said  "  poor  and  pious,"  you  do  not  often 
hear  it  said  "  rich  and  pious,"  because  people  are  not  apt  to  believe  you. 
But  here  is  a  case  in  which  it  was  true.  Here  is  a  man  who  has  the  bless- 
ings of  the  upper  and  the  nether  springs.  He  has  all  he  needs  on  earth, 
and  his  portion  is  in  heaven. 

And  his  sons  went  and  feasted  in  their  houses,  every  one  his  day — perhaps 
his  birthday — and  sent  and  called  for  their  three  sisters,  who  were  very  modest 
and  retiring,  and  might  not  have  come  to  the  feast  if  they  had  not  been 
sent  for.  Their  brothers  were  gentle  and  thoughtful,  as  all  good  brothers 
will  be.  They  sent  for  their  three  sisters  to  eat  atul  to  drink  with  them. 
And  it  was  so,  tvhen  the  days  of  their  feasting  were  gone  about,  that  fob  setit 
and  sanctifed  them.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  gone  to  the  feast.  He 
felt  too  old,  his  character  was  too  staid  ;  not  that  he  judged  it  wrong  in 
the  young  people,  but  it  was  not  suitable  for  him  who  knew  more  than 
they,  and  had  higher  things  perhaps  nearer  his  heart  than  ever. 

And  he  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and  offered  burnt-offerings  according 
to  the  number  of  them  all.  For  Job  said,  It  may  be  that  my  sons  have  sinned 
and  cursed  God  in  their  hearts.  Perhaps  they,  in  their  prosperity,  have 
fallen,  if  not  into  atheistic  beliefs,  into  unholy  thoughts.  They  have  been 
unguarded,  they  have  lapsed,  they  may  not  have  gone  into  any  great  sin, 
but  in  their  sportiveness  they  may  have  gone  too  far.  So,  therefore,  he 
had  a  sacrifice.  Thus  did  Job  continually.  Not  only  occasionally,  but 
always,  he  had  his  altar  unto  God,  and  he  worshipped  Him,  and  sought 

keep  his  household  right  before  God. 


An  Exposition  of  Job  I.  281 


Nb7a  there  was  a  day  when  the  sons  of  God  came  to  present  i/utnselves 
before  the  Lord,  and  Satan  came  also  arnong  them. — Into  heaven  ?  Oh,  no. 
Tne  presence  of  God  is  very  wide  and  vast,  and  even  hell  lies  open  to  him, 
and  there  is  no  need  of  the  idea  of  admitting  an  evil  spirit  into  heaven 
in  the  fact  of  his  being  before  God. 

And  the  Lord  said  to  Satan,  Whence  comtst  thou  ?  He  is  his  Master. 
He  asks  him  where  he  has  been.  I  wonder  if  the  Lord  were  to  say 
to-night  to  everybody  here,  "  Whence  comest  thou?"  whether  you  could 
give  a  clean  and  honourable  answer  ?  Judge  ye  for  yourselves.  "  Whence 
comest  thou  ?  " 

T/un  Satan  answered  the  Lord,  and  said,  From  going  to  and  fro  in  the 
earth,  and  from  walking  up  and  down  in  it.  Uneasy,  without  rest,  active, 
seeking  whom  he  may  devour.  Ah,  we  little  know  how  near  he  may  be 
to  us  now,  and  even  in  our  prayer,  when  we  are  nearest  to  God,  he  may 
come  and  assail  us. 

Tlie  Lord  said.  Hast  thou  considered  My  servant  Job?  He  is  an 
example  to  you,  he  is  so  obedient,  and  you  are  so  rebellious.  Hast  thou 
considered  My  servant  Job,  that  there  is  none  like  him  on  the  earth,  a 
perfect  and  an  upright  man,  one  that  feareth  God  and  eschezveth  evil? 
Then  Satan  answered  the  Lord,  and  said:  Well,  now,  if  there  had  been 
anything  in  Job  he  would  have  said  it.  But,  however  excellent  a  man  is, 
though  there  were  none  like  him  on  earth,  he  would  find  fault  with  him. 
Satan  found  fault  with  him  because  he  prospered.  His  friends  found  fault 
with  him  because  he  did  not  prosper.  So  you  can  make  anything  a  blight 
on  the  holiest  of  men  if  your  mind  is  malicious  enough. 

Then  said  Satan,  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  naught?  Hast  Thou  not  made 
a  hedge  about  him,  and  about  his  house,  and  about  all  that  he  hath  on  every 
side  ?  The  dog  had  been  prowHng,  to  see  whether  he  could  get  in,  and  so 
he  knew  there  was  a  hedge  made  right  round  Job,  and  about  his  house, 
and  all  he  had.  And  he  hints  that  Job  fears  God  for  what  he  can  get  out 
of  Him,  that  his  love  is  cupboard  love,  that  he  is  well  paid  by  providence 
for  his  reverence  to  God.  Thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his  hands.  The 
devil  dare  not  insinuate  that  he  was  not  a  working  man,  that  he  had  come 
by  his  estate  by  oppression  or  plunder.  No,  said  he,  Thou  hast  blessed 
the  work  of  his  hands,  and  his  substance  is  increased  in  the  land.  But  put 
forth  Thine  hand  no7V  and  touch  all  that  he  hath  and  he  will  curse  Thee  to 
Thy  face.  Ah,  see  what  Satan  can  do  and  what  mischief  he  can  con- 
trive against  the  righteous.  The  mercy  is  that  he  is  not  almighty.  He  is 
very  mighty  and  he  is  very  malicious,  but  there  is  One  stronger  than  he, 
Who  can  match  him. 

And  the  Lord  said  unto  Satan,  Behold  all  that  he  hath  is  in  thy  power, 
only  upon  himself  put  not  forth  thine  hand.  So  Satan  went  forth  from  the 
presence  of  the  Lord.  And  there  was  a  day  whtn  his  sons  and  his  daughters 
were  eating  and  drinking  wine  in  their  eldest  brother's  house  :  And  there 
came  a  messenger  zinto  Job,  and  said,  The  oxen  were  plowing,  and  the  asses 
feeding  beside  thejn  :  And  the  Sabeans  fell  upon  them,  and  took  them  azvay  ; 
yea,  they  have  slain  the  servants  ivith  the  edge  of  the  szvord;  and  I  only 
afn  escaped  alone  to  tell  thee.  He  had  not  wronged  these  Sabeans,  they  were 
no  enemies  of  his,  but  they  were  plunderers,  and  when  Satan  moved  them 
they  came  to  plunder  this  good  man. 

While  he  zvas  yet  speaking — to  give  Job  no  time  to  rally  his  faith  and  to 


282  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

encourage  his  heart —  lV/u7e  he  was  yet  speaking,  there  came  also  another, 
a7id  said,  The  fire  oj  God  is  fallen  from  heaven,  and  hath  burned  tip  the 
sheep,  and  the  serva^its,  and  consumed  them;  afid  I  only  am  escaped  alone  to  tell 
thee.  Which  must  have  distressed  Job  much  more,  for  the  fire  had  burned 
up  the  sheep  he  was  accustomed  to  offer  in  sacrifice  to  God,  and  the  blow 
had  seemed  to  come  from  God  Himself,  lightning  had  fallen  and  the  sheep 
were  all  destroyed. 

He  had  not  time  to  recover  himself  from  that  shock,  for  while  he  was 
yet  speaking,  there  came  also  afiothcr,  a?id  said,  The  Chaldeans  made  out 
three  bands,  and  fell  upon  the  camels,  and  have  carried  them  away,  yea, 
and  slain  the  servants  with  the  edge  of  the  sivord;  and  I  only  am  escaped 
alone  to  tell  thee.  He  had  not  time  for  a  pause,  for  before,  while  he  was 
yet  speaking — for  Satan  had  arranged  it  to  bring  on  the  troubles  one  after 
another  as  quickly  as  possible,  so  as  to  overwhelm  the  good  man.  And, 
have  you  noticed  it,  troubles  seldom  come  alone.  When  you  have  one 
you  have  another  :  as  the  old  proverb  has  it,  "  It  seldom  rains  but  it  pours." 
When  there  is  one  black  scroll,  there  is  a  flock  of  them. 

While  he  was  yet  speaki?ig,  there  came  also  another,  and  said.  Thy  sons 
and  thy  daughters  were  eating  and  drinkiiig  wine  in  their  eldest  brother's 
house.  And,  behold,  there  came  a  great  wind  from  the  zvilderness,  and  smote  the 
four  corners  of  the  house,  and  it  fell  upon  the  young  men,  and  they  are  dead; 
and  I  only  am  escaped  alone  to  tell  thee.  This  was  the  worst  of  all,  to  lose 
his  children,  not  while  they  were  praying,  but  while  they  were  feasting. 
When  he  had  not  time  to  call  them  together  to  sanctify  them,  they  are 
called  away,  in  the  heyday  of  their  youth.  And  the  shock  that  took  them 
was  manifestly  from  Satan,  seeing  that  he  is  the  prince  of  the  power  of 
the  air.  And  this  strange  tornado  had  smitten  all  four  corners  of  the  house 
at  once. 

Then  Job  arose,  with  all  his  burden  on  him  he  rose,  and  re?it  his 
7na7itle,  and  shaved  his  head.  He  did  not  pull  his  hair  out ;  that  is  what 
a  maniac  would  have  done,  or  a  person  delirious  with  trouble.  He  de- 
liberately shaved  his  head,  and  fell  dozvn  upon  the  ground  and  worshipped. 
Grand  old  man  !  How  bravely  does  he  come  out  here  !  "  Fell  down  on 
the  ground  and  worshipped." 

Then  Job  arose,  and  rent  his  mantle,  and  shaved  his  head,  and  fell  down 
upon  the  groiind,  and  worshipped.  And  said.  Naked  came  I  out  of  my 
mother's  womb,  a7id  naked  shall  I  return  thither:  the  Lord  gave  a?id  the 
Lord  hath  taken  away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  grandest 
words,  I  think,  in  human  speech.  Considering  the  circumstances  of  the 
man,  that  he  should  speak  them,  this  was  a  miracle  of  grace.  In  all  this 
Job  sinned  not,  nor  charged  God  foolishly. 


A  WEDNESDAY  EVENING  PRAYER. 
By  the  Rev.  A.  Maclaren,  D.D. 
Quicken  our  desires,  and  lift  up  our  hearts,  O  Lord  !  we  beseech  Thee 
now,  that  we  may  draw  near  to  Thee,  in  full  assurance  of  faith ;  and 
knowing  not  only  our  needs  but  Thine  all-sufficiency  and  fulness,  we 
desire  the  greatest  gifts  which  Thou  canst  give,  O  Lord !  we  would  not 
come  with  small  wishes  to  Thyself,  the  Fountain  of  large  benefits.     But 


A   Wednesday  Evening  Prayer.  283 

we  beseech  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  help  us  to  widen  our  desires  in  some 
measure  to  the  extending  of  Thy  loving  purposes,  so  that  we  may  take 
more  in  of  the  things  that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God  ;  and  be  filled 
because  we  "  hunger  and  thirst  after  righteousness." 

We  draw  near  to  Thee  now,  O  Lord  !  with  thankful  remembrance  of 
Thy  great  mercies  and  past  benefits  to  us,  and  we,  too,  have  to  say 
"  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us,"  and  to  bless  Thee  that  in  all, 
that  "  hitherto "  there  lies  the  pledge  of  all  future  benefits.  "  Leave 
us  not,  neither  forsake  us,  O  God  of  our  salvation."  Perfect  that  which 
concerneth  us,  inasmuch  as  Thy  mercy  endureth  for  ever.  We  pray 
Thee  that  we  may  be  brought  into  closer  union  with  Thee,  and  in  all 
the  variety  of  duty  and  circumstance  may  be  able  to  still  keep  our 
hearts  in  the  heavenly  places,  and  our  inmost  spirits  in  true  touch  and 
union  with  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  Oh  !  preserve  us,  we  pray  Thee, 
from  listening  to  the  tempting  voices  that  seek  to  draw  us  away. 
Deliver  us  from  the  power  of  our  own  weakness  ;  defend  us  from  the 
errors  into  which  we  are  too  apt  to  fall  as  to  the  worth  of  things  here, 
and  the  things  at  Thy  right  hand.  And  may  we  not  be  so  short- 
sighted as  to  prefer  the  joys  of  a  day;  and  the  fields,  and  the  yokes 
of  oxen,  to  the  bread  and  the  wine  of  the  Kingdom.  Do  Thou  help 
us  as  we  travel  on  life's  path  to  carry  ever  with  us  the  assurance  of 
Thy  presence ;  and  may  we  distrust  our  own  guidance  and  look  always 
to  Thee  in  all  junctures  and  contingencies  of  difficulty  or  trying  cir- 
cumstance for  that  wisdom  which  is  profitable  to  direct,  and  that  Hand 
which  alone  is  able  to  sustain.  We  would  cast  ourselves  on  Thy  faithful 
promises,  O  Lord  ;  we  plead  them,  and  in  our  faith  in  them  put  the  faith- 
fulness of  them.  And  we  ask  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  do  unto  us  accord- 
ing to  the  counsel  of  Thine  own  heart,  and  the  sure  testimony  of  Thine 
own  Word  ;  and  so  rebuke  and  put  to  shame  our  distrust  and  forgetfulness 
of  the  large  and  wondrous  blessings  which  Thou  dost  bestow. 

We  ask  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  so  order  our  outward  lives  as  that  by 
means  of  them  we  may  be  helped  to  a  more  assured,  and  calm,  and  con- 
stant possession  of  the  eternal  blessings  which  Thou  dost  mean  life  to 
bring  us. 

O  help  us,  we  pray  Thee,  this  evening,  as  we  are  gathered  here  before 
Thee,  and  let  Thy  word  come  to  us  with  power  ;  and  may  we  be  able  to 
speak  Thy  high  message  as  it  ought  to  be  spoken.  Shed  abroad  upon  all 
our  hearts  the  influences  of  Thy  grace.  If  there  have  been  in  the  history 
of  this  day  anything,  either  by  reason  of  our  own  faults  and  failures,  or 
by  reason  of  the  difficulties  of  the  way  of  Thine  appointment,  which  may 
make  it  especially  hard  for  any  of  us  to  draw  near  to  Thee  now,  and  to 
enter  into  the  sweet  seclusion  and  calm  of  Thy  presence,  we  pray  Thee 
that  Thou  wouldst  take  away  all  the  hindrances ;  and  so  touch  our  hearts 
that  they  may  open  to  Thy  grace,  and  so  loose  the  bonds  that  bind  us 
down  to  the  things  seen  and  temporal  that  we  may  enter  into  the  secret 
place  of  the  Most  High  now.  And  not  only  in  our  outward  appearance, 
but  in  inmost  reality,  may  we  all  be  prayerful  in  Thy  presence,  and  waitmg 
to  hear  what  God  the  Lord,  and  not  a  human  voice,  shall  speak  unto  us. 

O  Lord,  we  pray  for  one  another,  and  for  all  that  are  dear  to  any  of 
us,  and  for  our  homes  and  those  in  them,  and  for  those  especially  who 
may  be  in  any  kind  of  sorrow  or  trouble,  and  beseech  Thee  that  Thou 


284  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

wouldst  comfort  such  with  that  gracious  and  all-sufficing  presence  which 
brings  light  into  darkness,  and  calms  the  wildest  storms.  And  grant,  we 
beseech  Thee,  that  those  of  us  who  may  be  exercised  by  any  kind  of 
sorrow  may  so  accept  the  Father's  will,  and  enter  into  tTie  meaning  of  His 
dispensations,  and  bow  ourselves  in  submission  to  His  holy  purposes,  that 
the  "  peaceable  fruit  of  righteousness  "  may  spring  up  in  the  hearts  that 
are  scored  deep  by  the  ploughshare  of  sorrow. 

We  pray  Thee,  O  Lord,  to  bless  us  and  all  our  work  and  worship.  We 
beseech  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  prosper  us  as  a  Church  and  congrega- 
tion ;  and  give  to  us  who  minister  in  public,  and  to  all  of  us  in  our  several 
places  and  degrees,  the  helpful  Spirit  of  Thy  Grace.  And  grant,  we 
beseech  Thee,  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  among  us  may  run  and  be 
glorified. 

Now,  O  Lord,  we  desire  to  commend  ourselves  to  Thy  loving  care.  We 
thank  Thee  for  all  our  past  experience  of  it ;  we  pray  Thee  that  the 
distrust  of  it  may  be  conquered  and  finished,  and  that  we  may  be  able  to 
lay  ourselves  and  all  our  interests,  hopes,  plans,  purposes,  anxieties,  and 
everything  that  belongs  to  us,  into  Thy  gracious  hands,  who  hast  redeemed 
us,  and  who  will  not  forsake  us. 

We  beseech  Thee  to  hear  us,  to  forgive  all  our  sins,  and  to  grant  us 
Thy  gracious  presence  in  our  hour  of  worship,  for  our  Saviour  Christ's 
sake.     Amen. 

LIFE. 

Outline  Sermon^ 

By  the  Rev.  J.  Oswald,  Stoke-on-Trent. 

"  Break  up  your  fallow  ground." — ^Jeremiah  iv.  3. 

Introduction. — (i)  Fallow  ground  gives  no  fruitage  but  "  nature's  own." 

(2)  Possesses  latent  power  of  production.     Tilled,  the  "desert  blossoms 

as  the  rose." 

I.  Surface  Life. — There  is  a  growth — nature  run  wild,  (i)  In  many 
the  "  natural  man  "  rules.  Moving  throng  of  men  racing  for  earthly  good. 
Sacrifices  made  for  wealth — sweet,  true  home-life  !  Hand  that  gathers 
only  earthly  good  flings  away  fine  moral  sensibility.  The  soul's  sympathies 
and  longings  shocked  and  paralysed.  The  virtues  apparent  are  but 
stunted  herbage  of  fallow  ground.  (2)  Physical  rules  in  many.  Live  in 
world  of  fashion.  Soul  stunted  and  dwarfed  by  trivialities  of  life.  (3) 
"  Culture  "  does  not  mean  godliness  even  !  To  touch  the  mind  is  not 
always  to  touch  the  man.  To  know  is  not  always  to  be.  The  grandest 
thing  in  man  is  deeper  than  mere  knowledge. 

n.  Latent  IJfe. — Fallow  ground  capable  of  better  things,  (i)  Won- 
drous possibilities  lie  within  us.  Cannot  sound  the  depths  of  soul.  What 
we  are,  and  yet  what  we  might  be  !  Sinners,  but  might  be  saints  of  God  j 
demons,  but  might  be  angels,  messengers  of  God's  mercy  and  peace. 
Angel  of  better  life  slumbers  within.  Deep  below  surface — below  thought- 
lessness, selfishness,  depravity — lies  a  mine  of  better  feeHngs  and  powers, 
only  needing  to  be  touched  by  God.  (2)  GHmpses  of  soul  depths 
occasionally — revealed  by  powerful  tale,  by  nature  in  its  sublime  moods 
and  scenes,  by  circumstances  of  danger  and  disease. 

HL  Higher  Life. — Obtained  by  "breaking  up  of  fallow."  False  life 
must  be  broken  in  upon.    Ploughshare  must  crash  through  surface.     Fires 


Outline  Sermons.  285 


must  burn  refuse.  God  breaks  the  fallow  in  life's  sufferings  and  sorrows. 
Often  by  the  gentler  influence  of  Spirit  Divine  to  stir  up  latent  life  of  soul. 
He  convinces  the  world  of  sin,  and  the  life  passable  in  twilight  of  worldly 
morality — shown  to  be  waste  fallow.  He  also  shows  beauty  of  life  in 
Christ,  and  possibility  of  being  presented  faultless  before  presence  of  His 
glory. 

CHRIST  ALL  IN  ALL. 

Oidlinc  Sermon. 
By  the  Rev.  D.  Ritchie  Key,  M.A.,  Edinburgh. 
"  I  am  Alpha  and  Omega."— Revelation  i.  8. 
There  is  a  threefold  setting  forth  of  Christ  in  the  New  Testament.     The 
conception  of  the  Evangelists  embodied  in  the  narrative  of  the  Gospels. 
The  reflected  picture  seen  in  the  effects  produced  on  the  people ;  they 
feared,  wondered,  &c.     Christ's  own  setting  forth  of  Himself  in  the  titles 
He  assumed.     Here  we  have  a  part  of  it.     The  self-presentation  of  the 
glorified  Christ.     He  here  identifies  Himself  with  God,  whose  peculiar 
title  is  "the  first  and  the  last."     In  many  ways  is  Christ  the  Alpha  and 
Omega. 

I.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega  of  Creation. — It  began  in  His  thought 
(Rom.  xi.  36) ;  was  made  by  His  power  (John  i.  3) ;  exists  through  His 
bounty  (Heb.  i.  3) ;  has  its   issue  in  His  praise  and  glory  (Col.  i.  16). 

II.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega  of  History. — The  years  before  Him  we  mark 
B.C. ;  the  years  after  a.d.  The  centuries  before  were  a  preparation  for 
His  advent.     History  since  has  been  a  record  of  His  triumphs. 

III.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega  of  Scripture. — He  appears  in  Genesis, 
"The  seed  of  the  woman."  He  is  the  grand  figure  in  Revelation.  He 
the  subject  of  all  between. 

IV.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega  of  Salvation. — He  is  Author  and  Finisher 
of  our  faith.  He  convinces  and  converts.  He  justifies  and  sanctifies. 
There  is  none  other  name. 

V.  He  is  Alpha  a?id  Omega  in  the  Life  of  the  Believer. — He  is  crucified 
with  Christ.  He  lives  for  Christ.  To  live  is  Christ — to  know,  love, 
glorify,  be  like,  work  for,  enjoy,  Christ.  So  Paul  says  :  Whose  I  am,  whom 
I  serve. 

VI.  He  is  Alpha  and  Omega  in  Christian  Church. — He  is  foundation 
and  head  corner  stone.  He  began  it.  He  has  been  with  it.  He  is  with 
it.     He  shall  gather  it,  and  glorify  it. 

SPIRITUAL  SONG. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Douglas,  Douglas  (Isle  of  Man). 

"  And  when  they  had  sung  an  hymn,  they  went  out  into  the  Mount  of  Olives." — 

Matthew  xxvi.  30. 
Introduction. — "Whatever  God  has  revealed  must  deserve  our  careful 
study  and  prayerful  investigation."  Much  of  Christ's  life  unrecorded. 
Where  the  curtain  falls  it  is  presumption  to  look  behind.  Where  the  veil 
is  lifted  it  is  for  man  to  see  God's  goodness,  know  His  will,  and  serve 
Him.  Avenues  for  thought  opened  by  this  act.  As  waves  of  light  shine 
through  the  smallest  crevice,  so  the  glory  of  Christ  shines  through  this 
opening  in  His  history. 


286  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

I.  On  the  threshold  of  suffering  Christ  with  men  sings  a  triumphant 
psalm. — Teaches  entire  consecration  to  God,  creates  calm  trustfulness  and 
fortitude  in  trial  To  sing  thus  we  must  have  unbroken  fellowship  with 
God,  illustrated  in  the  lives  of  Paul,  Luther,  Wesley. 

II.  Chrisfs  kinship  and  sympathy  with  the  disciples. — Hymn  used  to 
cheer,  strengthen,  and  inspire  confidence  in  God. 

III.  Teaches  simplicity  of  Christian  Worship. — No  robed  choristers.  No 
mystical  chanting.  This  service  parallel  with  Christ's  prayer-meeting,  two  or 
three  met  in  His  name.  Thus  possible  for  all  to  worship.  (Accessories  not 
forbidden.)  God  the  author  of  music.  The  harp  and  psaltery  not  to  be 
broken  or  destroyed.  Convert  the  player,  and  the  music  will  be  heavenly. 
The  singer  a  disciple  of  Christ,  we  have  the  song  of  the  redeemed,  not  the 
Bacchanalian  revel  of  the  unregenerate.  See  Paul's  advice  to  Ephesian 
converts  (Eph.  v.  19). 

Practical  Lessons. — Spiritual  song  should  be  used  to  bring  men  nearer 
God.  This  part  of  worship  a  pathway  to  His  presence.  The  hymn 
learned  in  childhood  brings  many  a  prodigal  home  to  God.  "  God  sent 
His  singers  upon  earth  "  (see  Longfellow). 

Apply. — Those  with  the  gift  of  song  consecrate  it  to  Christ.  Be  ready 
for  service. 

"  There  golden  harps  they  took, 
Harps  ever  tuned  that  glittered  by  their  side." — Milton. 

See  the  crowned  Saviour,  list  to  the  new   song  (Rev.  xiv.  2,  3).     May 
we  join  them  where,  as  Kingsley  says,  "  all  speech  will  be  song." 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Sunday,  September  7,  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 

JESUS  AND  THE  PUBLICAN. 

St.  Luke  xix.  1 — 10. 

"  Climbed  Up  into  a  Svcomore." — The  m.eeting  of  our  Lord  with 
Zacchjeus  took  place  on  the  Plain  of  Jericho,  on  the  west  side  of  the  city, 
where  the  road  crosses  the  plain  to  the  foot  of  the  pass  by  Wady  Kelt, 
through  which  He  ascended  to  Jerusalem.  He  had  come  from  Galilee,  not 
by  the  ordinary  route  through  the  country  of  Samaria  and  Benjamin,  but 
by  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan  valley,  till  He  reached  the  Plain  of  Shittim, 
and  then  crossed  by  the  same  ford  by  which  Joshua  had  led  the  chosen 
people  into  the  Promised  Land.  An  interesting  illustration  of  a  minor 
incident  in  this  part  of  His  journey  is  afforded  us  by  the  fact  that  there 
still  linger  by  that  roadside  a  few  old  gnarled  sycomore  fig-trees.  The  syco- 
more  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  sycamore  or  maple  of  temperate 
climates.  It  is  a  species  of  fig,  bearing  its  fruit  crowded  on  the  stem 
and  naked  boughs,  and  not  among  its  leaves.  It  is  very  sensitive  to  cold, 
and  cannot  bear  frost.  ("  He  destroyed  .  .  .  their  sycomore  trees  with 
frost,"  Psalm  Ixxviii.  47) ;  and,  though  common  in  Egypt,  in  Palestine  only 
grows  in  the  mild  climate  of  the  maritime  plains  of  Phenicia,  Acre,  and 
Sharon,  and  in  the  hot  Jordan  valley.     It  grows  to  a  large  size,  sometimes 

*  From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times, 


Sermomtte  for  Children  on  the  Intevnational  Lesson.      287 

a  circumference  of  fifty  teet,  and  is  evergreen,  as  in  the  case  of  the  cele- 
brated sycomore  tree  by  the  Khan  of  Damascus.  It  is  not  a  tall,  but  a 
wide-spreading  tree,  and,  with  its  low,  laterally  extending  branches,  and 
dark  foliage,  recalls  the  English  oak.  It  is  consequently,  on  account  of  its 
shade,  a  favourite  wayside  tree.  With  its  very  short  trunk  and  wide  hori- 
zontal branches,  it  is  very  easy  to  climb,  and  would  naturally  be  selected 
by  Zacchasus  as  an  accessible  position,  where  he  could  sit  overhanging  the 
path,  and  thus  obtain  a  view  of  our  Lord  as  He  passed  underneath  him, 
from  his  "coign  of  vantage."  We  may  remember  that  the  prophet  Amos 
speaks  of  himself  as  a  gatherer  (literally,  a  scraper)  of  sycomore  fruit ;  that 
is,  one  who  punctured  or  scraped  the  fruit  to  let  out  the  acrid  juice  before 
it  was  quite  ripe,  without  which  precaution  it  is  bitter  and  nauseous.  Only 
the  very  poorest  would  devote  themselves  to  such  a  task. 

"  Zacch/EUS  ...  a  Chief  Publican." — Zacchteus  was  chief  of  the 
publicans — an  expression  which  only  occurs  in  this  passage.  But  it  is  at 
once  understood,  when  we  remember  the  great  importance  of  Jericho  as  a 
source  of  revenue  to  the  imperial  government.  Here  alone  was  cultivated  the 
famous  balm  of  Gilead,  now  quite  extinct,  and  not  a  native  of  the  country, 
but  of  the  east  coast  of  Africa.  Tradition  said  it  was  originally  intro- 
duced by  the  Queen  of  Sheba,  who  gave  some  roots  to  King  Solomon. 
From  hence  plants  were  taken  by  Cleopatra  for  her  gardens  at  Heliopolis. 
It  was  always  a  government  monopoly,  and  imperial  guards  were  placed 
over  the  plantations.  Hence  the  importance  of  the  position  of  the  tax- 
gather  at  Jericho,  who  naturally  would  be  a  chief  officer  of  the  publicans. 
Besides  the  revenue  from  the  balsam,  Jericho  was  the  great  halting  place 
for  caravans  from  North  Arabia  to  Palestine  and  Egypt,  and  here  they  paid 
the  duties  on  their  merchandise. 

"  If  I  Have  Taken  .  .  .  bv  False  Accusation." —  The  system  by 
which  taxes  were,  and  still  are,  raised  in  the  East,  is  very  diiiferent  from 
the  mode  in  which  the  revenue  is  raised  in  Western  and  happier  lands. 
The  Romans,  Hke  the  Turks,  let  out  to  the  highest  bidder  among  the 
chief  publicans  the  collection  of  the  revenue  at  each  place.  It  is  true  that 
the  amount  payable  on  each  article  was  fixed  by  law.  But  the  contractor 
has  to  pay  his  fixed  sum,  and  to  secure  his  own  profit  as  best  he  can.  This 
opens  the  door  to  every  kind  of  surcharge  and  extortion ;  and  if  the 
oppressed  cultivator  or  merchant  should  appeal,  the  temptation  to  meet 
him  by  false  testimony  as  to  the  value  or  quantity  of  his  produce  is  to  an 
Eastern  official  almost  irresistible.  It  is  to  this  evil  custom  that  Zacchaeus 
alludes  when  he  speaks  of  false  accusation. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Golden  Text :  Verse  10. 
"  So  I  be  good  I  care  not  to  be  tall, 
I'd  rather  be  Zacchieus  than  a  Saul." — Thomas  Fuller. 

This  story  of  the  salvation  of  Zacchaus  on  the  roadside  by  Jesus  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God  in  human  flesh,  in  all  His  love  and  grace,  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  Golden  Text :  "  The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save 

■'  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


288  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

tkat  which  was  lost."  That  word  "  lost "  has  a  real  and  awful  meaning. 
The  awful  reality  of  "  lostness"  lies  here — that  I  have  lost  God,  and  God 
has  lost  me.  Surely  the  Gospel  of  the  Gospel  lies  in  this  golden  text, 
"  The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost." 

I.  Jesus  at  His  work.  Our  lesson  to-day  is  an  illustration  of  how  He 
does  His  work.  It  needs  skill  to  find  out  a  thing  that  is  lost.  Some  of 
us  have  not  got  this  skill,  and  when  the  hunt  for  the  lost  thing  is  begun, 
you  are  told,  "  Oh,  you  had  better  sit  down.  Yoti  will  never  find  it." 
You  have  not  the  happy  knack  of  ferreting  out  lost  things.  See  how  the 
Son  of  Man  seeks  and  finds  a  lost  sinner.  First  of  all  He  comes  to  the 
lost  sinner's  town.  "  He  entered  and  passed  through  Jericho."  Jesus 
knew  all  about  this  lost  sinner — his  name  and  address.  He  comes  to  the 
street  in  Jericho  where  Zacchseus  is,  and  more  than  that,  He  comes  to  the 
particular  tree,  on  the  roadside,  in  the  branches  of  which  the  lost  one  is 
sitting.  Jesus  calls  him  by  his  name,  and  says  to  him,  "Zacchsus,  make 
haste  and  come  down,  for  to-day  I  must  abide  at  thy  house.  And  he 
made  haste  and  came  down,  and  received  Him  joyfully."  The  seeking 
Saviour  and  the  lost  sinner  met  together  then  at  the  foot  of  that  tree, 
never  to  be  separated  again. 

II.  The  man  who  needed  saving.  Zacchgeus  was  a  publican,  and  he 
was  rich.  Israel,  you  remember,  had  lost  her  independence,  and  was  under 
the  conquering  heel  of  Rome  ;  and  she  had  to  pay  taxes  to  Rome.  The 
taxes  were  farmed  out,  and  a  particular  class  of  men  lifted  the  taxes  for 
the  hated  Roman  power.  When  a  Jew  gave  himself  to  this  business,  he 
must  have  come  very  low,  soiling  his  soul  and  his  fingers  making  money 
by  lifting  the  hated  tax.  Suppose  that  this  country  were  under  the  con- 
quering heel  of  France,  and  we  had  to  pay  a  tax  to  France,  what  would 
you  think  of  the  Englishman  who  made  his  money  by  collecting  the  tax 
for  the  usurping  Frenchman  ?  He  would  not  be  a  popular  man.  Now 
that  kind  of  a  man  was  Zacchgeus — popular  neither  at  church  nor  market. 
Perhaps  he  had  feathered  his  own  nest  unjustly  by  putting  on  the  screw. 

Now  this  man  felt  a  great  curiosity  to  see  Jesus.  God  often  works  upon 
curiosity.  Fools  have  come  to  a  meeting  to  scoff,  and  have  remained  to 
pray.  Zacchceus  wanted  to  "  see  Jesus  who  He  was."  Curiosity  limes  the 
twip,  and  the  bird  lights  upon  it,  and  Christ  comes  and  catches  it. 

Zacchaeus  had  difficulties  in  the  way  of  seeing  Jesus.  He  was  under- 
sized, but  he  had  courage  and  pluck,  and  "  he  ran  before  and  climbed  the 
sycomore  to  see  Him."  Do  your  part  and  Christ  will  do  His.  Zacchgeus 
got  a  personal  call  to  a  personal  Saviour,  and  he  answered  to  the  call. 
He  was  willing  to  come  down,  and  they  went  away  home  together. 
Christ's  love  broke  Zacchceus'  heart,  and  this  love  purified  his  heart  and 
overcame  the  world. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  123,  Vol.  III.]  SEPTEMBER  12,  1890.  One  Penny. 

OLD  TESTAMENT  PROBLEMS: 

An  Address  delivered  in  the  Scots'  Churchy  Collins-st7-eet,  Melbourne., 
By  Professor  Andrew  Harper,  M.A. 

It  has  recently  been  said  that  the  great  battle-ground  of  the  Christian  faith 
in  the  immediate  future  will  be  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures.  Do  they 
record  a  real  revelation  from  God,  or  are  they  only  the  documents  of  a 
very  interesting  development  of  human  thought  ?  Are  they  in  any  way 
helpful  to  and  binding  on  us  of  this  modern  day  ?  Do  they  reveal  a  reli- 
gious life  which  in  any  sense  is  unique,  or  are  they  only  another  specimen 
of  that  development  of  religious  faith  from  illusion  to  illusion  which  philo- 
sophers tell  us  forms  the  necessary  course  in  which  human  thought  about 
religion  moves  ?  Lastly,  does  the  religion  of  the  Old  Testament  stand  in 
any  organic  connection  with  Christianity,  or  are  they  two  separate  things 
connected  with  each  other  by  little  more  than  external  ties  of  place  or 
time  ?  Questions  like  these  are  being  asked  and  argued  with  very  great 
ability.  They  will  soon  become,  if  they  have  not  already  become,  the 
commonplaces  of  the  Press,  and  to  those  who  have  been  trained  in  that 
reverence  which  the  Bible,  as  the  Word  of  God,  most  surely  claims  from 
us,  the  mere  statement  of  them  is  painful.  But  they  are  the  product  of 
our  modern  ways  of  looking  at  the  world  of  men  and  of  nature,  and  being 
so,  the  Christian  communities  of  our  day  will  have  to  face  and  answer 
them.  The  answers  found  in  the  past  to  similar  questions  will  not  do 
good  service  now,  for  the  world  has  not  been  standing  still. 

In  our  generation  especially,  very  great,  even  astounding,  advances 
have  been  made  in  scientific  knowledge.  Light  of  all  kinds  has  been 
pouring  in  upon  us,  and  as  the  face  of  nature  changes  with  the  chang- 
ing stages  of  the  day,  so  the  whole  world  of  things  and  of  thoughts  has 
been  changed,  in  appearance  at  least,  by  the  new  illumination.  The 
result  is  that  the  demand  for  a  new  treatment  of  religious  questions,  a 
new  answer  to  the  old  outcries,  a  new  defence  against  what  are  in  essence 
the  old  foes,  is  a  perennial  necessity  unavoidably  laid  upon  the  Church  of 
every  age.  And  in  taking  up  this  burden  here,  there  is  no  necessary  dis- 
respect to  the  past,  or  any  claim  to  occupy  a  standpoint  from  which  we 
can  afford  to  contemn  our  predecessors.  Even  if  we  are  in  a  worse  and 
weaker  position  than  our  fathers,  we  shall  have  to  answer  the  difficulties 
of  our  tinie  out  of  the  worse  and  weaker  materials  which  alone  on  that 
supposition  will  be  at  our  command  in  dealing  with  men  of  our  time. 
This  is  so  manifest  that  if  the  men  of  each  generation  had  to  fight  their 


290  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

battle  in  isolation  from  the  others,  if  there  were  no  men  whose  formative 
period  lay  amid  other  surroundings,  there  would,  I  think,  be  complete 
unanimity  in  the  effort  the  Church  would  make.  But  this  is  not  so,  and 
there  is  consequently  an  ever  new  feeling  of  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the 
old  as  to  where  the  new  movements  within  the  Church  will  ultimately  end. 
And  on  the  part  of  the  men  of  the  generation  immediately  concerned 
there  is  a  restive  fret  against  the  half-suspicious  anxiety,  which  tends  to 
mar  some  of  their  best  work.  The  truth  is  both  feelings  are  natural,  but 
both  ought  to  be  repressed.  But,  so  far  as  they  cannot  be  got  rid  of, 
their  existence  is  just  one  of  the  necessities  of  the  situation,  and  must  be 
borne.  But  there  is  no  need  for  any  trembling  for  the  ark  of  God.  Truth, 
like  freedom,  always  brings  with  it  the  cure  for  the  evils  it  creates.  If  the 
new  knowledge  which  physical  and  other  science  has  been  giving  us  has 
incited  earnest  men  to  try  religious  faith  with  new  questions,  it  also 
supplies  us  with  new  defences.  Danger  to  the  Church  can  arise,  there- 
fore, only  if  it  lazily  and  unfaithfully  refuses  to  look  from  the  new  points 
of  view,  and  contents  itself  with  the  answers  which  were  good  for  another 
time. 

To  meet  present-day  modes  of  sceptical  thought  with  the  solutions  of 
the  last  generation  is  to  court  defeat,  and  it  will  be  universally  found  that 
men  who  attack  religion  with  the  weapons  of  the  new  science  are  even 
more  anxious  than  its  belated  defenders  themselves  to  bind  the  Church  of 
the  present  to  the  positions  of  the  past.  Christian  defence,  like  any  other 
subject  of  human  thought,  must  be  affected  by  its  surroundings,  and  we 
have  to  ask,  speaking  out  of  our  time,  to  men  of  our  time,  what  reply  can 
be  made  to  the  new  methods  of  attack  upon  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old 
Testament. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  from  that  point  of  view  is  that  if  there  be  a 
belated  defence  there  is  also  a  belated  attack.  It  is  admitted  as  fully  on 
one  side  as  on  the  other  that  the  Divine  effort  began  with  the  chosen  people 
at  a  low  point,  and  it  has  become  a  commonplace  of  Christian  apologetic 
that  as  regards  both  morals  and  religion,  what  was  commanded  as  well  as 
what  was  done  must  be  judged  by  the  moral  and  religious  standard  of  the 
time.  Our  Lord  Himself  admitted  this  in  saying  that  the  Mosaic  Law  had 
been  tempered  to  meet  the  hardness  of  men's  hearts.  Yet  God  is  repre- 
sented in  the  Old  Testament  as  setting  before  His  people  an  ever-rising 
ideal.  By  miracle  and  prophecy,  by  line  upon  line  and  precept  upon 
precept.  He  drives  them  towards  this  till  in  the  line  of  His  action  there 
appears  the  embodiment  of  the  moral  ideal  in  Jesus  Christ.  That  surely 
is  a  worthy  course  for  a  Divine  revelation  to  take,  and  when  the  Biblical 
revelation  is  so  regarded  there  is  room  in  the  conception  for  everything 
which  can  be  urged  by  opponents  from  the  side  of  morality.  A  similar 
process  has  freed  us  from  any  need  to  defend  or  to  accept  the  science  of 
the  Scriptures  as  the  norm  or  test  of  what  we  are  to  believe  on  such  matters. 
It  is  now  universally  recognised,  though  with  limitations  here  and  there 
which  will  have  to  be  given  up,  that  it  is  no  part  of  the  function  of  Scripture 
to  give  us  science.  It  is  admitted  [that  on  these  matters  what  the  Old 
Testament  writers  give  us  are  the  popular  notions  of  their  times,  and  that 
properly  understood,  the  Bible  should  never  have  been  thrown  across  the 
path  of  scientific  investigation  at  all.  Attack  on  that  side,  therefore,  is 
also  antiquated,  and  a  fruitful  source  of  quarrel  is  entirely  removed. 


Old  Testament  Problems.  291 

But  in  our  time,  and  with  the  weapons  of  our  time,  an  attack  of  a  much 
more  formidable  kind  is  being  made.  Critical  history  is  emphaiically  a 
product  of  this  age,  and  literary  criticism,  though  not  a  product  of  our  time, 
has  been  so  splendidly  elaborated  and  so  deftly  used  that  it  has  gained  for 
itself  a  position  such  as  it  never  hitherto  has  had.  Applied  to  the  history 
and  literature  of  many  nations  these  twin  disciplines  have  transformed  our 
ideas  of  ancient  history,  and  have  established  with  more  or  less  certainty 
the  course  which  the  growth  of  peoples  and  literatures  may  usually  be 
expected  to  take.  Extremists  here,  as  in  other  domains,  will  tell  you  that 
they  have  ascertained  the  course  which  such  growth  must  take  ;  but  without 
conceding  any  such  extravagant  claim,  we  may  grant  that  something  like 
agreement  has  been  reached  as  to  the  general  course  of  such  developments. 
Now  with  a  long  list  of  successes,  or  what  have  generally  been  accepted  as 
such,  at  their  back,  men  have  in  our  time  applied  the  methods  of  critical 
history  to  the  records  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  we  are  at  the 
beginning  of  a  prolonged  conflict  as  to  the  truth  of  the  results  which  the 
critical  school  have  reached  in  regard  to  the  whole  structure  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  growth  of  the  Old  Testament  religion.  Here  we  have 
the  true  touchstone  of  our  time,  which  is  to  test  the  wisdom  and  the 
faithfulness  of  the  churches,  and  their  ability  to  deal  with  new  questions  in 
a  large  and  enlightened  spirit.  Of  course,  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to 
go  into  any  full  detail  of  the  results  in  question,  but  the  new  positions  with 
regard  to  the  Pentateuch  will  give  sufficient  insight  into  the  matter  we  have 
to  discuss.  You  know,  of  course,  that  the  Pentateuch  used  to  be  regarded 
as  one  book,  divided  up  into  five  for  convenience  sake,  but  substantially 
one  book,  written  by  Moses,  and  containing,  therefore,  first-rate 
contemporary  evidence  as  to  the  history  of  Israel,  from  the  exodus  from 
Egypt  till  the  death  of  the  great  law-giver.  Now  the  critics  tell  us  that 
they  have  discovered  that  instead  of  being  one  the  Pentateuch  is  a  con- 
<^lomerate  made  up  of  at  least  three  or  four  separate  documents  written  by 
unknown  men,  at  diff'erent  and  only  approximately  ascertainable  times,  but 
all  of  them  later  than  IMoses  by  centuries.  Wellhausen,  whose  writings 
have  done  most  to  gain  converts  to  this  view,  thinks  the  first  part  of  the 
Pentateuch  in  time  is  that  which  contains  the  beautiful  narratives  concern- 
ing the  patriarchs  in  which  the  Divine  name  Jehovah  is  used.  This,  he 
thinks,  was  written  after  the  division  of  the  kingdom,  perhaps  about  the 
ninth  century  B.C.  Deuteronomy,  which  is  second  in  order,  he  thinks  was 
written  just  before  it  was  found  in  the  Temple  m  621  B.C.  The  remainder, 
that  is  Leviticus  and  the  ceremonial  parts  of  Exodus  and  Numbers,  he 
holds  not  to  have  been  written  long,  if  at  all  before  444  b.c,  when  Ezra 
made  it  the  law  of  the  Jewish  community.  Roughly  put,  what  this  means 
is  that  instead  of  being  the  first  fundamental  thing  in  Israel,  the  whole 
ritual  and  ceremonial  law,  as  we  have  it  in  the  Pentateuch,  was  the  last  and 
crowning  thing  of  the  long  development,  and  that  instead  of  reading  the 
simple  annals  of  the  nation  with  that  as  their  presupposition  and  back- 
ground, we  must  confine  ourselves  in  our  study  of  what  really  existed 
earlier  ages  to  what  we  can  gather  from  the  scanty  historical  records. 

As  to  the  main  parts  of  the  scheme  most  critics  now  are  agreed,  and 
their  main  proof,  after  tliey  have  established  the  existence  of  the  different 
documents,  is  a  peculiarly  strong  one.  They  take  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Josiah  as  their  fixed  point,  as  being  the  period  at  which  the  book 


292  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

of  Deuteronomy  is  said  to  have  become  prominent,  and  they  divide  the 
history  of  Israel  into  three  periods — that  before  Josiah,  that  between  Josiah 
and  Ezra,  and  the  third,  that  which  follows  Ezra.  They  then  ask,  can  we 
trace  a  correspondence  between  the  laws  given  in  our  various  documents 
and  the  history  and  literature  of  these  periods  ?  They  say  that  they  find  a 
most  remarkable  correspondence,  which,  though  not  complete  in  every 
detail,  is,  they  claim,  as  complete  as  can  well  be  expected,  considering  the 
fact  that  the  Biblical  history  was  edited  by  various  later  writers.  Before 
Josiah,  the  history  as  given  by  the  Jehovist,  they  tell  us,  necessarily  pre- 
supposes no  laws  except  those  in  Exodus  xx.  to  xxiii.,  and  everyone 
admits  that  the  law  prescribing  one  altar  only  as  the  true  place  for  worship, 
if  it  existed,  was  in  this  early  time  ignored  by  the  best  and  most  pious 
kings  and  priests.  After  Josiah  again,  the  legislation  of  Deuteronomy, 
which  in  many  respects  is  simpler  than  that  in  the  middle  books  of  the 
Pentateuch,  is  the  only  legislation  which  appears  in  the  history,  for  while 
pious  kings  now  do  show  a  knowledge  of  a  law  against  the  high  places, 
and  endeavour  to  get  the  people  to  obey  it,  they  have  only  a  very  partial 
success.  Lastly,  in  the  period  after  the  return  from  the  exile,  for  the  first 
time,  we  find  the  life  of  the  people  dominated  by  the  law  as  we  have  it 
in  the  Pentateuch.  This,  too,  is  admitted  by  everybody,  but  the  new 
critical  school  claim  to  have  been  the  first  to  see  the  true  significance  of 
this  fact,  viz.,  that  the  ceremonial  law  was  now  for  the  first  time  written. 
Now  all  this  is  startling  enough,  but  it  must  be  evident  to  anyone  that 
the  new  stream  of  opinion  is  supported,  to  a  large  extent,  by  facts  which 
have  always  been  recognised  as  difficulties  on  the  ordinary  theory,  and  that 
it  is  not  mere  wantonness  nor  wickedness  that  actuates  those  who 
hold  these  views.  Many  men  who  hold  firmly  to  supernatural 
Christianity  have  declared  their  acceptance  of  the  fundamental 
point  in  the  new  scheme,  viz.,  the  late  date  of  the  ceremonial  lav/. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  enormous  difficulties.  When  Wellhausen 
was  asked  by  the  editor  of  a  London  paper  what  he  regarded  as  the  weak 
point  of  the  theory,  he  replied  at  once  with  the  candour  which  distinguishes 
him,  the  transposition  of  the  literature.  And  he  is  right ;  that  is  an 
enormous  difficulty.  Formerly  it  was  held  that  the  literary  activity  of 
Israel  began  fn  the  days  of  Moses,  and  the  tradition  was  emphatic  that  in 
the  time  of  David  and  Solomon  literature  had  reached  a  high  point  of 
perfection.  Now,  this  theory  demands  that  regular  literature  in  Israel 
shall  have  been  begun  only  after  the  division  of  the  kingdom.  In  the 
hands  of  the  new  school  the  great  mass  of  it  has  tended  more  and  more 
to  late  dates  until  the  post-exile  time,  which  has  been  looked  upon  as  a 
time  of  decay,  and  which  Wellhausen  himself  admits  to  have  been  so,  has 
been  credited  with  a  literary  activity  surpassing  in  the  splendour  of  its 
productions  any  previous  period.  That  is  much  as  if  one  were  to  assert 
that  all  the  Elizabethan  literature  ought  to  be  transposed  to  the  time  of 
Charles  I.,  and  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable.  If  such  a  transpo- 
sition ought  rightfully  to  be  made  in  this  case,  it  will  stand  quite  alone  in 
history  so  far  as  my  knowledge  goes.  Not  even  the  supporters  of  it  have 
produced  a  parallel.  Another  difficulty,  and  one  which  will  bulk  more 
largely  in  the  public  eye  than  this  even,  is,  that  if  the  critics  of  this  school 
are  right,  there  must  be  a  great  deal  of  history  in  the  Old  Testament, 
which  represents  not  the  facts  of  the  ancient  times,  but  either  conventional 


Old  Testament  Problems.  293 


legal  forms  of  a  kind  very  strange  to  us,  or  a  reading  of  these  facts  which 
seemed  natural  to  men  who  inevitably,  from  their  circumstances,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  past  dressed  it  in  the  colours  of  the  time  in  which  they  were 
writing.  This  is  a  great  stumbling-block,  and  so  far  as  I  know  it  has  not 
been  adequately  dealt  with.  At  the  same  time  we  must  not  charge  those 
who  hold  the  theory  with  holding  that  there  has  been  deliberate  fraud,  and 
that  the  theory  requires  us  to  beheve  that  whatever  Divine  guidance  the 
writers  of  Scripture  history  had  was  given  to  men  who  were  writing  to 
deceive  their  countrymen.  Robertson  Smith,  for  instance,  expressly  re- 
pudiates that  conclusion.  He  produces  what  he  considers  a  parallel  case 
in  modern  India,  where  in  publishing  regulations  about  water  supply, 
which  all  men  knew  had  just  been  brought  into  the  district  by  the  British 
Government,  the  native  authorities  issued  them  in  the  form  of  a  narrative, 
implying  that  they  had  existed  for  a  thousand  years  perhaps.  "  I  have 
been  told,  however,"  says  Sir  Henry  Maine,  "  by  some  of  those  who  have 
observed  the  formation  of  these  rules,  that  they  do  not  purport  to  emanate 
from  the  personal  authority  of  their  author  or  authors  ;  nor  do  they  assume 
to  have  been  dictated  by  a  sense  of  equity ;  there  is  always,  I  am  assured, 
a  sort  of  fiction  under  which  some  customs  as  to  the  distribution  of  water 
are  supposed  to  have  existed  from  all  antiquity,  although  in  fact  no 
artificial  supply  had  been  even  so  much  as  thought  of."  Here  there  was 
neither  the  purpose  nor  the  possibility  of  deceit,  and  yet  had  any  English- 
man come  across  such  a  document  without  knowing  its  history  he  would 
have  denounced  it  as  a  forgery  or  accepted  it  as  fact,  whereas  it  was 
neither.  This  curious  and  well-authenticated  case  is  sufficient  to  show 
that  there  may  be  a  way  of  looking  at  the  history  which  would  both 
save  its  credit  and  leave  room  for  such  a  development  of  the  religious  life 
of  Israel  as  the  critics  say  they  have  discovered.  Bat  that  we  are  justified 
in  extending  this  Indian  analogy  to  the  Old  Testament  is  yet  far  from  being 
proved.  In  any  case  we  may  be  sure  of  this,  that  if  the  dilemma  ulti- 
mately offered  to  the  world  be  this,  either  accept  fraud  in  the  history  or 
error  in  the  theory,  there  will  be  no  question  at  all  as  to  which  of  these 
alternatives  all  sane  thinkers  will  prefer. 

I  do  not  present  this  hurried  outline  of  the  great  critical  struggle  now  being 
carried  on  as  to  the  Old  Testament  writings  as  either  a  defence  or  a  refu- 
tation of  the  critical  theories  ;  I  have  spoken  of  them  first  of  all  because 
it  is  impossible  now  to  speak  in  defence  of  the  Old  Testament  writings  at 
a-11,  and  not  to  mention  them.  But  I  have  spoken  of  them  especially 
because  I  wish  you  to  see  that  while  our  new  time,  with  its  new  methods 
of  research,  have  brought  these  difficulties  upon  us,  that  same  new  time 
and  its  new  spirit  suggests  a  point  of  view  from  which  we  can  see,  while 
the  scholars  are  fighting  the  critical  battle  out  to  its  destmed  end,  that  we 
need  not  wait  for  the  issue  of  it  to  make  up  our  minds  that  in  the  Old 
Testament  we  have,  indeed,  the  Word  of  God.  That  is  the  really  im- 
portant point  for  us.  Many  who  are  reading  of  these  matters  for  the  first 
time  in  "Robert  Elsmere,"  and  some  few  who  know  the  subject  well,  jump 
to  the  conclusion  that  if  the  current  and  traditional  views  of  the  age  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  are  wrong,  or  if  the  Pentateuch  was  completed  by  Ezra, 
then  the  belief  in  the  supernatural  must  perish.  We  must  henceforth 
content  ourselves  with  the  negative  creed  with  which  Gordon-square  has 
just  set  forth  to  conquer  the  world.     As  against  such  notions  I  hope  to 


294  ^^'^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

show  that  the  real  heart  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation  is  untouched  by 
such  external  matters,  and  that  if  we  approach  the  record  of  it  without 
preconceived  notions  as  to  what  the  Bible  must  be,  we  shall  find  it  justify 
Itself  for  the  claim  it  makes.  Now,  so  approached,  I  think  one  of  the  first 
things  we  shall  notice  is  that  religion  is  not  conceived  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment writers,  as  we  conceive,  as  primarily  an  affair  of  the  individual  man. 
In  primitive  stages  of  social  development  now  we  see  that  the  individual 
is  lost  in  the  community  to  an  extent  which  we  civilised  peoples  who  have 
pushed  individualism  to  such  fanatical  extremes  that  we  have  produced  a 
dangerous  reaction  towards  Socialism,  find  it  difficult  even  to  understand. 
But,  nevertheless,  it  is  the  fact  that  the  Old  Testament  knows  and  deals 
with  the  relations,  not  of  individual  Israelite  men,  but  of  the  whole  nation 
of  Israel  to  Jehovah.  Jehovah  and  Israel,  these  are  the  actors  in  the 
great  drama  of  history  which  it  sets  before  us,  and  the  relation  of  the 
individual  to  Jehovah  is  determined  and  regulated  by  each  man's  relation 
to  his  people.  Now,  if  this  be  so,  it  is  plain  that  we  must  look  from 
the  national  point  of  view  at  all  that  concerns  the  religion  of  Israel  if  we 
are  to  conceive  it  aright.  The  revelation  of  the  character  of  God  will  be 
made  in  dealings  with  the  nation.  The  inspiration  which  makes  sure  of 
the  meaning  of  the  revelation  will  be  national  also,  though,  necessarily, 
individuals  will  be  the  national  organs ;  and  the  national  laws,  as  well  as 
the  national  literature,  will  have  a  unique  character,  determined  by  the 
unique  relation  of  this  nation  to  God,  if  any  such  exist.  In  other  words, 
if  the  national  life  of  this  people  was  shaped  and  moulded  by  a  specially 
close  and  specially  active  intercourse  with  God,  all  the  phenomena  of 
national  life  will  have  a  significance,  a  meaning,  a  power  in  them  which 
does  not  belong  to  similar  phenomena  elsewhere — will,  in  short,  have  in 
them  elements  which  come  to  them  only  from  the  Divine.  Laws  and 
customs,  though  in  the  main  perhaps  taken  over  by  this  people  from  their 
heathen  ancestors,  or  their  heathen  neighbours,  will  here  have  a  new  face 
put  upon  them.  The  ordinary  course  of  Providence,  too,  may  be  expected 
to  be  full  of  impulsive  power,  driving  men  towards  the  goal  of  the  whole 
progression.  Even  when  the  miraculous  exhibitions  of  the  love  and  fear 
of  God  which  will  be  necessary  in  order  that  He  may  fully  reveal  Himself 
are  withdrawn,  there  will  be  sufficient  receptivity  of  mind  in  at  least  a 
portion  of  the  people  to  use  the  teachings  of  Providence  so  as  to  make 
further  approaches  to  a  complete  understanding  of  the  character  and  will 
of  God.  But  it  is  in  the  literature  of  the  nation  especially  that  the  super- 
natural in  this  national  life  will  most  fully  express  itself.  It  will  be  natural ; 
that  is,  it  will  be  in  all  outward  respects,  in  form,  in  manner  of  composi- 
tion, and  general  make  up,  like  similar  literatures  elsewhere,  but  it  will 
also  have  m  it  the  very  highest  power  of  the  supernatural  which  is  inwoven 
with  the  nation  and  its  history.  It  will,  as  a  whole,  therefore,  be 
touched  to  finer  issues  even  in  its  commonest  forms  by  the  Divine  element 
which  mingles  with  the  nation's  life.  That  this  is  actually  the  case  will 
easily  be  seen,  if  we  compare  the  book  of  Proverbs  with  the  collections  of 
proverbs  belonging  to  other  nations.  Though  parts  of  it  are  not  meant  for 
or  produced  by  the  popular  mind,  but  are  distinct  treatises  belonging  to 
the  Wisdom  Literature,  much  of  it  does  undoubtedly  represent  the 
ordinary  range  of  motive  and  the  common  wisdom  of  Israel ;  and  how 
high   even   these   parts   stand   above   the  other  expressions  of  national 


Old  Testament  Problems.  295 


wisdom  in  this  form  is  manifest.  For  the  most  part  these  never  rise  above 
a  low  and  calculating  prudence,  while  the  Proverbs  may,  without  any 
feeling  of  incongruity,  be  used  as  a  moral  and  spiritual  nurture  in  the  most 
advanced  nations  of  Christendom  to-day.  But  striking  as  that  fact  is,  we 
have  other  and  better  guarantees. 

The  Bible  contains  what  survives  of  the  ancient  literature  of  Israel,  and 
literature  which  survives  is  always  the  best.  Further,  the  best  literature  of  a 
people  is  filled  with  and  sustained  by  that  which  was  the  very  life-blood  of  itii 
spirit,  and  the  writers  of  it  are  great  because  they  are  the  nation  at  its  highest. 
Therefore  the  Old  Testament  must,  from  this  point  of  view  as  well  as  from 
others,  have  in  it  the  quintessence  of  whatever  supernatural  and  natural  ele- 
ments were  involved  in  the  life  of  Israel.  That  is  our  first  guarantee.  The 
second  is  that  not  only  have  these  writings  survived,  which  they  could  do 
only  by  appealing  to  the  nation,  they  have  been  selected  and  preserved  as 
the  choicest  nourishment  of  the  religious  minds  of  the  nation,  have  been 
proclaimed  and  reverenced  as  such,  and  were  then  made  canonical  when 
the  creative  period  ceased.  Lastly,  we  have  these  writings  guaranteed  by 
Him  who  was  the  end,  the  perfection,  of  that  development  of  which  they 
are  at  once  the  evidence  and  the  product.  He  declared  that  they  spak-:; 
of  Him,  or,  in  other  words.  He  declared  that  they  were  the  authentic  docu- 
ments of  the  pro.sression  towards  Himself,  v;ho  was,  in  His  own  person, 
the  perfect  embodiment  of  all  that  Israel  had  been  imperfectly.  Now,  I 
v/ish  you  to  observe  that  it  is  the  writings  as  we  have  them  now,  whenso- 
ever they  may  have  been  produced,  which  are  thus  guaranteed.  But  what 
is  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  that  fact  ?  Is  it  that  therefore  the 
critical  inquiries  must  be  declared  illegitimate,  and  those  who  carry  them 
on  cast  out?  No;  far  from  it.  The  inference,  rather,  is  that  whatever 
has  to  be  said,  or  may  be  discovered  in  regard  to  the  order,  the  authors, 
or  the  composition  of  these  writings,  whatever  truth  about  such  matters 
criticism  may  ascertain,  their  central  lesson,  their  enduring  power,  has  been 
got  out  of  them,  and  will  always  be  got  out  of  them  in  the  shape  they  have 
now  finally  assumed.  In  other  words,  the  conclusion  we  should  come  to 
is,  that  the  work  of  the  critics,  however  interesting,  and  however  important, 
cannot  touch  the  central  message  that  the  Old  Testament  has  for  man- 
kind. If  the  ceremonial  law  can  be  shown  not  to  have  the  place  in  the 
process  of  Israel's  life  it  was  thought  to  have,  that  does  not  alter  the  fact 
that  it  did  enter  into  that  process  ;  that  it  has  a  place  in  it  as  finally  accom- 
plished ;  and  that  it  therefore  has  as  much  supernatural  significance  as  any 
other  portion  of  these  writings.  If  the  critics  could  prove  that  David  wrote 
no  Psalms,  yet  the  Psalms  are  written,  and  have  all  the  guarantees  for 
future  generations  which  they  would  have  had,  except  that  we  lose  the 
satisfaction  of  thinking  that  David  wrote  them.  They  will,  in  any  case, 
remain  authentic  documents  of  the  pre-Christian  kingdom  of  God.  In  fact, 
we  might  admit  all  that  critics  of  the  first  rank  demand,  though  I  think 
the  expectation  that  we  shall  have  to  do  so  a  very  extravagant  one,  and  yet 
lose  nothing  but  this — that  instead  of  the  divinely-guided  progress  of  the 
chosen  people  from  having  been  accomplished  in  two  thousand  years,  as  we 
thought,  we  shall  find  it  was  really  accomplished  in  twelve  or  fifteen  hun- 
dred. In  any  case,  the  development  under  supernatural  guidance  is  there, 
on  the  one  supposition  as  on  the  other.  All  the  familiar  phenomena  of 
religious  revelation  remain,  though  in  a  different  setting;  and,  so  far  as  I 


296  The  British  Weekly  PulpiU 

can  see,  the  explanation  of  the  whole  on  purely  naturalistic  principles  would 
be  just  as  difficult  if  the  critical  demands  were  admitted,  as  it  seems  to  me 
to  be  on  the  ordinary  hypothesis. 

For  what,  viewed  in  the  most  general  way,  do  we  find  the  history  of  this 
people  to  have  been  ?  Separated  from  their  idolatrous  kinsmen  in  Baby- 
lonia, and  brought  down  into  Egypt,  their  career  as  a  nation  liegins  with 
their  deliverance  out  of  this  house  of  bondage.  So  much  is  acknowledged 
by  all  but  the  most  wrongheaded  of  the  critics.  Moreover,  it  is  acknow- 
ledged that  under  Moses  they  experienced  a  wonderful  deliverance,  and 
that  it  was  his  perfectly  historical  character  and  actions  which  moulded 
Israel  into  a  nation.  It  is  further  acknowledged  that  it  was  the  worship 
of  Jehovah  which  formed  the  basis  of  their  national  life,  and  that  the  first 
deposits  and  the  germinal  principles  of  the  Law  were  due  to  Moses,  so 
that  whatever  extension  the  system  afterwards  had,  it  was  justly  called 
Mosaic.  Moreover,  Robertson  Smith  admits  the  Decalogue  to  be  Mosaic, 
so  that  a  monotheism,  the  essence  of  which  was  righteousness,  was  taught 
by  Moses.  Further,  throughout  the  whole  course  of  the  nation's  history, 
this  central  conception  of  a  righteous  God,  knowing  Israel  alone  among 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  but  knowing  it  as  the  instrument  of  a  gracious 
purpose  to  all,  is  found  working  itself  out  into  increasing  clearness.  Ac- 
cording to  the  Abrahamic  promise,  which  is  found  in  a  document  dated  by 
Willhausen  not  later  than  the  ninth  century  B.C.,  all  nations  of  the  earth 
were  ultimately  to  bless  themselves,  or  be  blest,  in  Israel,  and  the  moral 
and  the  religious  growth  of  the  people  corresponded  with  this  idea.  The 
mass  of  them  often  fell  away  into  evil  and  idolatrous  practices,  it  is  true. 
Times  without  number  they  rebelled  against  Jehovah,  and  ultimately 
brought  destruction  upon  themselves.  But  their  calling  never  failed  to  be 
acknowledged.  Always  there  existed  a  true  Israel,  which  was  Israel,  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  multiform  confusions  of  their  troubled  national  life, 
their  conception  of  God  continued  to  widen,  the  thought  of  God's  holiness 
and  man's  sin  became  more  potent,  and  the  need  for  some  reconciliation 
between  sinful  man  and  a  holy  God  became  more  pressing,  and  more  in- 
ward in  its  demands.  At  the  same  time  the  consciousness  that  Israel 
itself  was  to  be  the  bearer  of  this  reconciliation  was  urged  home  more  and 
more  clearly  by  the  prophets.  Israel  was  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  germ, 
I  hey  taught,  and  in  all  the  institutions  of  their  divinely-called  nation  there 
lay  for  them  the  promise  and  the  potency  of  that  perfected  Kingdom  of 
God  to  which  all  nations  should  come.  This  they  looked  for  with  an 
assurance  so  perfect  that  they  sometimes  allowed  their  desire  to  hasten  its 
advent  more  than  was  meet.  The  future  was  sure,  and  they  unavoidably 
looked  for  it  in  the  form  of  a  glorified  Israel,  and  whenever  any  of  the 
higher  functions  of  the  nation  was  discharged  in  a  manner  which  seemed 
to  approach  the  ideal,  they  were  quick  to  imagine  that  the  perfect  kingdom 
was  nigh,  even  at  the  door.  Consequently  when  the  kingdom  was  power- 
ful the  future  was  conceived  as  a  Davidic  kingdom  of  Israel,  reigned  over 
by  the  anointed  of  God.  When  the  prophetic  aspect  of  the  national  life 
was  regarded,  a  prophet,  like  unto  Moses,  was  to  be  the  Divinely-appointed 
guide  of  the  people.  When  the  priestly  office  was  taken  for  the  typical 
one,  the  Messiah  was  to  be  a  perfect  priest,  making  reconciliation  for  a 
repentant  people.  But  when  the  nation  was  too  manifestly  departing  from 
God,  the  eyes  of  the  prophets  were  in  nowise  blinded  by  national  prejudices. 


Old  Testament  Problems.  297 


The  mass  of  the  people,  indeed,  faced  threatened  danger  with  a  light 
heart  because  they  believed  that  Jehovah  was  irrevocably  bound  to  their 
cause,  and  that  any  coldness  on  His  part  could  be  overcome  by  the  multi- 
plication of  sacrifices.  But  the  prophets  mocked  at  such  folly,  and,  falling 
back  upon  the  fundamental  truth  that  Jehovah  was  righteous,  they  de- 
clared that  their  iniquities  had  separated  between  them  and  God,  and  that 
the  evils  they  saw  threatening  would  not  be  warded  off  by  Him,  because 
they  were  His  doing,  the  appointed  punishment  for  Israel's  obstinate 
refusal  to  be  faithful.  But  they  also  declared  that  the  Divine  plan  of 
blessing  the  world  through  Israel  would  be  realised,  nevertheless.  Though 
the  nation  must  be  rejected,  a  remnant  should  be  saved,  and  out  of  this 
faithful  remnant  should  come  the  future  Israel.  Later,  when  decay  had 
gone  even  deeper,  the  whole  hopes  and  visions  of  the  prophets  come  to 
be  centred  upon  one  who  should  be  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  the  ideal  of 
Israel,  and  who  should  bear  the  sins  of  His  people.  Under  ail  these 
varied  figures  the  prophets  committed  themselves,  and  what  was  of  greater 
importance,  they  committed  Jehovah  to  the  declaration  that  within  Israel 
there  should  appear  the  supreme  religious  figure  of  the  world,  and  then 
their  voice  was  stilled.  Now  I  would  specially  like  to  call  your  attention 
to  three  points  in  this  Israelite  history,  so  roughly  sketched.  (1)  These 
are,  first,  that  Jehovah  was  from  the  first  conceived  of  as  a  personal  God 
and  as  a  righteous  God.  One  is  amazed  that  Matthew  Arnold  should 
have  had  the  courage  to  assert  that  the  moral  order  of  the  world  was  what 
the  Israelites  meant  by  Jehovah.  But  against  his  denial  of  personality 
to  Jehovah,  while  he  ascribed  to  Him  righteousness,  we  may  set  the 
opinion  of  many  critics  who  assert  His  personality,  but  deny  Him  righte- 
ousness. The  truth  is,  He  possessed  both.  (2)  Secondly,  we  have  to 
notice  that  the  nation  of  Israel  was  not  only  chosen  by  Jehovah  as  other 
nations  were  supposed  to  be  chosen  by  their  gods,  but  from  a  very  early 
lime  they  had  received  or  conceived  the  extraordinary  thought  that  these 
were  chosen  not  for  their  own  sake  only,  but  in  order  that  Jehovah's 
gracious  purpose  for  the  world  might  be  carried  out  through  them.  (3) 
Lastly,  we  have  to  observe,  as  Smend,  a  pupil  of  Wellhausen,  so  well  says, 
that  "  the  fact  is  unique  that  the  God  of  Jerusalem  showed  Himself  only 
the  more  powerful  when  He  seemed  defeated  by  Chaldea  and  Assyria — 
rather  that  He  claimed  the  annihilation  of  His  people  as  His  own  work 
even  before  its  accomplishment,  and  that  He  declared  all  the  powers  of 
ttie  world  to  be  His  instrument,  by  means  of  which  He  makes  justice  and 
righteousness  prevail." 

Now,  to  me,  all  of  these  fundamental  points,  admitted  by  all  parlies  you 
will  observe,  seem  to  be  fatal  to  the  naturalistic  explanation  of  the  history 
of  Israel.  No  one  has  been  able  to  explain  the  genesis  of  the  ideas  which 
underlie  these  facts,  on  the  hypothesis  that  Jehovah  was  originally  an  ordi- 
nary Semitic  tribal  God,  and  that  any  advance  made  in  the  conception  of 
His  nature  was  due  merely  to  the  advancing  civilisation  of  the  people. 
As  Wellhausen  well  says,  the  moment  a  deity  is  conceived  as  moral,  from 
that  moment  the  step  is  taken  which  must  necessarily  end  in  his  being  con- 
ceived as  the  only  God.  Now,  speaking  of  Jehovah  as  worshipped  by 
Moses,  he  says  : — "  Jehovah  was  not  merely  the  God  of  Israel.  As  such 
He  was  the  God  at  once  of  law  and  justice,  the  basis,  the  informing  prin- 
ciple, and  the  implied  postulate  of  their  national  consciousness."     That 


298  The  British  Weekly  Piilbit. 

seems  to  me  decisive.  That  conception  was  revealed  through  Moses,  and 
instead  of  being  the  product,  it  was,  and  remained,  the  basis  of  the  national 
consciousness  of  Israel,  and  by  it  their  moral  progress  was  secured. 
Further,  I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand  how  the  thought  of  themselves  as 
organs  of  blessing  to  the  world  could  have  arisen  if  Jehovah  and  His 
people  had  been  as  Chemosh  and  his  people,  the  inhabitants  of  Moab,  were. 
On  the  level  of  a  God,  conceived  of  fundamentally  as  Chemosh  and 
Moloch  were  conceived,  victory  over  their  immediate  enemies  and  pros- 
perity within  their  land  were  the  highest  thoughts  that  could  have  occurred 
to  Israel.  Yet  it  hardly  needs  to  be  pointed  out  how  immeasurably 
remote  these  ideas  are  from  the  moral  greatness  of  their  mission,  as  it  is 
expressed  in  the  Abrahamic  blessing.  Then,  lastly,  while  on  the  one  hand 
you  have  Chemosh  destroyed  with  the  people  of  Moab,  and  Moloch  dis- 
appearing with  the  independence  of  his  worshippers,  Jehovah  remains, 
though  His  people  are  conquered,  and  by  their  destruction  He  becomes 
the  God  of  the  whole  earth. 

If  these  things  are  natural,  what  is  there  that  is  supernatural?  If  they 
be  wholly  within  the  domain  of  ordinary  history,  where  are  their  causes? 
If  the  religion  of  Israel  is  as  the  religion  of  Moab,  what  has  made  its 
history  to  differ  so  marvellously?  The  reasonable  answer  is  that  here  as 
nowhere  else  the  God  of  all  the  earth  was  revealing  Himself,  and  the 
critical  treatment  of  the  history  of  Israel  is  to  be  thanked  for  bringing 
into  new  and  surprising  light  this  fundamental  point  in  the  Church's  faith. 

But  if  the  past  of  Israel's  history  suggests  the  finger  of  God,  how  much 
more  does  its  future,  after  the  prophetic  stage  was  ended  and  the  law  had 
entered  into  its  heritage?  As  we  have  seen,  the  whole  Israelite  economy 
was  distinguishable  from  that  of  other  people's  by  its  resolutely  forward 
look.  It  had  attained  to  much  that  no  other  people  had  ever  seen,  but 
the  spokesmen  of  Israel  always  declared  that  the  best  was  yet  to  be.  So 
far  as  social  conditions  were  concerned,  the  law  of  Israel  was  singularly 
noble  in  spirit,  and  the  poor,  and  those  that  had  no  helper,  were  treated 
with  a  compassion  which  had  been  taught  by  the  everlasting  love  of  God. 
Yet  the  best  that  had  been  attained  was  nothing  to  what  was  looked  for 
when  all  the  hungry  and  thirsty  should  have  their  needs  supplied  without 
money  and  without  price.  Its  ritual  law,  whatever  defects  it  may  have  had 
when  separated  from  the  prophetic  spirit,  did  most  undoubtedly  deepen 
the  sense  of  sin  in  all  the  noblest  hearts,  and  by  the  inadequacy  of  its 
remedy,  made  them  look  for  a  reconciler.  But  most  of  all  in  the 
Messianic  hope  do  we  find  this  persistent  faith  in  the  future  exemplified. 
Disaster  only  added  new  touches  of  desire  to  the  national  longing,  dis- 
appointments only  made  Israel  look  for  the  swifter  coming  of  the 
Deliverer's  feet.  15ut  at  last,  nearly  four  centuries  from  the  time  when  the 
last  of  the  prophets  had  spoken,  He  appeared  whom  those  who  believe  m 
His  claim  to  their  obedience,  and  those  who  do  not,  alike  acknowledge  to  be 
the  supreme  religious  figure  of  the  world  just  as  had  been  foretold.  And 
not  only  was  He  that,  but  He  has  done,  in  utterly  unexpected  ways,  what 
the  prophets  expected  of  Him.  He  has  made  for  Himself  an  imperish- 
able throne.  He  has  done  away  with  old  restrictions  which  held  men  back 
from  the  awfulness  of  God,  and  by  His  death  He  has  broken  down  the 
middle  wall  of  partition  between  men,  and  opened  up  a  new  and  living 
way  to  the  Father.     He  has  made  the  religion  of  Israel  the  religion  of  the 


Knowing  God.  299 


Gentiles,  and  He  has  proved  Himself  to  be  the  binder  up  of  the  broken- 
hearted, and  the  opener  of  the  prison-houses  of  sin  to  them  that  were 
bound  therein. 

Can  this  fulfilment  of  prophesy  on  a  large  scale  be  reasonably  explained 
away?  I  think  not.  Individual  prophesies  may  be  disputed  and  whittled 
down  ;  special  points  connected  with  the  supernatural  events  in  the  Old 
Testament  may  be  made  to  appear  doubtful  when  taken  alone  ;  nay  it  may 
be  so  dismembered  and  torn  asunder  that  the  supernatural  seems  to 
disappear.  But  when  the  whole  of  this  strange  history  is  regarded,  it 
refuses  to  be  conceived  in  the  naturalistic  manner.  I,  for  my  part,  have 
no  hesitation  in  saying  that  it  demands  something  out  of  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature  to  explain  it,  and  whatever  may  be  proved  or  disproved 
as  to  the  dates  of  parts  of  Scripture,  whatever  changes  may  have  to  be 
made  in  our  manner  of  conceiving  revelation  and  inspiration,  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  must,  when  fairly  dealt  with,  bring  us  to  the  feet  of 
the  supernatural  Christ.  Beginning  with  a  personal  and  righteous  God, 
and  ending  in  the  unapproachable  suljlimity  of  Him  who  proclaimed  Him- 
self Divine  as  well  as  human,  this  history  has  running  through  its  centre  a 
strong  cable  of  supernaturalism  which  refuses  to  be  broken.  Holding 
firmly  by  that,  we  can  adjust  all  the  minor  supernatural  in  it,  and  proclaim 
that  to  Him  the  Scripture  pointed.  In  Him  what  was  wanting  in  the  old 
dispensation  is  supplied,  and  with  Him  the  whole  spiritual  and  moral 
movement  of  the  Old  Testament  comes  to  a  fit  and  harmonious  conclu- 
sion. The  kingdom  of  God,  as  He  proclaimed  it,  is  what  was  hoped  for 
in  the  ancient  days  ;  and  by  it  the  Abrahamic  promise  has  been  amply  ful- 
filled, for  salvation  has  indeed  been  of  the  Jews,  and  the  wide-reaching 
hopes  of  the  greatest  of  the  Old  Testament  prophets  have  been  fulfilled. 
"  For  unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a  Son  is  given,  and  the  government 
is  upon  His  shoulder ;  and  His  name  is  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor, 
Mighty  God,  Father  of  Eternity,  Prince  of  Peace.  Of  the  increase  of 
His  government  and  of  peace  there  shall  be  no  end,  upon  the  throne  of 
David  and  upon  his  kingdom,  to  establish  it,  and  to  uphold  it  with  judg- 
ment and  with  righteousness  from  henceforth  even  for  ever." 

KNOWING  GOD. 

Outline  Sermon. 
By  the  Rev.  Herbert  Cook,  Silverdale. 

•'And  this  is  life  eternal,  that  they  might  know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesu . 
Christ,  whom  Thou  hast  sent." — John  xvii.  3. 

All  life  is  a  mystery— physical,  mental,  spiritual.  This  latter  is  "  knowing 
God,"  &c. 

I.  Hotii  do  we  know  God  ? — How  do  we  know  each  other  ?  No  one  has 
ever  seen  another.  It  is  by  contact  with  each  other  through  our  words 
and  works.  We  know  God  in  the  same  way.  Three  paths  lead  us  up  to 
Him.  {a)  Through  ourselves.  A  moral  obligation  to  do  right  leads  us  to 
the  belief  in  a  Creator,  Lawgiver,  and  Judge,  whom  we  must  obey.  (/') 
Through  nature.  No  chance  or  blind  force  could  have  made  the  world  as 
we  find  it.  The  universe  points  us  to  an  intelligent  mind  behind  it  all. 
But  neither  of  these  paths  leads  us  to  a  conclusion  that  satisfies,  (f)  Through 


300  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Jesus  Christ.  "  I  am  the  way,"  &c.  We  now  come  in  contact  with  His 
truth,  wisdom,  justice,  love  ! 

11.  To  know  God  tve  must  become  like  Him. — Some  people  we  cannot 
understand  ;  no  bond  of  sympathy.  We  cannot  know  God  unless  there  be 
a  bond  of  sympathy  between  Him  and  us,  but  that  means  we  must  be 
spiritually  living,  for  there  is  no  bond  of  sympathy  between  the  dead  and 
the  living.  Then  to  know  God  does  not  give  life,  it  is  life  !  The  knowledge 
of  God  is  a  proof  that  we  are  living. 

in.  What  do  we  mean  by  hnowitig  God? — Acknowledging  His  Kingship 
and  Fatherhood,  resulting  in  love  and  obedience  on  our  part.  An  essential 
feature  of  life  is  activity. 

IV.  ^^ And  /esus  Christ"  d-r. — Acknowledging  Him  as  a  personal 
Saviour,  King,  Teacher,  and  pattern. 

V.  Before  we  know  God  and  fesiis  Christ  there  must  be  a  change  in  us^ 
and  we  shall  have  love,  joy,  peace,  and  hope.  The  nearer  we  get  to  Him 
the  more  we  shall  know  of  Him,  and  the  richer  and  fuller  will  be  the 
eternal  life  we  enjoy.  But  here  we  see  but  through  a  glass  darkly,  by  and 
by  face  to  face ;  now  we  know  in  part,  then  shall  we  know  even  as  we  are 
known.  Our  prayer:  "  That  He  would  grant  us,"  &c.  (Eph.  iii.  i6 — 19). 

GOD'S    DEALINGS   WITH    MEN. 

Outline  Sermo7i. 

By  the  Rev.  David  Lloyd,  Newhaven. 

"  And  now  men  see  not  the  bright  light,"  &c. — Job  xxxvii.  21. 

I.  The  resemblatice  of  God's  dealings  with  us. — "  Cloud."  God's  dealings 
like  clouds  in  their  (i)  appearance.  Sorrows  like  clouds  often  come  un- 
expectedly, and  often  expectedly.  (2)  Continuance.  (3)  Magnitude. 
(4)  Effects.  When  clouds  or  an  eclipse  veil  the  sun,  birds,  &:c.,  think  it 
night,  and  prepare  to  rest.  Men  mistake  the  cloud  of  sickness  for  the  night 
of  death,  and  prepare  for  the  eternal  rest.  Clouds  and  eclipses  make 
savages  and  creatures  think  that  the  sun  is  gone  out,  and  some  think  that 
the  Sun  of  righteousness  is  gone  away  when  clouds  of  sorrows,  &c.,  come. 

II.  The  goodness  of  God's  dealing  with  us. — "  Bright  light."  The  bright 
light  on  and  around  the  cloud,  (i)  Surrounding  mercies.  In  trouble  we 
have  health,  &c.  (2)  Past  dealings  of  God.  He  has  led,  kept,  and  blessed 
us.  (3)  The  character  of  God.  "  God  is  love."  The  love  explains  His 
dealings.  "  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth."  (4)  The  purpose  of 
God,  It  =  our  good.  "  All  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God."  (5)  The  promises  of  God.  However  great  our  trial,  God 
says,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee."  "  When  thou  passest  through  the 
waters  I  shall  be  with  thee,"  &c. 

III.  The  mysteriousness  of  God's  dealings  ruitk  us. — "  Men  see  not  the 
bright  light."  Men  see  not — because  of:  (i)  Physical  causes.  Elijah  under 
juniper  tree.  (2)  INIental  causes.  Can  the  finite  comprehend  the  acts  of  the 
Infinite  ?  Clay  and  potter.  (3)  Moral  causes.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God."  •'  He  that  loveth  not,  knoweth  not  God, 
for  God  is  love."     Clearness  of  vision  proportionate  to  spirituality  of  heart. 

IV.  The  understanding  of  God's  dealmgs  with  us. — "  The  wind  passeth," 
&c.     (i)   In   future  earthly  life  we  shall  see  much  that   is   now   dark.. 

2)  In  future  heavenly  life  we  shall  know  all.     John  xiii.  7  ;  i  Cor.  xiii.  12 


A  Pulpit  Prayer.  301 


ACHIEVING  THE  IMPOSSIBLE. 

Outline  Sermon. 

By  the  Rev.  \V.  H.  Richards,  Farnham,  Surrey. 

"  Then  saith  He  to  the  man,  Stretch  forth  thine  hand.  And  he  stretched  it 
forth  ;  and  it  was  restored  whole,  like  as  the  other." — St.  Matthew  xii.  13. 

Narrative  full  of  various  lessons.  Pass  by  all,  except  the  great  spiritual 
truth  suggested  by  this  verse,  viz.,  that  with  every  command  given  by  Christ 
there  comes  the  power  to  obey ;  and  what  is  needed  on  our  part  is  the 
endeavour  of  faith. 

I.  ]\Iany  Christians  are  like  this  man  with  the  withered  hand,  (i)  They 
have  life,  but  lack  power.  Or  (2),  they  have  life,  but  carry  some  dead 
limb — of  sinful  habit — doubt,  &:c.  Or  (3),  there  is  some  particular  gift 
which  they  have  lost  the  use  of  through  there  own  neglect,  and  which 
now  seems  dead. 

II.  To  such  Christ  comes  with  His  commands,  which  seem  impossible, 
unreasonable,  as  the  command,  "Stretch  forth,"  to  this  man.  He  com- 
mands the  weak  to  be  strong,  the  indolent  to  be  active,  the  sinful  to  be 
pure,  the  feeble  to  put  forth  power — to  use  the  dead  limb.  Never  so  firm 
and  so  exacting  a  Master  as  Christ.  No  moral  standard  so  high  as  His. 
No  religious  leader  ever  demanded  such  complete  self-surrender.  Yet  His 
commands  not  grievous.  His  yoke  easy,  &c.,  because  with  every  command 
He  gives  adequate  power  to  obey. 

III.  Thus,  to  achieve  the  impossible,  on  our  part  there  must  be  (i) 
Desire,  (2)  Faith,  (3)  Volition,  or  the  endeavour  of  the  will — the  acting 
upon  our  faith,  or  rather  upon  the  word  of  Christ — the  ''  stretching  foith.'' 
These  essential  on  our  part,  whether  we  seek  power,  holiness,  restoration, 
or  deliverance  from  besetting  sin.  Illustration :  Ulysses  and  the  Sirens. 
He  desired  to  escape,  put  forth  endeavour;  beyond  that  we  have  the 
Almighty  power  on  which  to  depend.  "  He  giveth  power  to  the  faint,"  so 
that  "  the  lame  take  the  prey."  Same  truths  apply  to  unconverted.  Christ 
commands  you  to  repent,  believe,  live.  Have  you  the  desire  ?  If  so, 
move  Christward,  in  dependence  on  Him,  and  with  the  endeavour  of  faith. 
He  will  give  the  adequate  power,  and  though  dead,  yet  shall  you  live.  His 
v/ork  complete — "  whole  as  the  other." 


A    PULPIT    PRAYER. 

By  the  Rev.  A.  Maclaren,  D.I). 

O  Lord  !  our  Father  Almighty,  we  have  to  sing  of  mercy  and  of  judgment. 
And  yet,  though  we  have  two  names  for  them  they  are  but  one,  for  all  is 
mercy  ;  and  Thy  judgments  are  righteous  and  true  and  gracious  altogether. 
We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  taught  us  to  think  that  every  good  and 
every  perfect  gift,  and  nothing  but  good  and  perfect  gifts  come  from  above. 
And  we  pray  that  the  deepest  conviction  of  our  hearts,  not  to  be  shaken  or 
contradicted  by  r.ny  sorrows  or  trials  or  pains,  may  ever  be  that  Thou  art 
light,  and  in  Thee  is  no  darkness  at  all. 

We   beseech  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  help  us,  in  the  strength  of  sucb 


302  Th&  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


glad  assurance,  to  meet  all  which  Thy  holy  will  may  appoint  for  us  here,  to 
discharge  all  duty  which  Thou  dost  lay  upon  us,  and  with  patience  born 
of  confidence  to  accept  all  sorrow. 

And  now,  O  Lord  !  when  we  come  to  Thee  we  bring  a  great  burden  of 
need  and  of  sin,  and  would  ask  Thee,  first  of  all,  to  cleanse  and  release  us 
from  the  yoke  of  evil  and  the  load  of  our  transgression  ;  to  deliver  us  from 
every  falsehood  and  wrong  inclination  and  desire  that  may  be  in  us  ;  to 
pardon  all  that  has  been  amiss  in  Thy  holy  sight  in  our  purest  past,  and  to 
give  us  grace  for  the  time  to  come,  to  make  more  fully  our  own  the 
Enlightening  and  sanctifying  influences  brought  to  us  through  Thy  grace 
by  Thy  Holy  Spirit ;  and  to  give  to  us  this  evening,  and  for  all  the  days 
and  nights  that  remain  to  us,  the  full  absolution  and  remission  of  our  sins; 
and  grace  to  stand  for  the  time  to  come. 

Regard  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  gathered  here  before  Thee  this  evening  ; 
strengthen  us,  we  pray  Thee,  in  all  our  v.'crship  ;  and  now,  as  always,  may 
we,  each  of  us,  be  able  to  take  Thee  for  our  portion  and  our  heritage ; 
and  in  siraphcity  to  say  that  we  have  none  on  earth  that  we  desire  beside 
Thee. 

O  Lord  !  Thou  art  our  all-sufficiency ;  may  we  each  make  Thee  so,  and 
withdraw  wandering  desires  and  fond  affections  from  creatures  if  these 
conflict  v/ith  our  supreme  and  all-pervading  love  to  Thyself.  And  help 
us  always  to  set  Thee  before  us  that  we  be  not  moved.  Guide  us  with 
Thy  counsel,  uphold  us  with  Thy  hand,  direct  us  in  all  our  ways  ;  and  in 
that  dim  Afterward  to  which  we  cannot  but  sometimes  look,  and  to  which 
v/e  pray  that  we  may  look  more  habitually,  receive  Thou  us  into  glory. 

Now,  O  Lord,  we  pray  Thee  to  hear  us,  forgive  all  our  sins,  and  in  Thy 
great  mercy  accept  and  love  and  bless  each  of  us,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.     Amen ! 


ORIENTAL  LIGHTS    ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.- 

Sunday,  September  14,  1890. 

By  THE  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,of  Durham. 

Parable  of  the  Pounds. 

st.  luke  xix.  11—27. 

"A  Certain  Nobleman  Went  ...  to  Receive  ...  a  Kingdom." 
— The  parable  of  the  pounds  differs  from  all  the  other  parables  of  our  Lord 
in  the  fact  that  it  has  a  distinct  local  and  historical  reference  to  events 
which  had  recently  occurred  at  the  very  place  where  the  parable  was 
uitered.  It  was  at  Jericho,  where  Herod  Archelaus  had  built  himself  a 
.--umptuous  palace.  On  the  death  of  his  father,  Herod  the  Great,  he  claimed 
by  his  will  the  sovereignty  of  Idumea,  Judea,  and  Samaria,  the  nol-thern 
part  of  his  kingdom  having  been  bequeathed  to  his  two  other  sons.  But 
all  these  were  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Roman  Empire.  To  Rome, 
therefore,  Archelaus  repaired,  to  obtain  from  the  emperor  the  ratification 
of  his  father's  will.     The  Jews,  to  whom  he  was  most  obnoxious,  followed 


*  From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  International  Lesson.  303 

him  by  a  deputation  of  no  less  than  five  hundred  representatives  according, 
to  Josephus,  to  protest  against  his  assumption  of  kingly  power.  His 
enormous  bribes,  however,  prevailed  against  their  remonstrances,  and  he 
returned  with  the  authority,  though  not  with  the  title,  of  king.  He  took, 
after  the  fashion  of  his  family,  a  fearful  revenge  on  those  who  had  opposed 
him,  slaughtering  three  thousand  Jews  within  the  precincts  of  the  temple, 
and  perpetrating  an  equally  atrocious  massacre  of  tiie  Samaritans.  After  r. 
reign  of  ten  years,  he  was  summoned  to  Rome  (though  this  is  not  alluded 
to  in  the  parable),  and  deposed  on  the  complaint  of  his  brothers  and  his 
people.      He  was  banished  to  Vienne  in  Gaul,  where  he  died. 

"  Gavl:  Them  Ten  Pounds." — But  within  this  historical  framework 
the  lesson  and  the  details  of  the  parable  are  simple  and  without  local 
colouring.  It  is  still  the  custom  in  the  East  for  grandees  and  officers  of 
the  government  to  trade  through  their  dependents,  who  arc,  as  is  expressed 
in  the  text  here,  their  domestic  slaves.  A  pound,  if  we  take  the  word  to 
signify  the  Attic  viina,  was  a  very  small  sum — about  sixteen  dollars  ;  but 
it  was  evidently  given  to  each  as  a  test  to  prove  his  ability  and  skill  in 
trading.  In  those  days,  as  in  the  East  in  our  own  day,  there  were  very 
few  modes  of  investment.  There  were,  and  there  are  still,  money-lenders 
or  bankers,  who  will  receive  money  to  lend  it  out  on  mortgage  of  the  crops 
to  the  farmers  and  peasantry.  But  beyond  this  the  art  of  banking  has 
haTdly  gone.  A  great  magnate  considers  it  beneath  his  dignity  to  person- 
ally engage  in  money-lending.  This  he  does  through  his  subordmates, 
who  are  generally  his  slaves  or  freedmen.  Orientals  are  almost  always  in 
debt.  Their  ingenuity  is  exercised,  not  in  keeping  out  of  debt,  but  in 
scheming  to  avoid  payment  of  their  debts.  A  pasha  of  Ga/.a,  twenty  years 
ago,  amassed  an  enormous  fortune  in  a  very  short  time  by  lending  small 
sums  to  the  cultivators  of  the  land  on  the  security  ot  the  coming  crop. 
This  he  did  not  personally,  but  through  his  household.  The  people, 
always  eager  to  anticipate  their  gains,  borrowed  trilling  sums,  for  which 
they  were  to  pay  one  per  cent,  per  month,  or  twelve  per  cent,  per  annum, 
on  the  security  of  the  crop  of  olives,  the  staple  of  the  district.  The  result 
was  that  at  harvest-time  the  pasha  found  himself  the  owner  of  the  whole 
crop  of  the  district,  and  sold  it  to  the  hapless  fellahin — for  the  olive  is  one 
of  the  principal  food  staples — at  an  exorbitant  price. 

"Laid  Up  in  a  Napkin." — The  wrapping  up  of  the  pound  in  a  napkin 
is  an  instance  of  the  common  practice  of  hoarding,  money  and  treasure 
being  frequently  concealed  and  buried  in  a  country  constantly  disturbed 
.':ty  war,  and  without  banks  or  other  safe  means  of  investment.  To  the 
present  day  the  fellahin  of  Palestine  commonly  bury  their  trifling  savings 
in  the  ground  within  their  houses.  The  habit  has  come  down  from  the 
remotest  antiquity ;  and  as  very  often,  through  death  or  other  causes,  the 
lioard  is  forgotten,  the  practice  of  searching  for  hidden  treasure,  mentioned 
as  early  as  the  Book  of  Job,  is  i)ersistently  carried  on,  especially  about 
ancient  ruins,  and  is  not  unfrecjuently  rewarded  by  success.  Tiie  reward 
of  the  faithful  servants  is  another  accommodation  from  local  history  ;  for 
Josephus  tells  us  that  Archelaus,  on  his  return,  rewarded  those  of  his 
retainers  who  had  been  true  to  him  in  his  absence  by  placing  them  over 
the  different  cities  of  his  dominion. 


304  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.- 
Lesson  for  September  14  :  Luke  xix,  12—27.  Golden  Text ;  Verse  26 
"  Occupy  till  I  Come." 
Jesus  told  His  disciples  this  parable  of  the  Pounds,  because  His  disciples 
thought  "  that  the  kingdom  of  God  should  immediately  appear."  Our 
Lord  here  sought  to  turn  them  away  from  these  false  hopes,  and  to  teach 
them  the  lessons  of  patient  waiting  and  active  work.  This  nobleman  was 
going  away,  and  he  thought  of  a  plan  by  which  to  test  his  servants  in  his 
absence,  and  so  to  discover  those  best  fitted  to  occupy  positions  of  trust 
in  the  kingdom  he  expected  to  receive.  The  servants  were  divided  into 
three  classes.  I.  The  first  were  devoted  to  the  service  of  their  master. 
They  were  noble  and  whole-hearted.  II.  The  second  class  were  less 
devoted.  III.  The  third  class  were  complaining  half-hearted  ones, 
fearing  rather  than  loving,  indolent  and  neglectful.  Then  the  parable  tells 
us  of  the  nobleman's  return,  and  how  he  rewarded  these  servants.  His 
rewards  to  the  faithful  servants  were  evidently  of  grace,  for  they  were  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  amount  gained.  The  unprofitable  servant's  paltry 
excuses  were  heard,  and  he  was  told  that  out  of  his  mouth  should  he  be 
judged.  He  knew  nothing  of  love  or  devotion,  and  all  the  more  should 
he  have  been  the  most  anxious  of  servants.  But  indolence  and  neglect 
were  really  wickedness  which  must  be  punished.  Jesus  expects  all  His 
servants  to  be  busy.  "  Occupy  till  I  come."  I  know  some  children  who 
went  to  deposit  a  little  money  in  the  Post  Office  Savings  Bank.  They  got 
a  form  to  fill  in.  They  had  first  to  write  their  names,  and  then  their 
"occupation";  and  one  wrote,  "schoolboy."  That  was  quite  right,  for 
that  was  his  occupation.  So,  you  see,  the  law  of  England  expects  that 
everyone  should  have  some  occupation.  We  read  sometimes  of  some 
people,  who  put  in  an  appearance  in  the  police-courts,  whose  names  are 
followed  by  the  words  "  no  occupation,"  but  they  cannot  be  considered 
respectable  members  of  society.  Hard  work  has  been  the  lot  of  those 
who  have  lived  the  best  lives.  Melancthon  once  said,  when  he  saw  some 
rich,  idle  people  :  "  Let  them  have  their  riches  ;  give  me  the  work." 
There  are  many  wrong  ideas  in  the  world  about  labour.  There  are  some 
parents  who  toil  early  and  late  to  make  money,  pinching  themselves  to  save, 
so  that  they  make  their  sons  gentlemen  who  can  live  without  work.  This 
is  not  according  to  God's  idea,  for  we  find  Jesus  saying,  "  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto  and  I  work." 

It  is  not  for  nothing  that  Jesus  Christ  toiled  at  the  carpenter's  bench, 
and  He  was  as  much  the  Son  of  God  when  He  stood  up  to  His  ankles  in 
shavings  as  when  He  walked  the  seas. 

Our  Lord's  idea  of  His  servants  is  that  they  should  all  be  doing  their  duty. 
We  ought  to  be  better  every-day  workers  in  every  sense  for  being  servants 
of  the  Lord.  You  know  we  are  preparing  to  be  God's  servants  in  heaven, 
and  we  must  begin  now.  Above  all,  those  who  are  His  servants  should 
be  anxious  no*  to  miss  an  opportunity  of  doing  good  to  others  for  His 
sake.  Ask  Jesus  to  let  you  understand  what  He  wishes  you  to  do,  and 
look  to  Him  for  strength  to  do  your  duty.  He  will  honour  you  by  giving 
you  very  much  to  do  for  Him,  and  at  last  He  will  say  to  you,  "  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant." 

"■■  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  124,  Vol.  III.]  SEPTEMBER  19,  1890.  One  Penny. 


SOME  LESSONS  FROM  AN  UNFAMILIAR  TEXT. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Champness, 

Preached  in  St.  John^s-square  Wesley  an  Church,  Clerkenivell,  on  Sunday 
E%>ening,  August  31,  1890. 

I  AM  very  much  struck  by  this  fact,  that  a  large  number  of  us 
preachers  confine  ourselves  to  a  very  small  portion  of  the  Bible ; 
that  there  are  a  great  many  things  mentioned  in  Holy  Scripture 
which  we  never  talk  about.  I  have  made  up  my  mind  that  during 
the  remainder  of  my  preaching  life  I  will  try  and  take  hold  of 
some  of  those  things  which  are  not  preached  about  ever}'  day. 
And  accordingly  I  ask  you  to  consider  two  verses  in  the  First 
Book  of  Kings,  the  sixteenth  chapter,  the  twenty-fifth  and 
thirtieth  verses : — 

"And  Omri  wrought  evil  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord,  and  did  worse  than  all  that 
were  before  him.  .  .  .  And  Ahab,  the  son  of  Omri,  did  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord  above  all  that  were  before  him." 

The  first  thing  that  I  would  have  us  learn  is  this,  that  very 
bad  men  may  have  worse  sons.  We  are  told  that  Omri  was  the 
worse  living  man  than  any  other  man  that  had  lived  up  to  that 
time,  but  he  had  a  son,  and  it  is  said  of  his  son  that  he  was 
worse,  worse  even  than  his  wicked  father.  We  who  are  parents 
cannot  be  too  careful  as  to  our  actions.  We  may  be  sure  of  this, 
that  our  habits  and  the  way  we  spend  our  time  is  to  tell  upon  the 
people  that  will  live  in  the  world  after  we  are  gone.  Every  man 
and  woman  in  the  world  is  a  manufacturer  of  history,  and  the 
people  that  are  living  to-day  are  to  settle  whether  there  are  to 
be  more  tears  in  the  world  in  the  future  than  there  have  been  in 
the  past,  or  whether  there  are  to  be  more  smiles  in  the  world 
than  there  have  been  in  the  past.  The  responsibility  of  living  is 
something  tremendous,  and  it  is  a  very  happy  thought  that  every- 
one of  us  has  the  power  of  making  this  world  a  very  much 
happier  place  than  it  otherwise  would  have  been.  I  have  seen 
that  over  and  over  again,  and  you  have,  and  you  know  your- 
selves that  there  are  parts  of  your  life  when  you  have  lived  to 
make  the  world  verj'  much  easier  for  other  folks  to  live  in    it, 


3o6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

and  when  you  have  taken  away  from  the  burdens  of  other  people 
and  added  to  their  joys.  And  I  want  us  who  have  children — 
especially  those  who  have  little  children — I  want  us  to  realise  the 
possibilities  of  the  cradle,  the  possibilities  of  the  fireside,  the 
power  which  everyone  has  who  is  king  or  queen,  the  kings  and 
queens,  the  monarchs  of  the  hearthstone,  that  they  should  so  rule 
their  hearts  and  lives,  and  so  use  their  powers  and  influence  over 
their  children  that  their  name  may  become  a  proverb  of  goodness. 
It  is  very  nice  to  think  that  it  is  possible  to  make  the  most  com- 
monplace name  sound  like  a  jewel.  It  is  possible  for  us  to  make 
folks,  as  soon  as  they  think  of  our  names,  feel  as  though  they 
were  enriched,  as  though  something  valuable  had  been  placed 
within  their  reach. 

Omri's  influence  was  the  contrary  of  this.  He  had  great  powers 
as  ever  king  had,  and  he  used  his  powers  so  as  to  bring  it  to  pass 
that  there  was  more  oppression,  and  more  war,  and  more  wicked- 
ness than  there  would  have  been  if  he  had  died  in  his  cradle. 
And  there  are  men  living  in  London  now  of  whom  it  would  have 
been  an  untold  blessing  to  this  world  if  their  mothers  had  buried 
them  in  a  little  cradle. 

You  will  say  to  me,  "  Preacher,  why  do  you  talk  to  us  ?  There 
is  no  Omri  in  our  midst.  We  do  not  belong  to  this  wicked  class. 
We  are  church  and  chapel  people,  we  are."  Well,  be  it  so,  but 
every  man  has  an  Omri  in  him.  Every  man  of  us  has  some 
principle  within  his  life  which  exists  for  wickedness,  and  which 
curbs  his  goodness,  and  which  often  destroys  that  which  has  been 
good  if  allowed  to  grow  up.  And,  therefore,  I  will  take  you  upon 
your" own  verdict,  and  say,  though  you  are  good,  I  want  30U  to 
destroy  in  you  or  to  ask  God  to  destroy  in  you  every  principle  of 
evil,  and  do  not  let  it  produce  its  own  kind.  I  am  not  a  great 
reader,  but  I  keep  my  eyes  and  ears  very  wide  open  when  I  am 
awake,  and  the  other  day  I  was  taking  a  walk  with  a  friend 
of  mine  in  Northamptonshire,  an  enthusiastic  farmer.  And  as  we 
walked  along  by  and  by  we  came  to  a  field,  and  he  paused  and 
said,  "  Now,  Mr.  Champness,  look  at  that  field  of  beans.  Did 
ever  you  see  such  a  field  of  beans  in  your  life  ?  "  He  could  not 
help  but  say,  Lancashire  man  as  he  was,  he  had  never  seen  a 
better  field  of  beans,  and  I  had  not,  though  I  had  lived  in  what  I 
considered  the  finest  agricultural  county  in  England.  "  Oh  yes," 
I  said,  "  these  are  grand  ones."  "Yes,"  he  said,  **  but  look  at 
them  docks."  And  he  pointed  out  to  me,  up  and  down  the  field, 
great  tall  docks — weeds,  you  know — taller  than  the  beans,  and  he 
said,  "  Do  you  know  I  spent  a  great  deal  of  money  on  this  field, 
cleaning  it,  we  worked  at  it,  and  did  our  very  best,  but  look  at 
them  docks — look  at  them!"  Do  you  know,  they  were  just 
coming  into  flower,  were  these  docks,  and  in  another  week  the  seed- 
pods  would  be  developed,  and  they  would  empty  themselves  all 
over  the  land.     He  said,  "I'll  tell  you  what   I'll  do,   I'll  send 


Some  Lessons  from  an  Unfamiliar  Text.  307 

somebody  in  among  them  beans,  and  I'll  wring  the  tops  off  them 
docks  and  wont  let  them  seed  themselves." 

That's  it,  that's  what  we  want.  We  want  the  tops  of  the  docks 
breakmg  off.  We  don't  want  evil  that  is  in  us  to  be  allowed  to 
seed  Itself  and  to  scatter  generations  of  evil  in  the  time  that  is  to 
come.  Don't  you  see  it  ?  If  you  have  got  a  covetous  disposition, 
tnat  IS  the  Omri  of  your  life  ;  if  you  have  got  an  evil  imagination. 
It  IS  the  Omn  of  your  bemg.  If  you  have  got  an  over-reachingness, 
a  disposition  to  get  to  the  windward  of  people  in  business  and  to 
take  advantage  of  them,  that  is  the  Omri  that  is  preventing  you 
trom  making  as  good  a  score  as  you  otherwise  would  have  done 
And  I  want  you  to  see  to  it  that  the  Omri  of  your  life  does  not 
produce  its  own  sort.  I  am  not  going  to  extremes.  I  am  not 
preaching— whatever  I  may  believe— I  am  not  preaching  that  it  is 
possible  for  men  to  live  so  that  there  shall  be  no  weeds  in  their 
lives.  But  I  do  preach  this,  that  it  is  possible  by  God's  grace  to 
P^^^^"]-L^^''"  "multiplying  in  our  existence,  making  it  more  and 
more  difficult,  as  God's  grace  shall  have  fair  play  in  our  future 
conduct. 

Now,  these  Scriptures  which  I  have  read  teach  me  also  that 
bad  men  may  make  things  worse  by  unholy  friendships.  \hab 
was  worse  than  Omri,  but  Ahab  was  worse  in  his  manhood  than 
he  was  in  his  )'outh,  because  he  married  a  woman  who  stirred  him 
up  to  do  wickedly.  I  want  the  young  people  here  to  see  to  it  that 
in  their  friendships  they  do  not  make  wickedness  in  themselves 
easier  than  it  otherwise  would  be.  Bad  men  may  make  thin^rs 
worse  by  unholy  alliances;  ay,  and  good  men  may  make  it  much 
more  difficult  for  themselves  to  be  good  by  choosing  their  friends 
among  the  evil.  Look  round  now.  I  am  certain  we  preachers 
have  been  too  mealy-mouthed  in  these  matters,  and  I  say  to  you 
that  are  not  married,  "  Mind  what  you  are  doing."  I  sometimes 
say  to  young  women,  "  Be  very  particular  in  whose  company  you 
are  when  you  sign  your  maiden  name  for  the  last  time."  It  was 
an  evil  day  for  the  world,  specially  was  it  evil  for  the  kingdom  of 
Israel,  when  Ahab  married  Jezebel.  She  was  a  woman  that  gave 
birth  to  tragedies.  She  was  a  woman  who,  when  her  husband 
was  only  sulky,  stirred  him  up.  And  you  may  make  friends  of 
that  sort.  You  may  marry  people  of  that  sort,  who  when  your 
sins  are  like  some  coal  clinkcring,  when  your  sins  arc  hardening 
and  dying  out,  will  rake  them  up  and  break  them  up  into  a  tlame. 
And  I  say,  you  had  better  say,  "  God,  take  me  out  of  this  world 
rather  than  let  me  live  and  marry  anybody  that  will  make  me 
worse  than  I  otherwise  would  be."  Sometimes  when  there  are 
weddings  going  on,  and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  gaiety  and  plea- 
santry, and  people  are  dressed  in  their  best,  and  everybody  is  wearing 
a  smile,  some  of  us  who  are  in  the  secret,  and  who  know  something 
of  thepast  and  the  possibilities  of  the  future  with  regard  to  one  that 
isbeing  married,  we  feel  as  though  the  bells,  instead  of  rini^ing  out 


3o8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  merry  peal,  should  toll  ;  instead  of  ringing  out  jubilant  notes 
those  bells  ought  to  toll  of  dead  hope,  toll  for  dead  joy,  toll  for 
dead  hope.  Marry  those  who  will  help  you  to  pray,  marry  those 
who,  if  you  want  to  take  a  wrong  step,  will  say  :  "  My  dear,  if  you 
do  that  you  must  do  it  alone,  I  cannot  go  with  you."  Temptation 
is  never  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  when  the  hand  of  affection  offers 
you  that  which  is  evil.  Therefore,  I  say,  beware  of  unholy 
friendships.  For  Ahab,  bad  as  he  was,  would  never  have  been  the 
man  he  became  but  for  somebody  that  he  married. 

And  now  look  on  the  other  side.  The  story  of  Ahab  goes  to 
show  that  wickedness,  however  powerful,  cannot  prevent  the 
existence  and  development  of  goodness.  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you 
that  bad  as  Ahab  was  he  knew  when  he  was  well  served.  He  was 
a  very  shrewd  and  clever  man,  and  he  knew  when  he  was  well 
served  and  he  had  a  man  as  his  steward,  Obadiah  by  name,  and 
Obadiah  lived  with  Ahab  and  managed  his  affairs  for  him.  And 
when  you  come  to  study  the  character  of  Obadiah  you  see  very 
plainly  that  bad  as  Ahab  was,  his  conduct  evil  though  it  was,  did 
not  prevent  the  goodness  of  Obadiah  developing  even  in  the 
presence  of  Ahab.  Those  were  bad  days  for  preachers,  those  were 
hard  times  for  faithful  servants  of  God.  As  you  will  remember 
Jezebel  killed  all  the  prophets  of  the  Lord  that  she  knew  of,  but 
Obadiah  took  some  of  these  same  prophets  and  hid  them,  and  fed 
them  with  bread  and  water.  Those  were  days  when  water  was  very 
scarce,  when  the  king  himself,  in  order  to  find  grass  to  keep  the 
horses  and  mules  alive,  went  out  on  a  long  journey,  he  one  way, 
and.  Obadiah,  his  steward,  another.  Depend  upon  it  if  it  was 
difficult  to  find  water  to  keep  those  horses  and  those  mules  alive 
there  were  many  poor  things  that  perished  with  thirst,  sheep  and 
oxen  that  died  in  the  fields.  But  Obadiah  found  a  secret  spring 
somewhere  and  he  never  told  the  king.  When  the  king  said  "  Let 
us  go  and  see  if  we  can  go  and  find  some  grass,"  he  did  not  say 
"  I  know  a  place  where  there  is  some  water,"  but  he  kept  that, 
and  used  to  go  every  day  and  take  these  prophets  bread  and  water. 
Better  than  a  Worn  Out  Preachers'  Fund  was  Obadiah. 

I  w^ant  you  to  think  of  it — this  virtuous  character  lived  in  the 
time  of  Ahab  and  lived  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ahab.  And  let  no 
man  here  say  "  I  cannot  be  good  because  of  my  surroundings."  I 
know  better.  I  have  good  reason  for  saying  I  know  better.  Let 
no  man  say,  "  There  are  so  many  wicked  people  round  about  me 
I  cannot  be  good."  It  is  a  mistake.  God  is  stronger  than  Satan, 
and  goodness  is  stronger  than  wickedness,  or  else  what  is  the  good 
of  living  at  all  ?  It  reminds  me  now  of  a  little  publichouse  in  a 
village  far  from  here  which  I  know  very  well  and  know  every  one 
in  every  lane  round  about,  and  in  that  village  public  there  lived  a 
man  and  his  wife  who  had  formerly  been  Christians,  and  the}^ 
were  apostates.  And  there  is  nobody  so  bad  as  those  who  have 
been  good  and  have  for  the  sake  of  money  turned  bad.     It  was  so 


Some  Lessons  from  an  Unfamiliar  Text.  309 

with  these.  More  than  one  murder  came  out  of  that  house.  Yet 
in  that  wicked  place  grew  a  fair  and  lovely  Christian  maiden,  one 
of  the  sweetest  Christians  I  ever  knew.  It  was  her  home,  she 
had  no  other.  These  were  her  father  and  mother.  And  there, 
amidst  oaths  and  curses  and  wicked  brutal  language,  and  in  the 
very  place  from  which  murders  had  gone  out,  grew  up  this  beautiful 
Christian  girl.  The  other  day  a  young  man  came  to  me  to  ask  me 
to  go  and  preach  in  their  circuit.  I  said,  "  Who  are  you  ?  "  and 
he  told  me  his  name,  and  it  was  the  name  of  these  wicked 
people.  I  said,  "Are  you  the  son  of  so-and-so?"  He  said, 
"  Yes,  sir.  We  want  you  to  come,  sir."  I  said,  "  I  will  come. 
I  am  sure  to  come."  I  could  not  help  but  come.  How  could  I 
help  it,  to  be  invited  to  come  by  a  lad  who  had  been 
brought  up  in  such  a  wicked  place  as  that  ?  How  could  I 
say  "  No  ?  "  I  am  bound  to  go,  and  I  am  bound  to  do  my  best  for 
that  place.  And  I  want  you  to  understand  that,  bad  as  your  sur- 
roundings be,  God  can  make  you  beautiful.  You  may  live  in  a 
Christless  home,  you  may  live  where  oaths  are  the  staple  part  of 
the  conversation,  or  you  may  be  mixed  up  with  those  who  use  the 
name  of  the  Divine  Being  to  make  their  conversation  the  more 
terribly  wicked,  but  God  can  keep  you  pure  and  true  in  spite  of  it 
all,  and  He  can  make  fair  flowers  grow  upon  the  edge  of  a  volcano. 
It  was  Obadiah  that  lived  with  Ahab. 

Now  I  go  further,  and  say  that  God  takes  great  pains  to  save 
very  wicked  people.  It  will  be  found  at  the  day  of  judgment, 
when  the  secrets  of  all  hearts  are  disclosed,  that  some  of  the 
violent  and  most  wicked  people  of  the  earth  have  had  great 
chances  of  being  good,  and  that  God  has  over  and  over  again 
interfered  to  keep  them  out  of  their  wickedness,  and  given  them 
a  chance  of  becoming  virtuous  and  righteous  people.  See  what 
pains  He  took  with  Ahab.  It  was  in  the  days  of  Ahab  that 
Elijah  flourished.  Let  it  be  known  that  in  the  days  when  God 
was  in  the  minority  if  you  only  counted  heads — that  when  God 
was  in  the  minority,  as  He  was  in  those  days,  there  came  a  man 
like  Elijah.  And  I  love  to  think  that  however  wicked  this  world 
'may  be,  or  any  part  of  it,  God  can  make  the  finest  specimens  of 
manhood  come  there.  And  it  was  so  with  Elijah.  And  how 
Elijah,  under  God,  was  brought  into  conflict  with  Ahab  to  try  to 
save  him.  Nobody  can  read  the  story  of  Carmel  without  reading 
that  God  does  take  great  pains  to  save  wicked  men.  I  have  no 
doubt  there  are  bad  people  listening  to  me,  because  almost  every- 
where I  go  I  find  some  very  wicked  people  in  the  congregation. 
It  is  rather  a  singular  thing,  but  I  have  found  that  out  over  and 
over  again.     I  could  tell  you  many  a  story  about  it. 

I  remember  in  one  of  the  places  where  I  was,  one  town  where 
I  lived,  there  came  a  young  man,  a  native  of  the  town — came  to 
live  there  and  entered  into  business,  and  what  we  thought  was 
his  wife  with  him.     They  lived  together  as  man  and  wife.     One 


310  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Sunda}-  night  they  were  in  our  chapel,  and  I  was  preaching.  I 
did  not  know  them  at  the  time,  and  did  not  know  the  history  of 
this  woman,  but  I  was  preaching  from  the  words,  "  Felix 
trembled,"  and  one  of  the  things  I  had  to  say  was  that  it  was 
Felix,  and  not  Drusilla,  that  trembled.  And  I  had  a  great  deal 
to  say  about  women  who  led  men  wrong,  and  made  them  worse 
than  they  otherwise  would  be.  I  spoke  so  strongly  that  when  I 
got  home  my  wife  took  me  to  task,  and  said  I  had  no  business  to 
speak  as  I  had  spoken.  As  a  rule,  I  find  my  wife's  criticisms  are 
correct — most  wives'  are,  but  the  best  of  wives  can  make  mistakes 
sometimes.  It  turned  out  that  Drusilla  was  there.  I  could  see 
her  sitting  in  the  gallery,  as  it  might  be,  up  there.  There  she 
was;  I  did  not  know  her  history.  1  knew  afterwards  all  about  it. 
She  was  not  his  wife.  And  not  very  long  afterwards  they  left  the 
town,  and  one  day  in  Birmingham  he  killed  her,  and  then  killed 
himself,  and  they  brought  him  home  and  buried  him  at  twelve 
o'clock  at  midnight,  with  his  father — poor  old  grey-headed  father 
— as  mourner  ;  buried  him  without  service.  That  poor  thing,  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  came  nigh  to  her,  and  she  got  her  chance. 
God  spoke  to  her  by  the  mouth  of  his  servant  that  day.  It  seems 
that  somebody  asked  her  how  she  liked  the  preacher,  and  she 
said  she  did  not  like  him.  I  don't  wonder,  but  there  was  her 
chance. 

I  do  not  know  who  is  here,  but  I  say  to  any  wicked  man  who 
is  here,  "  O  wicked  man,  if  thou  wilt  turn  from  thy  wickedness 
thou  shalt  live."  I  tell  thee  in  the  name  of  God,  and  if  it  were 
the  last  word  I  have  to  speak,  if  this  were  my  last  message,  and 
the  angels  were  waiting  here  on  this  platform  to  take  my  soul  to 
God,  my  last  words  would  not  be  a  message  to  my  wife  and 
children,  but  my  message  would  be  to  thee,  "  When  the  wicked 
man  turneth  away  from  his  wickedness,  and  doeth  that  which  is 
lawful  and  right,  he  shall  surely  live,"  for  God  has  no  pleasure  in 
thy  death.  Whatever  thy  past  has  been,  Jesus  Christ  died  as  a 
malefactor  for  thee.  Jesus  Christ,  the  holy  and  true,  died  as 
though  He  were  the  worst  man  that  ever  drew  breath  to  bear  thy 
shame  and  thy  pain,  and  opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  that  thou 
mightest  enter  in.  Oh,  wicked  man,  I  plead  with  thee  for  thy 
everlasting  soul,  and  I  say,  God  is  now  taking  pains  to  save  you. 
Look  at  the  conduct  of  Ahab,  look  at  that  wonderful  scene  on 
Carmel  when  Elijah,  in  the  strength  of  faith,  called  the  prophets 
of  Baal  to  enter  into  battle  with  him,  that  they  might  prove  in  the 
presence  of  the  assembled  Israel  who  was  right  and  who  was 
wrong,  and  said,  "  Let  them  kill  a  bullock  and  put  it  upon  an 
altar,  and  I  will  kill  a  bullock  and  put  it  on  an  altar,  and  the 
God  that  ansvvereth  by  fire,  let  Him  be  God."  And  Ahab  was 
there,  and  the  people  said :  "  It  is  right,  that  is  fair  play;  let  the 
God  that  answers  by  fire  be  the  God."  You  know  what  was 
done.     In  the  presence  of  Ahab  the  priests  of  Baal  brought  their 


Some  Lessous  from  an   Unfamiliar  Text.  311 


bullock,  put  it  upon  the  altar,  and  then  cut  themselves  with 
knives,  and  began  to  cry  out,  "  O  Baal,  Baal,  Baal  ;  ()  Baal, 
hear  us."  But  there  was  none  that  regarded,  and  the  sun  climbed 
up  the  sky,  and  as  it  got  near  to  noon  they  cried  again,  "  O  Baal, 
Baal,  Baal ;  O  Baal,  hear  us,"  But  there  was  no  response.  And 
as  the  sun  travelled  on  towards  the  west  Elijah  came  forth  and 
said,  "  Why  don't  you  shout  ?  he  is  asleep,  he  is  gone  on  a  picnic  ; 
call  out  now,  and  wake  him  up."  And  they  called  again,  "  O 
Baal,  hear  us;  O  Baal,  hear  us."  But  there  was  no  reply.  And 
when  they  had  done  all,  the  man  of  God  stepped  forth  again  and 
said,  "  Throw  water  on  the  sacrifice."  And  they  did  so.  Then 
they  gathered  twelve  stones.  Ay,  I  should  like  to  have  been  his 
labourer,  and  he  the  mason  that  day.  I  should  like  to  have 
carried  him  the  stones.  He  built  the  altar  with  the  twelve  great 
pieces  of  rock,  and  put  his  bullock  on  it,  and  then  knelt  down  to 
pray.  And  the  fire  of  the  Lord  fell,  and  there  was  only  a  cinder 
where  the  bullock  had  been.  And  the  people  cried  out  and  said, 
"The  Lord  Jehovah  is  the  God."     That  was  Ahab's  chance. 

I  say  God  takes  great  pains  to  save  wicked  men.  He  is  taking 
pains  to  save  you.  Why  am  I  preaching  on  this  subject  to-night  ? 
I  pass  over  the  godly,  I  pass  over  the  Christians,  I  pass  over  even 
those  who  are  not  ver}-  wicked.  I  appeal  to  the  wicked  here, 
whether  God  is  not  speaking  to  you  ?  Why  am  I  preaching  upon 
this  subject  ?  Because  God  has  told  me  to  try  to  save.  "  What 
man  of  you  having  a  hundred  sheep,  if  he  lose  one  of  them,  doth 
not  leave  the  ninety  and  nine  in  the  wilderness  and  go  after  that 
which  is  lost  until  he  find  it  ?  "  And  the  Good  Shepherd  is  after 
thy  soul.  The  question  is.  Is  this  to  be  the  night  of  your  con- 
version ?  Is  this  to  be  the  time  when  thou  wilt  yield  thyself  to 
God,  when  thou  wilt  give  thyself  up  ? 

There  is  one  other  thing  I  want  to  say.  Wickedness  cannot 
hide  itself  from  death.  Ahab  was  a  powerful  man,  he  was  a  man 
of  great  strategy  and  skill.  For  a  time  he  eluded  death,  for  a 
time  he  kept  himself  in  safe  places.  But  the  old  warlike  instincts 
came  upon  him,  and  once  more  he  would  go  out  into  the  field, 
once  more  he  would  fight  the  battle.  And  you  will  remember 
how,  in  his  desire  to  elude  death,  he  disguised  himself  and  put  on 
somebody  else's  armour.  But  somebody  else's  armour,  it  does 
not  fit  the  bad,  as  well  as  it  does  not  fit  the  good,  whether  it  is 
David  in  Saul's  armour,  or  Ahab  in  somebody  else's  armour.  It 
does  not  fit.  And  there  was  a  place  where  two  iron  plates  did  not 
join  together.  There  was  room  for  death  to  enter  there.  If  you 
remember,  one  of  the  Syrian  soldiers  as  he  put  the  arrow  on  the 
string,  said,  "  I  wish  I  knew  where  the  man  was  who  has  made 
so  many  widows  among  my  countrymen,"  and  at  last  he  drew  the 
bow  at  a  venture,  and  the  arrow  came  along,  and  it  entered  in  the 
joint  of  the  armour,  and  he  sank  down  in  the  chariot.  And  they 
brought  his  body  home,  and  they  waslied   his  chariot  in  the  pool 


312  The  Byitish  Weekly  Pulpit. 

which  is  there  to  this  day.     In  the  place  where  dogs  had  licked 
Naboth,  dogs  licked  his  blood. 

I  say  to  you,  wicked  man,  you  cannot  elude  death.  How  will 
you  do  it  ?  How  can  you  escape  death  ?  I  wonder  sometimes 
that  men  dare  to  go  out  of  their  homes,  I  wonder  sometimes  that 
men  dare  to  get  inside  a  railway  train  when  they  are  wicked  men  ; 
how  do  you  know  but  the  next  time  you  gather  your  samples  up 
and  set  off  on  a  journey,  when  you  take  your  ticket,  how  do  you 
know  but  that  when  that  ticket  is  asked  for  somebody  will  find  it 
in  your  pocket — you  won't  be  alive  to  show  it  ?  How  do  you 
know  but  what  the  next  coach  accident,  how  do  you  know  but 
when  you  next  sit  behind  horses  that  they  may  not  run  away  ?  I 
wonder,  wicked  men,  that  you  dare  to  go  on  at  all,  and  I  ask  you 
to  be  honest  and  think  on  this  matter.  Look  at  the  interests  of 
your  life,  look  at  your  immortality,  look  at  the  fact  that  you  are  to 
live  on.  What  is  to  become  of  you  ?  Thousands  of  years  to-day 
your  soul  will  be  in  existence — where,  where  ?  Where  will  you 
be  and  what  will  you  be  feeling  ?  We  sang  just  now  about  the 
scene  at  the  judgment  day.  Will  you  think  of  it  ?  Will  you 
bring  your  mind  to  bear  on  it  ?  Man,  I  am  in  earnest  about  your 
soul.  I  am  not  the  minister  who  is  to  be  here  next  Sunday,  to  be 
here  for  years — I  have  just  one  chance  for  pleading  with  thee  for 
thy  soul.  I  want  to  win  yours  for  Christ.  O  blessed  thought, 
Christ  is  here,  the  Saviour  of  men  is  present  and  would  rather 
save  thee  than  anybody  else,  thou  who  art  deeply  dyed  in 
wickedness.  And  I  urge  thee  by  the  value  of  thy  soul  that  thou 
make  haste  and  delay  not  to  keep  the  commandment  of  God 
which  calls  thee  to  come  in,  to  repent,  and  be  pardoned  of  thy 
sins. 

Yonder,  not  far  from  Sunderland,  there  was  a  terrible  collision, 
and  there  was  a  good  Methodist  man  who  was  to  go  to  Newcastle 
for  the  day  on  the  train.  He  had  an  invalid  wife,  and  he  always, 
before  he  started  to  business,  with  his  own  hands  used  to  dress 
the  poor  invalid  and  put  her  on  her  couch  for  the  day.  He  did 
not  leave  it  for  any  hirehng,  he  did  not  even  trust  his  own 
children ;  but  every  day,  every  morning  before  he  started  for  busi- 
ness with  his  own  hands  he  put  her  there.  And  one  morning  he 
had  been  delayed,  and  to  catch  the  train  he  ran  with  all  his  might 
to  the  station  and  was  just  in  time  to  get  in.  And  in  a  few  minutes 
there  was  the  collision,  and  the  shock  slew  him.  There  was  no 
hurt  found  on  him,  he  was  found  sitting  quietly,  dead.  And  what 
do  you  think  his  daughter  said  ?  Thinking  of  her  father,  after  he 
had  been  so  kind  to  his  wife,  making  haste,  she  said,  "  Papa  ran 
to  heaven,  papa  ran  to  heaven."  It  was  so.  But  supposing  it 
had  been  you,  would  your  children  have  said,  "  Papa  ran  to 
heaven  ?  "  Would  they  not  have  to  say,  "  Oh  that  papa  had 
learned  to  pray  "  ?  Wicked  man,  wicked  woman,  you  are  without 
Christ  and  without  hope.     I  beg  of  you,   come  to  Christ,  come 


Sonic  Lessons  from  an   Unjaniiliuy  Tcxl.  31  j 


to-day.  The  collection  is  to  be  made,  and  I  do  not  want  it  to 
put  this  thing  out  of  your  mind.  Let  the  collection  be  sacred. 
Let  us  put  our  gifts  into  the  boxes  as  though  it  were  the  hand  that 
was  nailed  to  the  cross  taking  the  money.  And  then  let  us  pray 
awhile,  and  let  those  who  must,  go  home ;  and  give  God  and  the 
church  a  chance  to  help  thee  to  come  to  repentance  and  salvation. 

Prayer  defore  Sermon. 
Be  pleased,  O  Lord,  to  impress  us  with  the  thought  of  our  great  value. 
Teach  us  something  of  the  importance  of  existence.  Teach  us  that  we 
are  candidates  for  immortality.  Make  us  to  know  the  preciousness  of  life. 
Help  us  to  understand  the  responsibilities  of  being.  Teach  us  to  make  the 
most  of  opportunity.  We  have  come  into  Thy  house,  and  we  would  wor- 
ship at  Thy  footstool.  "  We  crowd  Thy  gates  with  thankful  songs."  W'q 
come  to  bless  Thy  name  for  Thy  great  goodness  to  us.  And  we  would 
make  the  very  most  of  the  chance  we  have.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  not  given  angels  the  monopoly  of  worship.  We  bless  Thee  that  Thou 
hast  not  limited  the  power  to  praise  Thee  to  smless  beings,  but  Thou  dost 
allow  those  who  have  erred  and  strayed  from  Thy  ways  to  turn  their  faces 
toward  Thee  and  ask  for  Thy  blessing.  And  so  we,  the  sheep  of  Thy 
pasture,  the  flock  of  Thy  hand,  though  many  times  wandering  from  Thee, 
we  turn  to  Thee  now,  and  we  look  toward  Thee  and  we  seek  Thy  blessing. 
O  God,  turn  not  away  Thyself  from  us,  but  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ, 
Thine  anointed  well-beloved  Son,  receive  us  and  bless  us,  and  make  this 
service  the  occasion  of  great  blessing.  Do  not  let  one  of  us  go  out  the 
same  as  we  came  in,  but  do  something  for  us  every  one. 

We  pray  Thee  to  make  us  understand  something  of  Thy  great  love,  and 
something  more  of  Thy  wonderful  willingness  to  save  us.  Pour  out  Thy 
Spirit  upon  us.  O  Jesus  Christ,  Who  didst  pour  out  Thy  heart's  blood  to 
save  us,  we  cry  to  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  give  unto  us  all  that  Thou  hast 
obtained  for  us  by  Thine  ascension,  by  Thy  glorious  intercession.  Oh  let 
the  Spirit  of  the  living  God  fall  upon  us. 

While  this  service  is  going  on,  in  every  hymn  we  sing,  and  every  verse 
of  Holy  Scripture  that  is  read  to  us,  in  every  sentence  the  speaker  shall 
speak,  let  Thy  power  be  in  it  all.  We  want  Thee  to  demonstrate  Thine 
existence.  If  there  is  any  man  here  who  has  been  atilicted  with  doubts  as 
to  whether  there  is  a  God,  as  to  whether  there  is  another  world,  as  to 
whether  the  Bible  is  true,  make  him  to  feel  the  supernatural,  make  him  to 
feel  the  other  world,  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come.  Make  him  bless- 
edly conscious  that  God  Almighty  is  stretching  out  His  hand  to  save  him. 

It  may  be  that  in  this  house  there  are  gathered  together  some  who  once 
did  well — some  who  once  were  useful  workers  in  Thy  Church — but  some- 
thing has  turned  them  aside.  Lord  have  mercy  on  them,  and  may  this  be 
the  night  of  their  restoration,  may  this  be  the  time  when  they  shall  once 
more  be  brought  into  the  blessed  circle  of  Church  fellowship  and  into  a 
saving  acciuaintance  with  Jesus  Christ.  We  pray  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst 
make  Thy  AVord  a  power  to  prevent  people  from  going  wrong.  W'c  feel 
that  in  Divine  things  prevention  is  better  than  cure.  We  feel  that  it  would 
be  a  blessed  thing  if  many  of  these  young  people  should  never  know  what 
some  of  us  have  known.  And  we  would  ask  Thee  to  make  Thy  Spirit 
to-night  a  power  to  keep  them  from  going  into  forbidden  paths.     Make  it 


314  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  power  to  keep  them  from  having  to  shed  bitter,  scalding  tears  of  remorse, 
which  some  have  shed.  May  Thy  mercy,  by  the  agency  of  this  service. 
deUver  numbers  of  people  from  the  knowledge  of  evil. 

Stretch  out  Thine  hand  and  bless  anybody  in  whom  we  have  any 
interest,  those  who  are  left  at  home  ;  litde  children  that  are  lefc  at  home — 
oh,  be  gracious  to  the  little  ones  belonging  to  Thy  people  here  ;  and  to  all 
children,  to  the  London  street  children  who  seem  to  have  nobody  to  care 
for  them,  the  poor  little  lost  children. 

O  God,  we  do  pray  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  do  something  for  this 
London.  Do  more  than  has  yet  been  done.  Bless  all  people  that  are 
doing  work  for  Thee  in  this  city.  Grant,  we  pray  Thee,  that  all  efforts 
made  for  the  rescue  and  deliverance  of  the  people  may  have  Thine 
assistance.  May  every  man  from  the  Bishop  of  London  to  the  youngest 
officer  in  the  Salvation  Army — may  they  all  get  Thy  blessing  in  any  effort 
that  they  may  make. 

Grant,  we  pray  Thee,  that  all  branches  of  Thy  Church  in  this  country 
may  be  strengthened  to  go  to  preach  the  Gospel  and  to  save  souls  and 
bodies  of  their  fellowmen.  We  pray  Thee  to  raise  up  other  agencies  than 
those  which  already  exist,  and  to  bless  those  which  are  now  at  work.  And 
may  this  place  of  worship  become  a  greater  centre  for  active  benevolence 
and  unselfishness  than  it  has  ever  been.  We  pray  Thee  to  bless  Thy 
servant,  who  once  ministered  here  and  has  removed  to  other  spheres  of 
labour.  God  bless  Edward  Smith,  make  his  future  more  glorious,  make 
him  still  more  a  power  for  good.  Let  Thy  young  servant,  who  is  next 
Sunday  to  begin  his  work  here,  be  anointed  with  fresh  oil  and  may  all 
parts  of  the  machinery  of  this  church  be  wonderfully  blessed  of  God. 

And  now  we  pray  for  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men,  for  those  who 
sit  on  thrones  and  for  those  who  sit  on  benches  in  the  workhouse.  We 
pray  for  the  waifs  and  strays  as  well  as  for  those  who  have  come  from 
good  homes.  We  pray  for  the  great  and  for  the  little,  we  pray  for  the 
rich  and  for  the  poor.  We  pray  for  those  who  spend  their  lives  in  the 
abodes  of  learning,  and  those  who  as  yet  have  never  learned  to  read.  We 
pray  that  Thou  wouldst  stretch  out  Thine  hand  and  bless  all  kinds  of  men 
that  are  at  work  to-day,  men  that  must  be  at  work,  men  on  boardship, 
men  m  camp  or  barrack,  men  who  are  doing  their  duty,  and  are  therefore 
kept  from  Thy  house.  God  bless  them.  And  may  every  sailor  upon  the 
wide  deep,  and  every  soldier  right  round  the  world,  know  that  there  is  a 
God  that  cares  for  them,  and  is  waiting  to  bless  them. 

Hear  these  our  prayers,  and,  though  we  deserve  nothing,  give  us  all 
things  we  require.  We  ask  that  self  may  be  forgotten,  and  that  power 
may  be  given  us  to  lead  souls  unto  Thee,  and  that  this  service  may  be  the 
means  of  saving  men  from  their  sins,  saving  others  from  sinning  at  all. 
Lord,  grant  us  our  request  for  Jesus  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 

Pravkr  after  Sermon. 

O  God,  we  ask  Thee  to  hear  prayer  for  the  sufferer  who  asks  that  we 
should  intercede  that  a  blessing  should  come  to  her  in  her  sick-room. 
The  Lord  go  to  her  and  bless  her  while  we  wait  here. 

And  now  we  ask  of  Thee,  O  Thou  God  who  tookest  such  pains  to  save 
Ahab,  we  ask  Thee  to  stretch  out  a  hand  and  help  us  in  our  endeavour  to 
save  some  of  those  who  are  out  of  Christ.      Thou  seest  the  peril  in  which 


An  E.xposilion  of  Isaiah  Ixiii.,  Ixiv.  315 


some  of  them  are  placed,  how  before  to-morrow  comes  they  may  be 
invited  into  some  fresh  sin,  tempted  to  do  something  which  will  make  it 
still  more  difficult  for  them  to  be  saved.  Thou  knowest  the  temptations 
waiting  outside  for  the  unsaved.     Lord,  help  them  to  stay  and  pray. 

Tarry  with  us  in  our  meeting.  We  feel  ourselves  helpless  without  Thee. 
We  feel  powerless  to  grasp  with  the  souls  of  these  people  without  more 
divine  influence.  Holy  Spirit,  come  still  more  mightily  to  us  Holy 
Spirit,  do  Thine  own  work  here  still  more  definitely  and  powerfully,  and 
save  people.  Lord,  Thou  knowest  the  future.  Thou  knowest  how  soon 
some  will  be  in  extreme  peril.  Thou  knowest  which  of  us  is  to  be  soon 
hurried  out  of  this  world.  But  Thou  art  here,  and  Thou  art  waiting  to 
save  people,  and  Thou  art  now  taking  pains  to  get  some  of  these  that  have 
remained  to  pray.  Continue  to  work,  continue  to  assert  Thy  sovereignty 
in  saving  men  and  women.  Tarry  Thou  with  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  for 
Thine  own  name's  sake. 

And  now  may  the  blessing  of  God  Almighty,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit,  abide  with  us  to-night  and  for  ever.     Amen. 


AN  EXPOSITION  OF  ISAIAH   LXIIL,  LXIV. 

By  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

The  division  of  the  chapter  is  very  useful  in  some  respects,  but  in  some 
respects  it  is  a  very  unhappy  arrangement.  I  wonder  what  we  should  do 
with  others  book  if  they  were  chopped  up  into  chapters  as  the  Bible  is.  For 
the  chaptering  has  been  very  badly  done  indeed.  Sometimes  we  quite 
lose  the  teaching  by  not  going  straight  on  with  the  book.  Noa-  we  begin 
in  the  sixty-third  chapter  with  "  The  King  cometh  " — the  Lord  Jesus 
Cometh  in  the  glory  of  His  power  to  conquer  the  enemies  of  His 
Church.  After  that  we  hear  her  cries  and  prayers  for  His  return,  and  in  a 
measure  we  begin  to  see  that  return — not  fully  till  we  reach  chapter  sixty- 
five. 

Who  is  this  that  cometh  frotn  Edom,  with  dyed  i^arments  frofu  Bozrah  / 
this  that  is  glorious  in  apparel^  travelling  in  the  greatness  0/  His  strength  ?  I 
that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to  save. 

W/iere/ore  art  Thou  red  in  Thine  apparel,  and  Thy  garments  like  him  that 
treadeth  in  tJie  wine/at  ? 

I  have  trodden  the  winepress  alone  ;  and  of  the  people  there  7vas  none  7vith 
Me  :  for  I  will  tread  them  in  Mine  anger,  and  trample  them  in  My  fury; 
and  their  blood  shall  be  sprinkled  upon  My  garments,  and  I  will  stain  all  My 
raiment. 

For  the  day  of  vengeance  is  in  Mine  heart,  and  the  year  of  My  redeemed  : 
come. 

And  I  looked,  and  there  was  none  to  help  ;  and  1 7Vondered  thai  there  was 
none  to  uphold :  therefore  Mine  07vn  arm  brought  salvation  unto  Me :  and 
my  fury,  it  upheld  Me. 

And  I  'iVill  tread  doivn  the  people  in  Mine  anger,  and  make  them  drunk  i.. 
My  fury,  and  1 7vill  bring  down  their  strength  to  the  earth. 

So  it  runs — a  dark  and  terrible  time,  no  one  on  God's  side.  His 
people  discouraged ;  evil  triumphant.  And  then  comes  the  one  great 
hero  of  the  Gospel,  the  Christ  of  God,  and  by  His  own  unaided  strength 


3i6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


He  wins  for  His  people  a  tremendous  victory.  Terrible  to  His  foes  as  He 
is  glorious  to  His  friends,  He  stands  before  us  the  one  hope  of  His 
Church.     There  is  the  picture.     Now  the  prophet  goes  on  to  say  : — 

/  7viil  mention  the  lovingkindnesses  of  the  Lord.  Do  you  do  so,  dear 
friends,  or  are  you  silent  about  them  ?  Learn  a  lesson  from  the  prophet. 
Talk  about  what  God  has  done  for  you  and  for  His  people  in  all  times. 

/  will  mention  the  lovingkindnesses  of  the  Lord,  and  the  praises  of  the 
Lord,  according  to  all  that  the  Lord  hath  bestowed  on  tis,  and  the  great 
goodness  torvard  the  house  of  Lsrael,  zvhich  He  hath  bestozved  on  them 
according  to  His  mercies,  and  according  to  the  multitude  of  His  loving- 
kindnesses. 

For  He  said.  Surely  they  are  My  people,  children  that  will  not  lie;  so  He 
was  their  Saviour. 

And  that  is  a  verse  full  of  sweetness.  I  cannot  stay  to-night,  as  my 
object  is  to  read  much,  to  take  out  the  sweetnesses  here,  but  there  are  so 
many,  it  is  a  piece  of  the  honeycomb ;  read  it  when  you  get  home,  nay, 
suck  the  honey  out  of  it  and  be  glad. 

For  He  said,  in  the  old  time  when  iirst  He  called  His  people  out  of 
Egypt,  Surely  they  are  My  people,  children  that  will  not  lie,  will  not  act 
deceitfully.  So  lie  was  their  Saviour.  He  thought  well  of  them.  He 
treated  them  as  if  they  were  trustworthy.  He  took  them  into  His  con- 
fidence. "  Surely,"  says  He,  "  they  will  not  deceive  Me."  This  is  speak- 
ing after  the  manner  of  men,  of  course,  for  God  knows  us,  and  is  never 
deceived  in  us. 

In  all  their  affliction  He  was  afflicted.  He  was  with  them.  He  was  so 
near  to  them  that  they  could  not  suffer  without  His  feeling  it,  and  they 
could  not  have  a  grief  but  what  He  sympathised  with  them. 

And  the  angel  of  His  presence  saved  them  :  in  His  love  and  in  His  pity 
He  redeemed  them  ;  and  He  bare  them,  and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old. 
Happy  Israel !  These  were  her  summer  days,  when  she  was  faithful  to 
God,  and  God  communed  very  closely  with  her.  Then  God  was  very 
near.  He  could  be  seen  in  the  bush.  He  could  be  seen  in  the  cloud,  He 
could  be  seen  working  with  a  rod.  He  was  so  familiar  with  His  people. 

But  they  rebelled,  and  vexed  His  holy  Spirit :  therefore  He  was  turned  to 
be  their  enemy,  and  He  fought  against  them.  A  great  change  in  the  dis- 
pensation, though  no  change  in  the  heart  of  God.  This  is  how  He  deals 
roughly  with  His  people.  They  would  not  be  improved  by  tenderness,  so 
now  they  must  be  scourged  and  come  under  His  displeasure. 

Then  He  remembered  the  days  of  old.  They  were  never  out  of  His  mind. 
He  remembered  happier  days,  the  days  of  old, 

Moses  and  His  people,  saying,  Where  is  He  that  brought  them  up  out  of  the 
sea  with  the  shepherd  of  His  jiock  .?  where  is  He  that  put  His  holy  Spirit 
within  hi?n  ?  That  led  them  by  the  right  hand  of  Moses  with  His  glorious 
arm,  dividing  the  water  before  the?n,  to  make  Himself  an  everlasting  name  2 
That  led  them  through  the  deep,  as  an  horse  in  the  wilderness,  that  they 
should  not  stwnblel  As  a  beast  goeth  doivn  into  the  valley,  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  caused  him  to  rest :  so  didst  Thou  lead  Thy  people,  to  make  Thyself  a 
glorious  name.  Look  doivn  from  heaven.,  and  behold  from  the  habitation  of 
Thy  holiness  and  of  Thy  glory :  where  is  Thy  zeal  and  Thy  strength,  the 
sounding  of  Thy  bowels  and  of  Thy  nwrcies  toward  me  ?  are  they  restrained  ? 
Just  as  the  groom  stands  at  the  horse's  head  and  leads  it  over  the  rough 


An  Exposition  of  haiah  Ixiii.,  Ixiv.  317 


part  of  the  way,  so  He  can  lead  His  people.  As  the  cattle  go  down  into  the 
valley,  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  caused  him  to  rest:  So  didst  Thou  lead  Thy 
people,  to  make  Thyself  a  \:;lorious  name. 

Now  comes  the  prayer  suggested  by  their  condition  of  sorrow  and  deser- 
tion. Look  down  from  heaven — Thou  art  still  there  though  we  have  wan- 
dered. Look  down  upon  us  from  heaven,  and  behold  from  the  habitation 
of  Thy  holiness  and  of  Thy  i^lo?y  :  where  is  Thy  zeal  and  Thy  stren;:;fh,  the 
sounding  of  Thy  knvels  and  of  Thy  mercies  toivard  me  1  arc  they  restrained"^ 
Doubtless  Thou  art  our  Father,  though  Abraham  be  ignorant  of  us,  and 
Israel  acknowledge  us  not :  Thou,  0  Lord,  art  our  Father,  our  Redeemer : 
Thy  name  is  from  everlasting.  It  should  be,  "  Thy  name  is  everlasting," 
for  so  it  is.  It  is  a  sweet  plea  with  God.  We  have  offended,  we  have 
wandered,  but  we  are  still  Thine  own,  redeemed  with  a  price.  And  Thy 
name,  the  Redeemer,  is  not  a  temporary  one.  It  lasts  to  everlasting. 
Therefore  look  on  Thy  poor  children  again.     Leave  us  not. 

O  Lord,  ivhy  hast  Thou  made  us  to  err  from  Thy  7vays,  and  hardened  our 
heart  from  Thy  fear  ?  Why  has  Thy  grace  so  gone  trom  us  that  we  have 
gone  from  Thee  ?  Return  for  Thy  servants''  sake,  the  tribes  of  Thine  in- 
heritance. The  people  of  Thy  holiness  have  possessed  it  but  a  little  while  : 
our  adversaries  have  trodden  doivn  Thy  sanctuary.  Thou  didst  give  us  the 
land,  but  we  had  it  only  a  very  little  while.  It  was  an  everlasting  coven- 
ant, and,  lo  !  the  enemy  has  come  in  and  driven  Thine  Israel  away  from 
her  heritage.  Can  it  be  so  ?  You  know  happy  times  seem  very  short 
when  they  are  over,  and  when  they  are  succeeded  by  dark  trials  we  say, 
"  The  people  of  Thy  holiness  have  possessed  it  but  a  little  while." 

IVe  are  now  become — for  this  is  the  true  rendering — we  are  no7v  become 
like  those  over  whom  Thou  never  barest  rule,  'who  were  never  called  by  Thy 
name.  A  sad  condition  for  the  Church  to  be  in,  and  I  am  afraid  it  is 
getting  into  that  condition  now.  Sinking  to  the  level  of  the  world,  leaving 
its  high  calling,  and  becoming  just  like  those  whom  God  never  knew  and 
who  were  never  called  by  His  name. 

It  is  a  pitiful  case,  and  here  comes  a  prayer  like  the  burst  of  a  volcano, 
as  if  the  hearts  of  gracious  men  could  hold  in  no  longer.  Ok  that  Thou 
loouldest  rend  the  heavens,  that  Thou  wouldcst  come  down.  We  have  asked 
Thee  to  look  down  ;  now  come  down,  a  look  is  not  enough.  Our  case  is 
urgent,  we  need  Thy  presence. 

That  the  mountains  might  floiv  down  at  Thy  presence,  as  when  the  melting 
fire  burneth,  or  much  better,  "as  when  the  brushwood  takes  the  flame." 
For  if  God  does  but  come,  His  people  are  ready  to  catch  the  fire  like  the 
dry  heather.  And  His  enemies  shall  feel  the  fire  like  the  brushwood. 
"  As  when  the  brushwood  burneth,"  to  make  Thy  name  knotvn  to  Thine 
adversaries,  that  the  nations  may  tremble  at  Thy  presence  I  When  Thou 
didst  terrible  things  which  2ve  looked  not  for.  Thou  camcst  down,  the  mount- 
ains flowed  down  at  Thy  presence.  Lord,  come  again,  Thou  didst  this 
once  ;  repeat  Thy  former  acts,  and  let  us  see  what  Thou  canst  do. 

For  since  t/ie  beginning  of  the  ivorld  men  have  not  heard,  nor  perceived  by 
the  ear,  neither  hath  the  eye  seen,  O  God,  beside  Thee,  what  He  hath  pre- 
pared for  hifn  that  waifefh  for  Him.  Or,  another  rendering  is,  "Since  the 
beginning  of  the  world  none  have  seen  a  God  save  Thyself,  who  is  pre- 
pared to  help  those  who  wait  for  Thee."  For  God  is  ready  to  help.  He 
has  got  everything  in  preparation  :  for  all  our  needs  He  has  laid  in  a 


3i8  The  Byitish  Weekly  Pulpit. 


supply,    for   our   prayers    He   has   prepared   answers.      Blessed   be  His 
name. 

Thou  meetest  him  that  rejoiceth  and  worketh  righteousness,  those  that  re- 
member Thee  in  Thy  7tHiys.  He  does  not  wait  for  us  to  come  to  Him. 
He  meets  us,  He  comes  to  us,  the  moment  we  turn  our  feet  towards  His 
throne. 

Behold,  T/iou  art  wroth;  for  we  have  sinned :  in  those  is  continuance,  and 
we  shall  be  saved.  But  we  are  all  as  an  unclean  thing,  and  all  our  righteous- 
nesses are  as  filthy  rags  :  and  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf;  and  our  iniquities, 
like  the  ivind,  have  taken  us  away.  And  there  is  none  that  calletJi  upon  Thy 
name,  that  stirreth  up  himself  to  take  hold  of  Thee :  Jor  Thou  hast  hid  Thy 
face  from  us,  and  hast  consunud  us,  because  of  our  iniquities.  Just  as  the 
wind  carries  away  the  faded  leaves,  so  our  sin,  like  a  mighty  blast,  will 
carry  us  away. 

And  there  is  none  that  called  upon  Thy  name,  that  stirreth  tip  hifnself  to 
fake  hold  of  Thee.  A  wonderful  description  of  prayer  this.  A  man  stirs 
himself  up  to  take  hold  of  God  in  prayer. 

For  Thou  hast  hid  Thy  face  from  us,  and  hast  consumed  us,  because  of  our 
iniquities.  And  now,  O  Lord,  Thou  art  our  Father.  Adoption  does  not 
come  to  an  end  because  of  sin.  Regeneration  or  sonship  does  not  die 
out,  cannot  die  out.  I  am  my  father's  son,  so  I  always  shall  be,  and  if  I 
am  my  Heavenly  Father's  son,  I  shall  never  cease  to  be. 

But  now,  0  Lord,  Thou  art  our  Father  :  we  are  the  clay,  and  Thou  our 
potter ;  and  we  all  are  the  ivork  of  Thy  hand.  Be  not  wroth  very  sore,  O 
Jehovah,  neither  remember  iniquity  for  ever :  behold,  see,  we  beseech  Thee,  we 
are  all  Thy  people.  Thy  holy  cities  are  a  wilderness,  Zion  is  a  wilderness, 
Jerusalem  a  desolation.  Our  holy  a  nd  our  beautiful  house,  where  our  fathers 
praised  Thee,  is  burned  up  ivitJi  fire ;  and  all  our  pleasant  things  are  laid 
waste.  Wilt  Thou  refrain  Thyself  for  these  things,  O  Lord  ?  wilt  Thou 
hold  Thy  peace,  and  afi^ict  2CS  vety  sore?  You  see  he  touches  the  minor 
key,  and  weeps  and  wails  for  the  sorrows  of  the  people.  In  the  very  next 
chapter  God  breaks  out  and  says,  "  I  am  sought  of  them  that  asked  not 
for  Me."  He  will  hear  prayer,  He  does  hear  prayer.  Let  us  not  cease  to 
pray. 

ORIENTAL  LIGHTS  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 
Sunday,  September  21,  1890. 
By  the  Rev.  Canon  H.  B.  Tristram,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  of  Durham. 
JESUS  ENTERING  JERUSALEM. 
St.  Luke  xix.  37 — 48. 
"  He  Saw  the  City  and  Wept." — Our  Lord  had  sent  for  the  ass's  colt 
on  which  He  rode  to  a  village  on  the  hill  opposite  Bethany.     The  road  by 
which  He  had  walked  up  from  Jericho  through  the  wilderness  here  enters 
a  narrow  valley  between  two  hills,  the  northern  one  being  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  on  the  south-eastern  slope  of  which  lies  the  village  of  Bethany, 
quite  shut  out  from  any  view  of  Jerusalem  by  the  intervening  hill.    Round 
the  base  of  Mount  Olivet  the  path  winds  by  a  rugged  ascent.     Passing 
over  a  smooth,  rocky  ledge,  it  takes  a  sudden  turn  to  the  right,  and  in  an 
*  From  the  American  Sunday  ScJtool  Tiviex 


Oriental  Lights  on  the  Inter  national  Lesson.  319 

instant  the  whole  city,  \vith  the  mighty  walls  of  the  temple  platform  filling 
up  the  foreground,  bursts  into  view.  When  that  platform,  impressive  and 
surpassingly  grand  in  its  now  denuded  state,  was  surmounted  by  the  lofty 
porticos,  the  long  cloisters,  and  the  tall  pinnacles  of  Herod's  temple  glit- 
tering with  white  marble  in  the  sunlight,  there  could  have  been  few  grander 
views  in  the  world.  We  may  be  certain  that  it  was  just  at  this  turn,  on 
this  ledge,  that  the  multitude  halted,  and  Jesus,  as  the  city  burst  before 
His  view  in  all  its  dazzling  magnificence,  wept  over  its  coming  destruction. 

Jesus  Foreshadows  the  Downfall. — The  prediction  of  the  coming 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  uttered  by  our  Lord,  was  exactly  fulfilled  in  the 
minutest  particulars.  "  Thine  enemies  shall  cast  a  trench  about  thee  " — 
literally,  "  a  stockade,"  This  is  what  Titus  did  in  the  first  instance  at  the 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  a.u.  70.  He  surrounded  the  city,  as  we  are  told  by 
Josephus,  with  entrenchments  surmounted  by  sharpened  stakes.  When 
the  besieged,  by  frequent  sallies,  broke  through  these,  he  compassed  the 
city  round  with  a  regular  wall  of  circumvallation,  so  strong  and  so  well 
guarded  that  it  could  not  be  broken  through,  either  by  sorties  from  within 
or  by  sudden  surprises  from  outside.  At  the  same  lime,  Titus  cut  down 
all  the  fruit-trees  and  hedges  of  the  gardens  round  the  city,  and  levelled 
and  filled  in  the  valleys,  so  as  to  prevent  any  chance  of  a  surprise,  either 
from  the  city  or  the  country.  Thus  they  were  kept  "in  on  every  side," 
and  the  incessant  sorties  by  which  the  crowded  multitudes  within  the  city 
endeavoured  to  escape,  and  10  relieve  the  garrison  of  so  many  useless 
mouths,  were  invariably  baffled. 

"Shall  Lay  Thee  Even  with  the  Ground." — This  was  literally  done 
by  the  Romans.  Titus  proclaimed,  after  the  capture  of  the  city,  "  We 
certainly  had  God  for  our  assistant,  and  it  was  no  other  than  God  wlio 
ejected  the  Jews  out  of  these  fortifications  ;  for  what  could  the  hands  of 
man,  or  any  machines,  do  towards  ovexthrowing  these  towers?  "  Accord- 
ingly he  directed  the  tower  of  Hippicus  to  be  left,  as  an  evidence  of  future 
ages  of  the  strength  of  the  fortress  he  had  captured.  And  this  tower  still 
stands,  as  every  traveller  knows,  close  to  the  Jafia  gate  of  Jerusalem.  The 
temple  and  all  the  other  buildings  of  the  city,  except  the  lower  part  of  the 
castle  of  Antonia,  he  razed  to  the  ground.  But  when  from  the  road  round 
the  Mount  of  Olives  we  gaze  on  the  stupendous  walling  which  rises  above 
the  valleys  of  Kedron  and  Hinnom,  and  know  that  these  very  walls  were 
those  on  which  our  Lord  looked,  and  which  in  great  part  probably  date 
from  the  time  of  Solomon,  we  must  remember  that  we  behold  not  any 
portion  of  the  temple  itself,  but  simply  look  on  the  massive  substructure, 
by  which  a  great  platform  was  raised  upon  the  sides  of  Mount  Moriah,  u]) 
to  the  height  of  its  summit,  where  had  been  Araunah's  threshing-fioor,  and 
afterwards  the  altar  of  burnt  sacrifice,  the  mass  of  rock,  under  the  dome 
of  the  mosque,  now  known  as  the  Kubbet  es  Sukkrah. 

The  Temple's  Great  Platiorm. — This  platform  was  formed  by  build- 
ing up  the  massive  walls  which  still  exist,  from  the  valleys  round  the  mount 
to  the  height  of  its  crest,  and  filling  the  interior  partly  with  great  cisterns 
and  partly  with  massive  arches  and  masonry.  But  all  these  were  not  part 
of  the  temple,  but  merely  its  platform.  Titus  swept,  as  with  a  besom,  all 
the  superstructure,  and  hurled  tlie  materials  over  the  platform,  where  they 
now  lie,  heaped  to  the  depth  of  a  hundred  and  twenty  feet  against  the 
south  wall  of  the  substructure. 


330  The  British  Weekly  PidpiU 

SERMONETTE   FOR   CHILDREN   ON  THE    LESSON.- 
On  the  tenth  day  of  the  month  Abib — what  we  now  call  Palm  Sunday — on 
that  day  Jesus  slept  at  Bethany.     Bethany  was  near  the  bottom  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives.     It  was  five  furlongs  from  Jerusalem — a  little  more  than 
half  a  mile.     It  was  almost  a  suburb  of  Jerusalem. 

That  morning  Jesus  got  up  very  early,  and  He  came  over  the  top  of  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  came  down  the  side  till  He  got  near  the  village  of 
Bethphage.  Then  He  sent  two  of  His  disciples  into  the  village  to  fetch 
Him  an  ass  of  which  He  had  need.  He  knew  all  about  the  Httle 
colt,  and  if  anybody  stopped  them  they  were  to  say  "  the  Lord  hath  need 
of  him." 

That  is  what  God  says  to  all  children,  **  the  Lord  has  need  of  you."  It 
seemed  wonderful  that  the  Lord  should  want  the  colt,  and  it  is  wonderful 
that  He  needs  any  Uttle  boy  or  girl.  But  He  does.  He  would  be 
happier  in  Heaven  with  you  there.  Did  Jesus  pay  for  the  use  of  this  ass 
and  colt?  I  think  He  did.  Did  He  pay  Peter  for  lending  Him  the  boat 
to  preach  in?  Yes.  Such  a  draught  of  fishes.  Perhaps  Christ  paid  the 
man  to  whom  the  colt  belonged  in  some  wonderful  prosperity.  In  some 
way  He  blessed  the  man.  You  never  give  anythmg  to  God  but  what  God 
will  repay  you.  On  which  did  Jesus  ride?  Jesus  liked  the  young  one 
best.  Don't  you  think  He  does  so  still.  Does  He  particularly  wish  to 
have  the  young,  "  They  that  seek  Me  early  shall  find  me.  My  son  give 
Me  thine  heart."     Children  can  be  of  great  use  to  the  Lord. 

Why  did  Jesus  ride  on  "  an  ass  "  at  all !  Zechariah  had  prophesied  it 
long  before,  "  Lowly  and  riding  upon  an  ass."  If  Jesus  had  come  in  a 
warlike  way  He  would  have  ridden  a  horse,  but  riding  on  an  ass  meant 
that  He  came  in  peace.  In  Deborah's  beautiful  song  she  speaks  of  great 
people  as  "Ye  that  ride  on  white  asses."  It  was  no  condescension  to  ride 
an  ass  more  than  any  other  animal. 

Many  people  thronged  around  Him,  for  Jerusalem  was  very  full  because 
it  was  the  feast  of  the  Passover.  And  besides  He  had  raised  Lazarus — 
therefore  the  people  met  Him.  They  carried  branches  of  palms  and  sang 
"  Blessed  is  He  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  So  He  went  in 
triumph  along,  and  He  passed  a  small  river,  the  Kedron,  and  then  through 
the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  up  the  steep  hill,  and  so  wound  His  way 
round  to  the  Temple.  Did  He  stop?  Yes,  He  stopped  to  weep  over 
Jerusalem  when  He  thought  of  its  wickedness,  and  all  the  trouble  coming 
on  it.     In  His  triumph  He  stopped  to  weep. 

The  people  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  were  all  shouting  "  Hosanna." 
What  did  they  say  on  the  Friday  after?  "Crucify  Him."  Was  it  possible 
the  same  people  could  be  so  changeable  ?  Can  we  say  one  thing  on 
Sunday,  and  another  on  Friday?  Haven't  you  felt  one  day  "  I  love  to 
pray  and  praise  the  Lord,"  and  before  long  you  have  done  some  wicked 
thing.  This  is  really  to  stab  Jesus.  Take  care,  seeing  how  changeable 
we  are.  Would  you  like  to  have  carried  a  palm  and  cried  "  Hosanna"  that 
Sunday  in  Jerusalem  ?  But  you  can  do  so  now.  When  you  sing  His 
praises  now  you  are  saying  "  Hosanna."  And  supposing  you  do  something 
to  help  Jesus  to  ride  on  in  His  Kingdom — to  help  on  His  Kingdom.  Then 
you  are  crying  "  Hosanna,"  and  carrying  a  palm. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  125,  Vol.  III.]  SEPTEMBER  26,  1890.  One  Penny. 


HOPE  FOR  THE  WORST  OF  SINNERS. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  John  Evans, 

Preached  in  Liverpool-read  Wesieyan   Church,  London,  on  Sunday  vioming, 
September  14,  i8go. 

"  And  he  said  unto  Jesus,  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy 
kingdom.  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  to-day  shalt  thou 
be  with  Me  in  Paradise." — St.  Luke  xxiii.  42,  43. 

When  our  founder,  John  Wesley,  set  out  as  an  evangelist  he 
gave  prominence  to  the  following  sentiment  : — First,  that  the  best 
of  saints  is  not  free  from  danger  ;  and  again,  that  the  worst  of 
sinners  is  not  without  hope.  He  taught  the  people  the  possibility 
of  falling  from  grace,  and  I  am  rather  afraid  that  many  people 
practice  the  doctrine.  But  he  preached  in  a  more  emphatic  way 
that  God  so  loved  the  world  that  Jesus  tasted  death  for  every 
man,  that  the  salvation  of  Christ  is  a  provision  made  for  all  with- 
out any  respect  of  persons.  In  other  words,  he  taught  that  the 
best  of  men  is  not  unconditionally  saved,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  worst  of  sinners  is  not  unconditionally  hopeless. 

This  miracle  of  grace  recorded  in  the  text  is  inserted  in  the 
Word  of  God  to  keep  this  hope,  this  hope  for  the  worst,  before 
the  readers  of  the  Bible  to  the  very  end  of  time.  And  if  there  is 
one  poor  sinner  present  this  morning  who  is  on  the  verge  of 
despair,  his  sins  so  many,  his  conscience  so  burdened  with  guilt, 
his  inmost  soul  stained  with  corruption  and  spiritual  decay,  and 
v/orst  of  all,  with  his  force  of  will  is  giving  way  ;  who  has  re- 
solved more  than  once  to  mend  his  ways  and  seek  salvation  in 
Christ,  but  his  manliness  is  dying  out,  and  his  good  resolutions 
go  to  the  wind  ;  this  has  happened  again  and  again,  and  what  is 
he  to  do  ?  He  is  sorely  tempted  sometimes  to  believe  that  for 
him  there  is  no  hope.  Hope  ?  Yes,  my  friend,  there  is  hope  for 
you.  I  came  to  this  pulpit  this  morning  in  the  sacred  name  of 
the  Saviour  of  the  dying  thief  to  proclaim  to  this  congregation, 
by  the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  there  is  still  hope  for  the 
worst  of  sinners.  Remember,  this  incident  was_  never  recorded 
to  justify  delay.  It  was  never  intended  to  administer  any  con- 
solation to  that  callous,  hard -hearted  sinner  who  procrastinates 


322  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

in  his  duty  towards  God,  who  puts  off  again  and  again  this 
question  of  conversion.  Oh,  allow  me  to  give  a  warning  at  the 
present  moment,  so  as  to  prevent  anyone  who  is  tempted  to  leave 
this  question  until  he  comes  to  die  on  the  ground  that  the  dying 
thief  was  saved  by  Christ  at  the  last  moment.  Bear  in  mind,  my 
dear  friend,  there  was  another  dying  thief  crucified  at  the  same 
time  and  place,  under  similar  circumstances  as  the  one  in  the 
text,  who  did  not  repent,  who  died  in  his  sins.  And  rather  than 
abusing  this  wonderful  fact  of  grace  by  justifying  delay,  take 
warning  and  accept  Christ  at  once. 

The  message  of  the  text  is  rather  what  I  have  indicated  before, 
to  preach  hope,  hope  to  the  v^^orst  of  sinners.  It  may  be  that 
some  of  us,  believing  Christ,  who  enjoy  at  this  present  moment 
peace  with  God,  full  of  hope,  full  of  joy,  yet  are  apt  to  forget 
that  there  are  people  who  live  perhaps  in  the  same  street,  and 
worship  in  the  same  chapel,  whose  greatest  temptation  is  to  get 
into  despair,  to  give  it  up  as  a  hopeless,  hopeless  case  altogether. 
O  God,  help  me  to  cheer  that  despairing  heart  this  morning. 

Come  nearer,  my  friend.  Look  at  this  case.  First  of  all,  con- 
sider the  helpless,  the  miserable  condition  of  this  man.  He  was 
first  of  all  in  the  act  of  dying.  Death  means  separation,  and 
implies  change  of  place.  Death  separates  between  the  eye  and 
that  sweet  light ;  between  the  ear  and  that  beautiful  music.  Death 
severs  between  men  and  their  closest  friends,  and  their  most 
beloved  attachments.  Death,  it  comes  between  the  whole  man 
and  this  whole  creation,  and  more  than  that,  it  deprives  him  of 
every  means  of  improvement,  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual.  Death 
implies  change,  change  of  connections,  change  of  surroundings, 
change  of  abode.  And  it  is  this,  after  all,  it  is  this  thought  that 
makes  death  so  solemn  and  awful.  Death  frequently  implies 
bodily  pain.  To  die  nailed  to  the  tree,  as  this  poor  man  had  been 
sentenced  to  die,  meant  excruciating  agony  and  pain.  Oh,  just 
think  of  the  agonising  attitude,  the  burning  thirst,  the  ceaseless 
pang  to  every  nerve  and  muscle,  to  his  body  and  his  mind.  It 
means  pain  that  no  words  of  mine  can  describe.  But,  after  all, 
the  solemnity  of  death  does  not  consist  in  anything  physical,  in 
anything  bodily.  It  is  that  separation,  that  change  of  abode,  the 
summons  to  the  soul  that  it  serves  upon  us  to  quit  our  present 
state,  and  to  appear  without  our  bodies,  apart  from  our  earthly 
surroundings,  before  God  in  eternity.  To  die,  even  to  die  at  home, 
on  a  smooth  pillow,  surrounded  by  tender  friends,  waited  upon  by 
skilful  nurses ;  to  die  even  when  we  are  prepared  to  die,  having 
peace  with  God,  not  afraid  to  die — it  is  a  solemn  event.  But  look 
at  this  poor  man,  nailed  to  the  cross,  hooted  by  the  mob,  cursed 
by  his  countrymen — this  poor  man  was  in  the  act  of  dying,  yet  he 
prayed  and  he  was  saved. 

Think  again,  and  the  picture  grows  darker.  Think  again,  that 
this  man  had  been  brought  to  realise  the  value  of  his  soul,  and 


Hope  jor  the  Word  of  Sinners.  323 

its  helpless  condition.  **  Remember  me."  Me,  not  an  ej^otistical, 
big  I — that  is  created  by  conceit  and  selfishness.  That  I  vanishes 
like  a  dream  in  the  presence  of  death.  No,  but  the  real  self,  the 
man's  own  soul,  his  true  personality — "  Remember  me.''  That 
is  one  of  the  features  of  sin.  We  ignore  our  real  selves,  we  dis- 
regard the  rights  and  needs  of  our  real  selves,  we  bury  the  true  I 
there.  But  when  this  man,  this  wicked  man,  is  brought  face  to 
face  with  eternity,  and  surrounded  as  he  is  now  with  manifesta 
tions  of  supernatural  powers,  and  feeling  that  he  is  in  the  ver> 
presence  of  a  superhuman  being,  the  true  self  leaps  up  and  stands 
before  him  in  all  its  preciousness,  in  all  its  solemnity — me, 
remember  me.  There  may  be  a  friend  here  present  this  morning 
who  has  disregarded  this  real  self,  who  has  sold  his  real  self  for  the 
gratification  of  sin.  The  day  will  come  when  that  friend  will  be 
brought  to  feel  that  there  is  a  self  down  there  that  cannot  be 
ignored. 

"Remember  me;  Lord,  remember  me.  I  am  quite  sure  that 
my  poor  mother  who  is  weepirtg  at  the  cross  will  think  of  me.  I 
am  fully  persuaded  that  my  tender  sister  and  my  beloved  brother 
on  the  outskirts  of  this  crowd  will  remember  me.  But  to-day  I 
feel  that  my  soul  is  so  weighty,  my  personality  so  important,  so 
precious,  so  that  their  sympathy,  their  help,  their  remembrances, 
are  not  sufficient.  I  am  going,  I  am  sinking.  O  God,  the  King 
that  pardons,  the  Saviour  of  men,  remember  me." 

And  again,  let  us  not  forget  that  there  is  another  black  feature 
in  this  wretched  picture.  Oh,  may  God  bless  this  plain,  simple 
truth,  that  it  may  reach  the  heart  of  the  callous  sinner.  May  that 
daring  prodigal  son  here  present  in  this  congregation  this  morning 
remember  this.  May  the  moral  degradation  of  this  man's  condi- 
tion— he  felt  in  looking  that  there  was  blackness  of  darkness. 
When  the  other  thief  is  reviling  our  Saviour,  he  says  :  "  We  are 
unworthy,  we  suffer  justly,  we  indeed  justly  deserve  all  this 
punishment.  Here  I  am,  I  have  spent  my  life  upon  sin  and  now 
my  callous  schemes  to  pilfer,  and  steal,  and  murder  my  fellow 
creatures,  and  yet  not  be  caught — they  are  in  vain,  they  are  a 
miserable  failure.  Here  am  I,  hurled  into  the  other  world,  and  I 
cannot  see  v/hat  will  become  of  me,  and  my  conscience  is  loaded 
with  guilt."  He  is  called  a  malefactor,  he  is  described  as  a  thief, 
and  in  all  probability  he  had  been  guilty  even  of  murder,  for  he 
was  a  desperate  character.  We  read  in  the  Bible  that  Manasseh, 
notwithstanding  his  bloodguiltiness,  yet  he  was  heard.  We  read 
in  the  New  Testament  that  Zaccbjcus  the  publican,  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  he  was  a  thief,  yet  found  salvation  ;  and 
the  poor  woman  in  the  street,  although  she  was  a  harlot,  she  was 
forgiven.  But  this  poor  man,  in  him  we  have  the  bloodguiltiness 
of  the  king,  we  have  the  dishonesty  of  the  publican,  we  have  all 
the  rough  pollution  of  the  street,  combined  in  his  character.  I 
can  hardly  think  of  a  worse  character,  a  more  hopeless  case.     A 


324  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

word  of  prayer  never  before  quivered  on  a  more  unholy  lip,  never 
before  ascended  from  a  blacker  heart.  Even  the  darkening 
heavens  above  him  were  bright  compared  with  the  blackness 
within.  Where  is  the  man  who  is  in  despair  ;  where  is  the  man 
who  has  almost  given  up  every  hope  of  salvation  ?  Let  me  invite 
him  forward.     Come  forward  now  and  look  at  this  case. 

Look  again,  and  see  the  conduct  of  this  man.  He  must  do 
something.  There  is  no  time  to  be  lost.  As  I  said  before,  he  is 
in  the  act  of  dying.  Oh,  if  he  could  only  have  a  couple  of  days  to 
hear  a  sermon  delivered  by  the  Lord  Jesus  on  the  way  to  the 
kingdom,  or  that  some  word  of  advice  should  drop  from  the  lips  of 
one  of  the  Apostles  concerning  this  great  question,  namely,  the 
salvation  of  the  soul.  But  there  is  no  time  for  any  such  thing. 
The  great  process  of  death  is  pushing  the  man  nearer  the 
precipice  moment  by  moment.  A  few  minutes  longer  and  the  soul 
of  that  man  will  be  weighed  in  the  balances.  There  is  not  a 
moment  to  be  lost.  What  is  the  man  to  do  ?  He  must  do  some- 
thing. It  is  one  of  the  fixed  principles  in  God's  government  in 
grace  as  well  as  in  nature,  that  He  never  saves  a  sinner  unless  an 
effort  is  put  forth  on  the  part  of  the  sinner  himself.  And  then, 
poor  man,  he  must  put  forth  the  little  power,  the  little  effort  he 
can  command.  What  is  he  to-day  ?  What  can  he  do  ?  What 
could  you  have  done  had  you  been  placed  in  the  same  circum- 
stances ?  But  he  must  do  something.  There  is  a  great  variety 
in  the  behaviour  of  the  crowd.  The  Pharisees,  the  selfish,  formal 
Phari-sees,  they  are  reviling  the  Saviour  and  shaking  their  heads 
with  contempt.  The  poor  women  are  weeping  at  the  foot  of  the 
Cross.  Some  of  the  disciples  are  busy  burying  their  hopes.  Roman 
soldiers  are  already  parting  His  garments.  What  is  this  poor  man 
to  do  ?  What  is  there  left  for  him  to  do  but  to  pray  ?  He  never 
prayed  before.  His  knowledge  is  limited,  his  words  are  few,  but 
there  is  nothing  else  left  for  him.  He  cannot  save  himself,  he 
must  appeal  to  a  power  which  is  stronger,  higher  than  himself. 
He  must  feel  after  a  God ;  but  where  can  he  find  Him  ?  Where 
can  he  find  the  Mighty  One  to  save  ?  "  Who  is  this  on  my 
right  ?  "  he  said.  "  He  has  prayed  now  for  those  who  nailed  him 
to  the  tree,  who  is  He  ?  What  means  this  darkened  heaven;  what 
mean  these  rending  rocks,  these  bursting  graves  ?  What  is  the 
meaning  of  all  this  ?  Is  He  after  all  the  Son  of  God,  the  Saviour 
of  man  ?  It  may  be  that  He  is.  There  is  nothing  for  it.  I  will 
try."  And  he  prayed,  "  Lord,  remember  me."  It  is  a  short  prajer, 
but  it  stretched  right  up  to  Paradise  and  received  for  Him  an 
eternal  home.  Where  is  that  man  who  is  on  the  brink  of  despair  ? 
Try  this  prayer.  It  is  already  made,  it  is  short,  easily  remembered 
— "  Lord,  remember  me." 

Now,  what  became  of  this  prayer  ?  It  is  a  most  important  day 
even  in  the  history  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  the  great  day  of  atone- 
ment.    He  came  down  from  heaven,  as  George  Herbert  puts  it, 


Hope  for  the  Wont  of  Sinners.  J25 


*'  undressing  all  the  way,  in  order  to  die  and  take  away  the  sins  of 
the  world."  You  remember  what  an  important  day  was  the  day 
of  atonement  in  former  ages  in  connection  with  the  Jewish  High 
Priest.  The  sacrifices  were  brought  forward,  he  divested  himself 
of  his  holy  garments,  he  went  to  the  laver  and  washed  his  flesh  in 
pure  water,  he  girdled  his  loins  with  fine  linen  ;  then  he  goes  into 
have  his  censer  lighted  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  of  burnt  offering, 
and  places  it  within  the  veil  in  the  Holy  of  Holies.  He  goes  again 
with  his  golden  vessel,  to  have  it  filled  with  blood.  Ah,  what  an 
important  hour  !  The  destiny  of  the  entire  nation  is  now  in  the 
balance.  Suppose  a  poor  leper  knocks  at  the  door,  anxious  to  see 
the  High  Priest.  "  The  High  Priest  to-day  ?  There  is  no  time 
for  even  a  leper  to  see  the  High  Priest  to-day.  It  is  the  great  day 
of  atonement.^  Go  home."  That  would  have  been  the  reply.  But 
look — look  at  Jesus  Christ  on  Calvary — the  most  wonderful  hour 
in  the  history  of  the  universe,  the  final  glory  of  the  departed  saints 
in  heaven,  and  the  only  hope  of  sinners  on  earth,  even  to  the  end 
of  time,  are  depending  upon  His  right  discharge  of  His  duties 
to-day.  I  could  almost  fancy  angels  poising  on  their  wings  and 
suggesting  to  their  Master  and  Lord,  "  O  Lord  Jesus,  to-day,  even 
if  Thine  own  mother  ask  Thee  a  question,  ignore  it.  If  one  of  Thy 
fellow  sufferers  offer  a  prayer,  forget  it." 

The  day  was  so  important  that  there  was  no  time  for  the  poor 
thief  to  waste  in  hesitation,  and  he  ventured  to  pray.  And  although 
Jesus,  our  great  High  Priest,  was  in  the  very  act  of  giving  Him- 
self up  for  the  sins  of  the  world,  while  the  tread  of  His  feet  upon 
the  winepress  alone  was  shaking  earth,  although  His  unutterable 
groans  were  rending  the  rocks,  and  His  blood  pacifying  the  law 
■of  God,  and  His  whole  conduct  magnifying  the  love  of  God  before 
the  universe ;  yet  when  this  poor  sinner  prayed,  He  answered, 
and  with  an  infinite  arm  stretched  forth  He  snatched  the  soul  of 
the  poor  sinner  from  the  very  jaws  of  hell  itself. 

And  oh,  mark  how  the  answer  surpasses  far  all  the  request  of 
the  prayer.  Read  the  text  again  :  "  And  he  said  " — the  poor 
sinner  said — "  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy 
kingdom."  And  what  did  Jesus  say?  "  Verily  I  say  unto  thee, 
to-day  shalt  thou  be  with  Me  in  Paradise."  The  poor  sinner,  he 
simply  prayed  for  remembrance,  but  Jesus  raised  him  to  com- 
panionship. He  prayed  for  a  passing  thought,  but  Christ  gives 
him  a  permanent  pardon.  The  Lord  said,  "  Verily— I  give  you 
My  word  ;  stand  on  that  rock— I  say  unto  thee,  notwiihstanding 
thy  past  history  and  thy  present  unworthiness,  though  tliou  art 
weak,  I  am  strong  ;  thou  art  a  sinner,  I  am  a  Saviour."  I  and 
thee — Oh,  when  the  sinner  and  the  Saviour  meet  together  there  is 
glory.  A  blessed  link  is  created  on  the  spot.  "  I  say  unto  thee, 
to-day."  ''To-day."  What  a  memorable  day  to  the  poor  thief. 
To-day  on  the  cross,  to-day  on  the  throne  ;  to-day  in  disgrace, 
to-day  in  glory  ;  to-day  a  sinner,  to-day  a  saint ;  to-day  a  criminal, 


326  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

to-day  an  angel;  to-day,  before  our  bodies  are  cut  down  and  these 
crosses  removed  ;  to-day,  before  My  tears  dry  up  on  the  pavement 
of  the  city,  before  My  blood  congeals  at  the  foot  of  this  cross ; 
to-day,  before  the  earth  ceases  to  shake ;  to-day  thou  shalt 
be  with  Me  in  Paradise,  with  Me  to  guide  thee  and  guard  thee  on 
the  wa}-  home ;  with  Me  to  introduce  thee  to  My  Father  and  His 
great  family  ;  with  Me  in  Paradise."  Paradise  lost — that  is  our 
sorrow  ;  Paradise  regained — that  is  our  prospect.  There  is  a  fine 
garden,  where  perpetual  summer  reigns — Paradise.  Oh,  make  an 
effort  to  climb  up  there,  brothers  and  sisters.  "  With  Me  in 
Paradise."  He  is  not  going  to  leave  him  to  get  adrift  in  the 
wilderness,  or  to  spend  a  certain  time  in  purgatory,  half-way 
home.  Straight  up,  "  With  Me  in  Paradise."  What  a  wonderful 
answer. 

But  the  promise  was  fulfilled.  The  great  transaction  on 
Calvary  is  coming  to  a  close.  The  chariots  of  heaven  are  cover- 
ing the  mountain  side  ready  to  carry  the  conqueror  home.  Every- 
thing is  ready  to  go,  and  the  angels  are  hastening  to  leave.  But 
the  Saviour  says,  "Stop  a  moment."  "Oh,  the  crown  of  glory 
and  the  heavenly  welcome  are  waiting.  We  have  been  ordered 
to  hurry  back."  "  Yes,  but  wait  a  moment.  Look  on  that  poor 
sinner  there.  Wait  until  these  soldiers  break  his  limbs  and 
release  his  soul.  I  have  promised  to  give  him  a  lift  on  the  way 
home."     Then  they  ascended  into  heaven. 

And  the  voice  from  heaven  comes  down  to  this  chapel  this 
morning.  Hope  for  the  worst  of  sinners.  Come  to  Jesus  now, 
just  as  you  are.  And  may  God  bless  this  Sunday  morning  service 
in  the  salvation  of  souls.     Amen. 


THE    SAVIOUR'S    RULE. 

A  Sermon, 
By  F.  Schleiermacher,  D.D.- 

"Then  said  Jesus  to  His  disciples,  If  any  man  will  come  after  Me,  let  him 
deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  Me." — St.  Matt.  xvi.  24. 
It  is  a  very  remarkable  connection  in  which  the  Saviour  spoke  these 
words.  He  had  asked  His  disciples  who  the  people  said  He  was,  and 
what  was  their  own  opinion  about  Him  ;  and  when  Peter  had  answered 
for  himself  and  in  the  name  of  the  rest  that  they  knew  surely  that  He  was 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  the  Saviour  had  given  him  His  full 
approval,  and  said  that  flesh  and  blood  had  not  revealed  it  to  him,  he 
could  not  have  known  that  either  of  himself  or  from  other  men,  but  the 
Father  in  heaven.  But  immediately  after  this  (for  in  this  the  accounts  of 
all  our  three  first  evangelists  agree),  when  the  Saviour  began  to  tell  His 
disciples  beforehand  that  He  must  suffer  and  be  delivered  up  and  slain  in 
Jerusalem,  and  Peter  answered  Him,  "  Lord,  spare  Thyself,  that  this 
come  not  upon  Thee,"  then  He  repulsed  Him  with  stern  words,  as  being 

*  Specially  translated. 


The  Saviour's  Rule.  327 


for  the  moment  possessed  by  a  spirit  utterly  opposed  to  Christ,  and 
seeking  not  the  things  of  God,  but  those  of  men.  And  yet  it  was 
impossible  that  the  Saviour  should  not  still  have  in  mind  what  He  had  so 
shortly  before  said  to  this  disciple ;  and  therefore  we  must  think  of  the 
two  things  as  compatible  :  that  there  may  be  in  a  human  spirit  that  faith 
in  Christ  as  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  which  is,  in  fact,  the  revelation  of 
God  Himself  to  him,  and  at  the  same  time  that  state  of  feeling  which  the 
Saviour  rebuked  in  this  way.  And  when  He  had  thus  spoken  to  Peter, 
He  addressed  to  all  the  disciples  (as  again  all  the  three  evangelists  agree 
in  recording)  the  words  of  our  text,  in  which  He,  as  it  were,  makes  this 
the  condition  on  which  alone  the  faith  of  His  being  the  Son  of  the  living 
God  can  make  a  man  His  disciple,  the  condition  that  everyone  must  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross. 

Now  if  we  consider  just  in  the  light  of  all  this  context  how  the  words 
of  our  text  stand  connected  with  the  Saviour's  announcement  of  His 
approaching  sufferings,  and  how  we  seem  only  to  hear  over  again  in  them 
another  word  of  the  Lord,  "The  disciple  is  not  above  his  master,  nor  the 
servant  above  his  lord,"  we  shall  readily  admit  that  this  word  is  thoroughly 
of  a  piece  with  the  then  existing  circumstances  of  the  first  disciples,  that 
it  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the  earliest  times  of  Christianity,  when  as  yet 
the  open  and  loyal  confession  of  the  Saviour  naturally  involved  much 
suffering;  but  just  because  this  is  true  we  could  easily  suppose  some  one 
might  add  that  now  it  has  no  longer  any  real  bearing  on  us.  Nevertheless 
everyone  who  hears  this  last  suggestion  will  ask  himself.  Are  we  to  make 
such  a  distinction ;  dare  we  make  it  among  the  sayings  of  the  Saviour  as 
to  regard  some  of  them  as  applying  only  to  the  nearest  circle  in  which  He 
lived,  to  whom  He  spoke,  and  only  some  others,  as  given  to  the  whole 
Church  of  believers  to  the  end  of  time  ?  This  question  gives  rise  to 
various  differences  among  Christians,  and  has  almost  always  been,  and  is 
specially  in  our  own  days,  a  cause  of  endless  debate  among  them,  and, 
indeed,  when  we  consider  the  subject  closely  we  cannot  but  see  that  this 
is  very  natural.  For  could  we  actually  persuade  ourselves  that  our  Lord 
and  Master  really  lived  a  man  among  men  without  speaking  to  them  when 
they  were  beside  Him,  with  reference  to  the  exigencies  of  the  time,  and 
therefore  for  the  passing  moment,  and  out  of  the  strength  of  feeling  called 
up  and  required  by  that  moment  ?  And  if  He  did  so  speak,  then  we  must 
believe,  on  the  one  hand,  that  very  many  of  His  sayings  were  of  this  kind  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  did  He  not  know — was  it  not  indeed  always 
present  to  His  mind — that  He  was  not  speaking  only  for  the  generation  then 
living,  still  less  for  that  little  flock  alone  which  then  followed  Him,  hut 
that  He  was  sentas  theSaviour  of  the  world  so  that  light  and  truth  astothe 
things  of  God  should  for  ever  be  found  in  perfection  only  in  the  power  of 
His  words,  in  the  wisdom  of  His  mouth?  .And,  therefore,  must  He  not 
have  borne  constantly  in  His  mind  and  in  His  heart,  besides  the  crowds 
who  surrounded  Him  and  besides  the  disciples,  all  those  who  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world  should  believe  on  Him  through  this  world  ?  The  one 
truth  can  as  little  be  denied  as  the  other.  What  therefore  remains  for  us 
to  say,  but  that  with  the  saying  of  the  Saviour  this  must  be  the  case,  that 
we  shall  find  they  have,  for  the  most  part,  two  different  sides  ;  there  may 
be  something  in  them  that  derives  its  whole  force  from  the  relations  and 
circumstances  of  the  moment  for  which  He  spoke ;  but  in  them  all  there  is 


328  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  truth  that  endures  and  is  of  force  for  all  time.  In  this  light  then  let  us 
consider  this  rule  of  the  Saviour,  that  in  order  to  be  His  disciple  a  man 
must  deny  himself  and  take  up  his  cross. 

Let  us,  in  the  first  place,  carefully  consider  certain  points  that  must  not 
be  overlooked  in  applying  in  a  general  way  the  sayings  of  the  Saviour 
exactly  as  He  spoke  them  in  the  then  existing  circumstances ;  and  then, 
in  the  second  place,  lay  to  heart  the  truths  contained  in  them,  which  are 
invariably  the  same,  and  just  as  necessary  and  appHcable  to  ourselves. 

I.  In  the  first  place,  then,  when  the  Saviour  says,  "  He  who  will  come 
after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  Me," 
these  words  were  in  the  highest  degree  applicable  to  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  were  spoken.  They  were  spoken  in  reference  to  the  remon- 
strance of  His  disciple ;  well-meant,  doubtless,  and  dictated  by  heartfelt 
love,  and  yet  utterly  unsuitable  and  mistaken,  urging  Him  to  spare  Him- 
self, that  such  sufferings  and  such  a  death  as  He  had  spoken  of  should 
not  befal  Him.  He  indicates  to  them  that  they  also  in  following  Him 
must  be  prepared  to  bear  what  was  difficult  and  repugnant  to  them,  so 
that  we  cannot  understand  the  expressions  "  self-denial "  and  "  cross  "  in 
any  other  way  than  that  in  which  we  use  them  in  ordinary  life.  But  if  we 
wish  to  make  a  general  application  of  this  rule  in  the  same  sense,  two 
difficulties  present  themselves — the  one  or  the  other  suggested  according 
to  different  dispositions. 

Only  reflect,  first  of  all,  how  great  a  difference  there  is  in  the  propor- 
tion in  which  the  adversities  and  troubles  of  this  life  are  assigned  to  mdi- 
viduals.  And  this  inequality  in  no  way  depends  on  differences  of  position 
or  occupation,  which  though  only  external  are  yet  in  a  certain  sense  per- 
manent distinctions  for  a  man's  whole  lifetime.  No  !  in  the  world  of 
indigence,  and  in  that  of  luxurious  wealth,  in  the  lowest  stage  of  degrada- 
tion, and  in  the  circumstances  of  those  who  occupy  high  places  in  human 
society,  troubles  and  disappointments  are  to  be  found  in  equal  measure. 
In  the  one  class  as  in  the  other  there  are  those  who  are  continually  tossed 
by  the  storms  of  life,  and  are  hardly  delivered  from  one  misfortune,  from 
one  sorrow  or  suffering,  till  they  become  a  prey  to  another.  And  on  the 
other  hand,  there  is  often,  in  the  simplest  and  most  obscure  hfe,  even  in 
the  most  unfavourable  circumstances,  an  outward  calm,  a  quiet  peace  that 
is  little  disturbed,  so  that  little  suffering  or  real  sorrow  is  seen  in  the  Hfe. 
It  is  quite  another  source  from  which  these  differences  proceed.  They 
arise,  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  mysterious  connection,  so  inscrutable  to 
us,  yet  always  anew  exciting  our  curiosity,  between  the  physical  or  earthly 
part  and  the  spiritual  part  of  our  nature  ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  arise 
from  the  variety  of  ways  in  which  the  life  of  each  person  may  become 
involved  in  connection  with  the  general  state  of  things,  and  according  to 
the  place  and  order  in  his  life  of  events  and  circumstances  over  which  the 
individual  has  no  control  whatever,  and  which  rnay  occur  to  the  meanest 
as  to  the  highest ;  events  which,  therefore,  are  most  like  what  we  in  our 
shortsighted  weakness  are  accustomed  to  regard  among  earthly  things  as 
accidental,  which  are  subject  to  no  calculation,  and  for  which  no  law  can 
be  laid  down. 

AVell,  now,  let  us  imagine  a  scrupulous  spirit,  anxious  about  his  salva- 
tion, and  deeply  impressed  with  this  rule  of  the  Saviour's,  that  it  is  neces- 
sary for  a  man  to  deny  himself  and  take  up  his   cross  in  order  to  be  His 


The  Saviour's  Rule.  329 


disciple.  But  this  person  is  in  that  peaceful  position,  otherwise  so 
desirable,  as  far  from  great  turns  of  good  fortune  as  from  heavily  pressing 
pain  and  suffering ;  he  is  going  on  quietly  amidst  the  surroundings  to 
which  he  is  accustomed,  and  in  which  he  has  been  brought  up  from  his 
youth,  without  any  definite  occasion  for  denying  himself  or  giving  up  any- 
thing that  forms  a  part  of  his  ordinary  life,  whatever  his  circumstances 
may  be.  What  doubts  will  seize  on  such  a  scrupulous  spirit,  because,  with 
the  best  will,  he  cannot  possess  himself  of  the  firm  and  sure  evidence  on 
which  the  Lord  will  acknowledge  His  follower.  If  there  is  really  nothing 
in  which  to  deny  ourselves,  if  there  is  no  cross  to  take  up,  whence  have  we 
any  certainty  that  He  reckons  us  among  His  followers  ?  Whence  any  cer- 
tainty that  living  faith  in  Him,  as  the  Son  of  God,  is  counted  to  us  as 
belonging  to  the  host  of  those  whom  He  acknowledges  as  His  disciples  ? 
Oh,  what  a  painful  struggle  this  idea  may  easily  cause  in  many  a  pious 
mind  !  As  Jacob  wrestled  with  the  Lord,  and  would  not  let  Him  go  unless 
He  blessed  him,  although  he  does  not  seem  to  have  had  in  view  any  defi- 
nite blessing,  so  we  may  suppose  such  a  soul  as  we  have  spoken  of 
wrestling  with  the  Lord  for  the  special  blessing  of  the  cross,  and  how  pos- 
sibly wrestling  ever  in  vain  till  the  last  hour  of  earthly  life  has  struck.  If, 
then,  we  could  suppose  that  while  the  Lord,  who  has  revealed  to  us  the  will 
of  His  heavenly  Father,  said  that  those  alone  are  His  followers  who  prove 
it  by  denying  themselves  and  taking  up  their  cross,  yet  the  Father  whose 
will  He  reveals,  and  who  appoints  the  lot  and  controls  all  the  circum- 
stances of  men,  has  denied  to  some  the  cross  which  they  needed  in  order 
to  make  themselves  sure  of  their  faith  and  to  be  certain  of  their  salvation, 
although  they,  not  less  than  others,  had  seen  in  the  Saviour  the  glory  of 
the  only  begotten  Son,  what  kind  of  an  idea  of  a  loving  Father  would 
necessarily  be  the  end  of  such  a  vain  struggle  ? 

But  let  us  consider  yet  another  point.     When  there  is  a  question  of  a 
human  soul  being  freed  from  earthly  bonds,  and  of  arousing  in  it  the 
longing  after  higher  and  eternal  things ;  there   are   great   diversities   of 
opinion  among  men  as  to  what  is  most  likely  to  effect  this  ;  whether  the 
calm  of  an  untroubled  life,  inclining  us  so  much  to  recognise  an  eternally 
over-ruling  goodness,  or  manifold  difficulties,  distress  and  misery,  awaken- 
ing in  the  soul  the  sense  of  how  little  man  is  sufficient  for  himself,  of  how 
little  he  is  his  own  master,  and  thereby  leaving  us  to  look  up  to  a  higher 
master.     But  supposing  a  man  to  have  reached  this  position  ;  that  he  has 
become  acquainted  with   the  kingdom  of  (lod  on  eartli,  and  has  been 
received  into  fellowship  with  the  Saviour — then  if  we  ask,  what  is  the  social 
atmosphere  most  favourable  for  cherishing  the  germ  of  heavenly  love  and 
of  everything  good  in  the  soul  during  this  earthly  state  ;  What  are  probably 
the  circumstances  in  which  a  man   most  generally  grows  and   matures  in 
wisdom,  to  the  stature  of  a  perfect  man  in  Christ,  without  disturbance  or 
[interruption ? — there  can  be  little  doubt  of  the  answer.     Most  of  us  will 
;agree  in   this  that  the  more  quiet  and  undisturbed  a  man's  position  is, 
/without  the  disappointment  and  trials  of  life  to  lead  him  into  temptation, 
'  without  a  superabundance  of  earthly  possessions  to  allure  hirn  to  sensual 
I  enjoyments  and  to  awaken  pride,  the  better  it  is  for  his  progress  ;  that  it  is 
I  in  this  kind  of  midJle  position  and  in  those  tranquil  outward  circumstances 
(  that  the  tender  heavenly  plant,  during  this  earthly  life,  ever  thrives  best 
,  and  most  securely.     That  is  the  universal  feeling.     But  if  we  attach  to  the 


330  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Saviour's  words  the  special  meaning  that  He  intended  them  to  have  in  this 
text,  and  yet  wish  to  make  them  universally  applicable,  then  we  must  give 
up  all  our  wishes  in  regard  to  what  we  count  the  natural  and,  probably,  the 
best  thing  to  aim  at  in  the  conduct  ot  human  affairs,  and  what  the  noblest 
and  best  unremittingly  toil  to  bring  about.  For  what  should  be  the  aim  of 
all  the  wisdom,  all  the  mutual  self-sacrifice,  all  the  faithful  love,  by  which 
we  seek  to  bring  our  social  relations  into  good  and  happy  order — what  but 
just  this,  that  the  troubles  of  life,  by  which  peace  and  quietness  are 
forcibly  interrupted,  may  always  be  becoming  fewer?  And  yet,  in  the  case 
I  have  supposed,  we  should  be  obliged  to  desist  from  these  wishes  and 
efforts,  that  no  one  might  lack  what  was  necessary  for  his  salvation,  that 
every  one  might  find  sufficient  opportunity  for  self-denial,  every  one  find  a 
sufficient  cross  to  take  up,  in  order  only  to  be  sure  that  he  was  one  of  the 
followers  of  the  Saviour. 

This,  then,  is  the  first  difficulty  that  naturally  presents  itself  when  we 
attempt  to  give  a  universal  application  to  this  word  of  the  Saviour  in  its 
limited  and  temporary  sense ;  now  let  us  look  at  the  other. 

There  are  some  Christians — I  cannot  better  or  more  truly  indicate  them 
than  by  calling  them  strong-faithed  people — who,  as  soon  as  they  come  to 
know  the  Saviour  and  have  given  themselves  to  Him,  no  longer  give  way 
to  any  doubt,  but  have  an  immovable  certainty  that  they  are  destined  to 
the  salvation  that  comes  from  Him.  But  now  this  word  sounds  in  their 
ears,  "  He  who  will  be  My  disciple,  let  him  deny  himself  and  take  up  his 
cross  and  follow  Me."  What  is  the  effect  on  minds  like  this  of  such  an 
application  of  Christ's  words  ?  Ah,  we  see  it  only  too  often  in  human  life. 
They  feel  equally  sure  that  the  cross  which  is  necessary  as  a  mark  of  the 
Lord's  followers  will  not  be  wanting  to  them  ;  that  there  will  not  be  wanting 
to  them  occasions  of  self-denial,  by  which  He  will  acknowledge  His  own. 
And  yet  their  lives  are  beset  with  no  greater  difficulties  than  those  of  others, 
they  have  no  more  struggles  to  maintain  than  they  ;  but  whatever  of  that 
kind  befals  them,  though  perhaps  in  itself,  and  regarded  in  its  true  lights, 
of  much  less  importance,  they  represent  to  themselves  as  a  cross,  and', 
rejoice  over  it  accordingly.  That  which,  perhaps,  requires  no  strong  effort 
of  will,  what  perhaps  comes  up  naturally  with  others  as  an  active  exercise 
of  piety,  they  picture  to  themselves  as  a  high  degree  of  self-denial,  that  it 
may  correspond  with  the  inward  certainty  which  they  feel. 

And  that  we  may  see  the  full  evil  of  such  a  state  of  mind,  let  us  take  note 
of  two  things  in  human  life.  There  are  very  many  kind-s  of  things — and 
certainly  they  form  a  great  part  of  the  afflictions  and  disappointments  of  a 
man's  life — which  befal  him  from  no  other  cause  than  his  own  imperfec- 
tion, his  own  faults,  and  the  still  so  frequent  victories  of  the  flesh  over  the 
spirit.  And  just  these  people  of  robust  faith  are,  moreover,  sometimes 
inspired  with  a  zeal  which,  in  respect  of  its  object,  can  be  called  nothing 
but  commendable,  well-pleasing  to  God  and  of  good  report  among  men, 
but  which,  in  regard  to  its  vehemence,  has  really  much  of  an  earthly  and 
fleshly  character.  And,  if  in  giving  vent  to  this  zeal  they  in  any  way  hurt 
the  feelings  of  others,  and  then  have  to  experience  the  usual  results  of  so 
doing,  they  regard  this  with  satisfaction,  as  suffering  which  comes  upon 
them  for  Christ's  sake  ;  they  believe  that  they  are  thus  taking  up  and 
bearing  His  cross.  Had  they  not  taken  up  this  idea,  these  sufferings 
might  have  been  in  deed  and  truth  a  blessing  to  them  ;  if  they  had  accepted 


The  Saviour's  Rule.  331 


them  as  only  the  natural  consequence  of  their  own  conduct ;  seeing  that 
they  only  needed  to  trace  them  back  to  their  real  cause  to  discover  that 
they  were  the  result  of  their  own  imprudent  business  dealings,  their  thought- 
less or  selfish  character,  or  their  want  of  love.  But  the  more  they  regard 
such  sufferings  as  coming  upon  them  for  Christ's  sake,  the  more  this 
salutary  effect  is  lost.  And  the  more  it  becomes  a  matter  of  course  with 
them  to  hold  this  opinion,  just  the  more  are  they  yielding  to  human 
infirmity,  and  are  ever  anon  congratulating  themselves  on  the  sufferings 
which  they  bear  for  Christ's  sake,  and  by  which  they  believe  they  will  be 
known  by  Him  as  being  His  followers  more  fully,  more  surely,  and  better 
than  others.  Is  this  not  just  as  great  a  mistake  as  the  other,  though  in  an 
opposite  direction?  Can  we  believe  that  in  such  a  way  of  thinking  which 
so  manifestly,  so  conspicuously,  so  visibly  to  the  whole  world  hinders  the 
progress  of  sanctification — that  in  such  ideas  the  truth  of  the  Saviour  can 
be  found  ?  And  yet  this  is  a  natural  result  of  the  manner  in  which  that 
word  of  the  Lord  is  quite  justly  applied,  if  we  regard  it  as  a  universal  rule 
and  pattern  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  originally  spoken. 

And  this  is  not  all :  if,  in  connection  with  this  second  error  we  note  the 
fact,  that  things  which,  when  they  happen  to  ourselves  we  regard  as  serious 
calamities,  we  are  only  too  ready  to  estimate  far  more  lightly  when  others 
have  to  suffer  them  ;  we  cannot  help  seeing  that  this  way  of  applying  the 
Saviour's  rule  leads  to  comparisons  that  are  utterly  unjust,  and  to 
judgments  of  others  that  are  utterly  mistaken.  And  what  interruption  to 
the  true  unity  of  the  Spirit,  what  a  limiting  of  Christian  love,  is  the  natural 
result  of  this.  For  if  others  who  are  just  as  deeply  interested  in  the 
kingdom  of  God,  not  being  carried  away  with  this  kind  of  blind  zeal,  do  not 
fall  into  the  same  difficulties,  but  peacefully  and  quietly  pursue  their  Christian 
course,  they  are  regarded  by  those  zealous  people  as  not  bearing  the  true 
marks  of  Christ's  disciples.  They  are  never  seen  (say  those  partial  judges) 
coming  forward  as  true  and  self-denying  Christians  ;  they  are  never  seen 
taking  up  the  Lord's  cross  ;  rather  they  know  how  to  find  the  way  through 
the  earthly  life  even  without  the  cross ;  they  were  able  so  to  accommodate 
themselves  to  their  circumstances  as  to  have  no  need  of  selt-denial.  Now 
is  not  this  a  misconception  of  the  higher  Christian  wisdom  that  lies  in  such 
a  manner  of  guiding  one's  life  ?  Do  not  such  people  in  this  way  falsify  to 
themselves  the  whole  conception  of  the  true  nature  of  the  Christian  life  ? 
But  this,  also,  is  a  natural  result  of  the  error  of  which  we  have  spoken. 

II.  Well  then,  let  us  now  see  in  the  second  part  of  our  subject,  how  we 
are  to  understand  this  word  of  the  Saviour  as  being  a  word  from  Him  to 
all  His  disciples,  for  all  times,  for  all  conditions,  without  distinction. 

When  Peter,  after  the  Saviour  had  foretold  His  sufferings,  exhorted  Him 
to  spare  Himself,  that  those  things  should  not  befall  Him,  what  had  he  in 
his  mind  but  that  a  longer  continuance  of  the  Saviour's  visible  presence 
on  earth  was  needful,  if  the  kingdom  of  God  was  to  be  brought  m  ;  and 
he  was  afraid  that  if  the  Saviour  was  obhged  to  meet  sufferings  and  death 
it  would  probably  be  again  only  a  hope — as  some  other  disciples  after- 
wards said — that  Jesus  would  have  redeem.ed  Israel.  This  completion  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  was  before  his  mind  as  an  event  very  immediately  at 
hand  ;  but  how  far  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  still  was  from  its  com- 
pletion, what  patience  and  long  suffering,  what  perseverance  amidst 
manifold  disappointments,  would  be  required  if  everjone  were  to  do  even 


332  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  little,  but  that  little  truly  and  faithfully,  towards  its  advancement— all  thi^ 
was  quite  foreign  to  his  thoughts,  and  certainly  as  little  had  the  other  dis- 
ciples any  idea  of  it.  There  are  not  wanting  various  proofs  in  our  Holy 
Scriptures  that  at  that  time  what  they  had  in  their  minds  was  a  near  event, 
that  they  entertained  the  hope  that  soon,  in  some  way,  under  Divine 
direction  and  through  the  personal  influence  of  the  Lord,  the  kingdom  of 
God  would  be  set  up  in  its  full  glory  :  so  that  it  was  not  until  the  Saviour 
had  suffered  and  died  that  they  could  attain  to  the  true  knowledge  so 
necessary  to  them,  of  the  way  in  which  it  would  be  their  duty  to  carry  on 
His  work. 

Without  taking  this  opinion  into  account,  we  are  in  the  matter  itself  quite 
like  the  disciples.  From  us  also  the  consummation  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  still  at  a  distance  ;  we,  too,  must  say  that  we  can  only  see  it  as 
through  a  glass  darkly ;  our  imagination  cannot  yet  produce  the  true,  full, 
and  living  picture  of  it,  because  we  are  still  too  much  encompassed  by  the 
iniperfections  of  man's  condition  on  earth.  But  so  long  as  these  con- 
ditions exist,  so  long,  also,  is  there  the  same  necessity  for  all  the  disciples 
of  the  Lord  to  deny  themselves  and  take  up  the  cross,  as  the  Saviour  has 
placed  the  two  things  in  direct  connection. 

The  cross  which  He  Himself  was  appointed  to  bear  was  a  great  burden, 
first  of  all,  because,  apart  from  its  being  a  burden  on  the  direct  way  to 
death,  it  was  a  burden  that  He  must  carry  alone  ;  and  that  He  bore  it  was 
His  free  act,  but  certainly  not  His  original  choice.  He  did  not  take  up  the 
cross  because  He  wished  to  suffer,  because  He  coveted  pain  and  wounds, 
because  He  wished  to  die  earlier  than  He  would  otherwise  have  done ; 
but  in  order  to  drink  the  cup  which  His  Father  in  heaven  put  into  His 
hands,  and  at  no  one  moment  less  that  another  to  be  fulfilling  the  will  of 
His  Father,  to  which  He  referred  everything  connected  with  the  outward 
carrying  on  and  finishing  of  His  work. 

Well,  then,  in  this  sense  we  must  all,  in  like  manner,  deny  ourselves 
and  take  up  our  cross.  What  self  have  we  to  deny  ?  Certainly  not  that 
better  self,  through  which  we  are  members  of  the  kingdom  of  God  and 
of  the  living,  spiritual  body  of  the  Lord  ;  not  that  self  which  is  directly 
the  temple  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  in  which  He  dwells  ;  but  we  know  well, 
that  is  not  our  whole  self.  What  vfe  have  to  deny,  what  we  must  all  always 
be  denying,  just  because  we  are  to  take  up  the  cross  in  order  to  follow  the 
Lord,  is  this  natural  self,  which,  looking  at  it  not  in  connection  with  sin, 
but  merely  in  respect  of  human  infirmity,  is  acted  on  in  two  ways ;  it  is 
affected  by  the  force  of  habit,  and  by  the  power  of  momentary  impressions. 
As  often  as  we  obey  those  impulses,  we  are  failing  to  deny  ourselves,  and 
we  can  never  obey  them  without  missing  something  of  what  is  offered  to 
us  in  the  kingdom  of  God.  Whenever  we  do  anything,  whatever  it  may 
be,  because  we  are  accustomed  to  do  it,  or  because  we  do  not  wish  to  be 
disturbed  in  our  life-long  habits ;  whenever  we  do  anything  because  we  are 
seized  with  some  eager  desire,  of  whatever  kind ;  these  things  do  not 
proceed  from  the  spirit  that  seeks  to  build  up  the  kingdom  of  God,  and 
must,  therefore,  have  more  or  less  of  an  opposite  effect.  Every  such 
moment,  in  which  we  are  wanting  in  real  denial  of  self,  draws  us  deeper 
into  the  bondage  of  our  natural  mind,  and  therefore  diminishes  our  actual 
liberty  as  children  of  God.  Without  freeing  ourselves  from  these  notions 
by  self-denial,  we   cannot  lake  up  the  Saviour's  cross— His  cross  as  the 


The  Saviour  s  Rule.  333 


burden  it  was  to  Him.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  it  is  no  longer  with  us  a 
question  of  such  sutterings  as  the  first  disciples  had  to  endure  for  the  king- 
dom of  God  ;  that  belongs  to  the  dreams  of  those  mistaken  minds  we 
spoke  of;  for  what  are  all  false  representations  of  our  words,  what  all  the 
scoffing  at  the  living  faith  of  Christians,  which,  besides,  is  always  becom- 
ing less,  nay,  what  are  all  such  pitiful  trifles  that  we  should  venture  to  look 
on  them  as  a  cross  ?  But  although  this  is  true,  yet  it  is  also  true  that 
everyone  who  is  in  earnest  to  work  for  the  kingdom  of  God  has  his  cross 
to  bear.  True,  it  is  not  always  easy  to  keep  this  one  thing  in  view  in  all 
circumstances  and  to  measure  every  step  by  it.  For  even  if  we  keep  our- 
selves free  from  all  the  force  of  habit,  if  we  permit  no  momentarj-  im- 
pression to  have  power  over  us,  if  we  ourselves  act  by  the  direction  of  the 
Spirit,  according  to  the  aim  set  before  us  ;  yet  in  so  doing  we  come  into 
collision  with  others,  who,  although  generally  speaking  they  are  as  much 
under  the  control  of  the  Divine  Spirit  and  as  much  enlightened  by  the 
Divine  Word  as  ourselves,  yet  may  in  this  or  that  particular  instance  be 
opposed  to  us,  being  misled  by  habit  or  some  momentary  excitement. 
And  thus  even  where  we  see  clearly,  and  have  discovered  the  right  way, 
we  have  to  fight  against  the  prejudices  and  the  mistakes  of  others  ;  and 
thus  everyone  has  his  burden  to  bear,  be  the  circle  of  his  influence  what  it 
may,  greater  or  smaller,  in  so  far  as  he  is  in  earnest  about  the  advancement 
of  God's  kingdom.  Therefore  he  who  does  not  deny  himself  and  take 
up  his  cross  by  this  constant  crossing  of  the  ways  and  aims  of  men  is  not 
by  his  deeds  a  follower  of  the  Lord,  and  his  faith  that  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
the  living  God  consists  more  in  words  and  in  passing  emotions  than  in 
powerful,  active  work. 

But,  again,  the  cross  which  the  Saviour  bore  was  at  the  same  time  the 
mask  of  a  foreign  rule,  under  which  He,  with  His  whole  nation,  lay  and 
groaned.  For  if  this  had  not  been  the  case,  that  would  not  have  been  the 
kind  of  death  the  Saviour  would  have  died,  and  the  whole  unfolding  of  His 
earthly  career  [could  not  have  led  up  to  exactly  this  issue.  Now  the  same 
death  constantly  threatened  His  disciples.  Just  as  the  man  who  exercised 
authority  in  the  name  of  a  foreign,  heathen  power  was  drawn  into  joining 
with  those  who  belonged  to  the  Saviour's  own  nation,  and  in  this  way  his 
earthly  lot  was  brought  about ;  the  same.  He  knew,  was  in  prospect  for 
His  disciples.  They  would  find  everywhere  a  dominion  different  from  that 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  this  would  prepare  for  them  adversities  in 
abundance ;  but  they  were  to  take  up  even  that  cross,  and  to  meet  those 
adversities  just  as  joyfully  as  they  were  to  bear  the  burden  of  active  life, 
and  of  obedience  to  the  will  of  God. 

And  thus  it  is  still.  For,  though  we  all  confessed  the  name  of  the 
Saviour,  though  all  were  Christians  in  deed,  and  not  merely  in  name,  and 
had  really  the  mind  and  will  to  follow  Him  ;  yet  we  should  be  obliged  to 
say  and  confess  that  another  power  than  the  power  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
rules  in  the  world  :  that  is,  men's  earthly  business,  which  still  exercises  a 
power  over  them  that  is  not  seldom  hostile  to  the  kingdom  of  God ;  and 
even  when  it  is  not  hostile,  yet  always  remains  alien  to  it.  Everything  that 
is  done  among  us— and  it  is  not  a  little — not  purely  with  the  purpose  of 
advancing  the  kingdom  of  God,  not  from  this  motive  pervading  the  actions 
of  men,  impelling  them  or  sanctioning  their  doings  ;  in  short,  whatever  is 
done  just  as  it  might   have  been  done  if  we  had   not  been   Christians,  is 


334  ^/'^  British  Weekly  Pidi^it. 


done  by  a  foreign  power.  And  if  thus  the  desire  after  earthly  things,  de- 
light in  man's  rule  over  natural  things  for  its  own  sake  acts  as  a  special 
motive,  how  easily  it  happens  that  what  is  done  with  the  best  intentions 
for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  repressed,  and  that  all  the  most  zealous  servants 
of  the  Lord  must  bend  under  that  power  which  girds  them  and  carries 
them  whither  they  will  not ;  just  as  the  Saviour  Himself  bowed  under  His 
cross.  And  this  cross  He  has  left  to  all  His  disciples  without  distinction, 
until  that  is  at  last  an  actual  fact  which  the  first  disciples  thought  was  even 
in  their  time  close  at  hand,  that  there  are  no  other'powers  in  human  affairs, 
of  any  kind  whatever,  nothing  by  which  we  are  either  urged  on  or  opposed, 
but  the  power  of  the  Spirit  and  of  the  Word  of  God.  Until  that  state  of 
things  has  come,  we  shall  all  be  aware  of  this  opposition ;  and  amidst 
other  claims  on  our  hearts  and  our  time  must  struggle  on,  each  one  to  his 
goal,  must  bear  with  courage  and  cheerfulness,  and  without  relaxing  in  our 
zeal  the  feeling  that  a  foreign  power  is  restricting  the  free  development  of 
the  kingdom  of  God — bear  it  by  ever  anew  taking  up  this  cross.  And  if 
we  reflect  how  every  time  that  we  are  anew  made  conscious  of  this  adverse 
power,  it  casts  a  sting  into  the  human  soul ;  how  easily  at  such  times  we 
are  drawn  into  being  influenced  by  a  momentary  impulse,  though  the  zeal 
to  which  we  are  thus  moved  is  no  longer  the  true,  pure,  wise  zeal  for  the 
House  of  God,  but  a  consuming  and  passionate  emotion ;  must  we  not  be 
constrained  to  admit  that  every  way  in  which  we  can  be  called  to  take  up 
the  cross  must  ever  begin  with  the  denying  of  ourselves  and  return  to  that. 

And  finally,  the  taking  up  of  the  cross  was  for  the  Saviour  the  way  to 
death,  to  a  premature  death,  before  the  fruits  of  His  presence  could  have 
time  to  ripen.  And  the  thought  of  this  was  so  much  and  so  often  before 
His  mind  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  when  He  spoke  to  His  disciples  of 
taking  up  the  cross,  He  meant  to  announce  to  them  that  this  lot  should  be 
theirs  also.  They  saw  indeed  more  of  the  fruits  of  their  labours  than  the 
Saviour  saw  of  His.  For  in  how  many  places  was  the  word  of  God  made 
known  through  their  preaching,  and  Christian  churches  gathered !  But  the 
clearer  the  eye  of  faith  became  on  the  one  hand,  the  more  confidently  on 
the  other  hand  they  had  expected  the  consummation,  and  still  for  the  most 
part  were  looking  for  the  second  appearing  of  Christ,  so  much  the  more 
must  what  they  actually  saw  have  come  short  of  their  expectations.  And 
the  times  of  trouble  which  their  Master  had  so  plainly  foretold,  by  which 
their  work  was  first  to  be  tested,  and  even  for  the  first  time  fully  vindi- 
cated ;  who  knows  if  more  than  one  of  them  lived  through  those  times  and 
survived  them  ! 

This  cross  also  we  must  take  up,  and  reconcile  ourselves  to  the  thought 
of  not  living  to  see  and  enjoy  the  fruits  of  our  labour.  Nowhere  do  the 
affairs  of  men  make  equal  progress,  and  even  the  soil  on  which  each  one 
has  to  sow  his  seed  and  expend  his  labour,  is  unequally  apportioned. 
Even  if  we  are  now  living  in  a  time  of  which  we  can  boast  that  it  is 
vitncssing  a  great  progress  of  the  Gospel,  what  is  the  work  as  a  whole,  but 
that  more  soil  is  being  prepared  for  the  seed  ?  It  is  true  we  plant 
and  water ;  but  as  we  have  ourselves  come  into  the  labours  of  others,  and 
reap  where  we  did  not  sow,  as  the  Saviour  said  to  the  apostles,  so  others 
will  in  turn  come  into  our  labours  and  gather  the  harvest  for  which  we  have 
toiled.  But  love  reaches  downwards ;  and  therefore  we  do  not  easily  bring 
ourselves  to  acknowledge  the  resemblance  that  really  exists  here.     If  life 


The  Saviour's  Rule. 


is  going  on  under  its  usual  conditions,  little  indeed  of  the  joyful  harvest 
that  we  gather  into  the  barns  is  the  fruit  of  our  own  labour.  The  new  era 
which  we  have  helped  to  introduce,  we  know,  but  not  without  hitter  pain, 
that  we  shall  not  have  the  joy  of  seeing  its  fairest  blossoms.  The  younger 
generation,  in  whose  hearts  we  have  sown  the  seed,  and  fostered  its  first 
shoots,  if  they  wish  to  pay  their  debt,  will  remember  us  only  at  our  graves. 
We  know,  and  we  need  not  be  ashamed  to  confess  it,  that  this  is  a  cross 
for  us  to  take  up  ;  and  if  we  would  not  have  it  hinder  us  in  our  work,  we 
must  begin  by  denying  ourselves  in  this  respect  also. 

Therefore,  taking  all  things  together,  the  Saviour  was  certainly  right  in 
making  this  condition  so  universal.  We  may  safely  assert  that  so  long  as  this 
earthly  state  of  things  lasts,  there  will  be  no  disciple  of  the  Lord  who  will  not 
have  cause  to  deny  himself  and  to  take  up  the  cross ;  and  the  two  duties 
are  essentially  connected.  There  are  Christians  who  hold  a  different  opinion  ; 
who  think  that  no  doubt  we  must  take  up  the  cross  as  long  as  we  are  in  the 
world  and  the  opposition  between  the  world  and  the  kingdom  of  God 
still  continues  ;  but  that  we  should  say  no  more  about  self-denial,  everything 
about  which  we  might  need  to  exercise  self-denial  should  be  utterly 
obliterated  from  our  minds.  The  Saviour  took  up  the  cross,  and  owned 
that  He  did  so  ;  but  that  He  should  have  to  deny  Himself  was  not  con- 
sistent with  His  divine  dignity.  He  could  not  have  said  that  of  Himself 
in  the  same  sense  without  putting  Himself  on  a  level  with  us  in  a  way  in 
which  He  was  not  really  so.  But  because  this  was  His  special  prerogative, 
because  it  was  a  part  of  His  glory  as  the  only-begotten  Son,  that  he  had  no 
need  to  exercise  self-denial.  He  announced  it  as  a  universal  rule  for  all 
His  disciples,  and  it  would  only  be  empty  self-conceit  in  us  to  try  to  believe 
that  we  had  carried  self-denial  to  such  a  degree  of  perfection  as  to  have  no 
longer  need  to  practise  it.  If  we  have  only  looked  deeper  into  our  hearts 
in  moments  of  human  weakness,  there  will  be  no  one  who  can  say  of  him- 
self that  he  has  no  need  to  deny  himself;  just  as  everyone  must  say,  that 
the  whole  position  of  human  affairs  is  such  that  he  must  take  up  his  cross 
if  he  wishes  to  do  the  will  of  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  so  in  deed  and 
truth  follow  the  Saviour. 

Therefore,  even  if  our  life  could  be  free  from  afflictions  and  trials,  if 
there  were  nothing  from  without  which  could  cloud  the  manifestation  of 
peace  which  the  higher  life  effects  in  men,  if  all  that  were  past  and  gone, 
yet  we  should  be  bound  to  say  that  this  is  still  the  Saviour's  rule  for  all 
His  disciples  to  the  end  of  the  world.  They  alone  who  deny  themselves 
and  take  up  their  cross  have  living,  efficacious  faith  in  Him  as  the  Son  of 
God  who  came  to  bring  true  salvation.  And  although  we  know  well  that 
we  shall  never  have  perfectly  fulfilled  this  law,  yet  in  the  measure  in  which 
we  fulfil  it  we  have  the  witness  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  us  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God,  who  have  received  power  to  become  such  through  Him, 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  ;  and  only  in  this  measure  will  our  life  be  a  picture 
of  that  peace  which  the  Saviour  left  to  His  people,  and  which  He  alone 
can  give  now  and  evermore.     Amen. 


33^  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  September  28  : — Review  of  the  quarter's  lessons. 

Aiming  at  High  Things. 

"  Set  your  mincl  on  the  things  tliat  are  above,  not  on  the  things  that  are  upon  the 
earth." — Coi..  iii.  2. 

If  you  should  shoot  an  arrow  at  the  ground,  you  would  be  sure  to  hit  the 
ground,  but  no  one  could  praise  you  for  it.  If  you  should  aim  at  a  very 
small  mark  and  should  hit  it,  all  would  praise  you  for  your  skill.  To  shoot 
downwards  and  hit  the  great  earth,  anybody  can  do  that :  but  to  shoot 
upwards  and  hit  a  small  mark,  very  few  can  do  that,  and  i^ti  have  patience 
enough  to  get  the  skill  to  do  it.  It  is  said  that  Indians  put  their  boys* 
dinners  on  limbs  of  trees  and  the  boys  must  shoot  them  down  before  they 
can  have  them.     Thus  they  learn  to  shoot  straight. 

Paul  told  the  church  at  Colossas — and  the  children  in  it — to  set  their 
mind  on  the  things  that  are  above,  where  Christ  is,  and  not  on  the  things 
which  are  upon  the  earth  which  is  under  the  feet.  He  tells  us  to  do  the 
same.  Our  text  tells  boys  and  girls  to  aim  at  high  things,  and  to  keep 
aiming  at  them  until  you  hit  them.     Let  us  see  how  you  may  do  this. 

I.  In  the  home  there  are  high  and  low  things,  and  you  should  set  your 
mind  on  the  best  things  there,  and  strive  for  them  until  you  ynn  them. 
You  should  aim  to  be  the  best  boy  or  girl  in  the  home  for  good  manners^ 
for  kind  treatment  of  one  another,  for  ready  obedience  to  your  parents,  for 
tender  love  in  everything.  If  you  fail  now  and  then,  try  again,  and  still 
again  until  you  succeed.     Hit  this  high  mark  in  your  home. 

II.  There  are  high  and  low  things  in  play,  and  you  should  mind  the  high 
and  shun  the  low.  You  should  be  fair  in  play,  and  never  unfair  ;  truthful, 
and  never  untruthful  ;  kind,  and  never  unkind. 

III.  There  are  high  and  low  things  in  schools ;  you  can  just  play  at  school, 
have  poor  lessons,  and  be  a  bad  scholar  ;  or  you  can  study  and  work  hard 
and  behave  as  you  ought.  Now  on  which  will  you  "  set  your  mind  ?  "  Aim 
at  the  high  things,  get  every  lesson  perfectly,  and  make  your  conduct  and 
schoolship  perfect. 

IV.  There  are  high  and  low  things  in  learning  a  trade.  Do  not  slight  any 
little  detail.  Perfection  comes  from  minding  trifles  ;  aim  at  the  highest  and 
do  everything  in  the  best  way. 

V.  Paul  looked  above  the  things  of  earth  and  said,  "  Seek  the  things  that 
are  above,  where  Christ  is."  Let  us  set  our  minds  on  Christ  and  Heaven. 
Pray  to  Jesus  to  help  you  to  mind  the  Pleavenly  things.  Think  on  the 
things  that  are  above.  If  you  set  your  mind  on  them,  God  will  guide 
your  feet  into  Heaven. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 


No.  126,  Vol.  III.  OCTOBER  2,  1890.  One  Penny. 

ENDURING    TRIAL. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Spurgeon. 

Preached  in   the  Metropolitan    Tabernaclr,  London^   on    Thursday   Evenins^, 
August  29///,  1890. 

"  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not,  nor  charged  God  foolishly." — Job  i.  22. 

That  is  to  say,  after  all  this — this  trial,  this  temptation,  these  losses  of 
his  goods,  this  loss  of  all  his  children  at  a  blow ;  all  this — it  was  a  great 
word,  was  it  not  ?  Some  of  you  have  got  troubles  to-night,  but  if 
you  lay  them  down  by  the  side  of  Job's  troubles  they  will  be  mole- 
hills compared  with  his.  All  this — all  this,  reduced  from  a  peer  to  a 
pauper,  from  a  man  of  great  wealth  to  one  of  absolute  poverty  ;  in 
all  this — a  father,  and  ten  children  taken  away — Job  sinned  not.  Ah, 
dear  friends,  if  God  could  keep  Job  in  all  that,  you  may  look  at  your 
trouble  to-night  and  say,  "  God  can  keep  you  in  all  this."  It  alludes 
also  to  all  that  Job  did,  and  all  that  Job  said,  and  all  that  Job  felt. 
He  had  shaved  his  head  and  rent  his  garments,  and  he  had  spoken 
wondrous  words ;  but  in  all  this  Job  sinned  not.  Me  rose  up,  for  he 
was  a  man  of  action,  a  man  of  great  and  powerful  mind,  and  he  put 
forth  that  mind  ;  but  in  all  this  Job  sinned  not.  It  is  a  great  deal  to 
say  of  a  man  when  you  write  the  story  of  his  life.  I  fear  it  will  never 
be  the  case  with  any  one  of  us.  He  passed  through  a  world  of 
trouble  ;  here  it  is,  the  catalogue  written  within  and  without  with 
lamentations,  but  in  all  this  he  sinned  not.  He  did  this  and  he  did 
that,  and  he  spoke  this  and  he  spoke  that.  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned 
not,  nor  charged  God  foolishly."  Let  us  think  of  this  very  wonderful 
matter  in  a  practical  way. 

I.  And  our  first  head  shall  be,  /;/  all  our  fears  the  main  thing  is,  not 
to  sin.  It  is  not  said  that  in  all  this  Job  was  never  spoken  against  ; 
for  he  was  spoken  against  before  God,  and  slander  even  reached  the 
ears  of  the  Highest,  and  by  and  by  he  was  spoken  against  among  men, 
ay,  among  good  men,  who  brought  fearful  charges  against  iiini.  You 
must  not  expect  this,  dear  friends,  that  you  will  go  through  this  world 
and  have  it  said,  "  In  all  this  nobody  spoke  against  him."  They  said 
of  one,  he  was  a  man  who  never  had  an  enemy.     I   will  venture  to 


338  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

say  that  he  was  a  man  who  never  had  a  friend,  for  it  is  singular  that 
all  those  who  have  hearty  lovers  are  pretty  sure  to  have  hearty 
antagonists.  A  man  who  is  such  a  chip  in  the  porridge  that  he  never 
gives  any  flavour  at  all  of  sweetness  may  go  through  the  world 
without  anybody  finding  fault  with  him  ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  of  an 
out  and  out  man  of  God.  He  will  be  sure  to  be  slandered,  and  he 
need  not  mind  it.  Christ  was  slandered.  God  Himself  was  slandered 
in  His  own  Garden  of  Eden.  And  you  must  not  wonder  if  you  are 
slandered  too.  That  is  not  a  thing  to  care  about — to  go  through  life 
without  calumny ;  but  it  is  to  be  desired  that  we  may  go  through 
every  trouble  and  every  joy  without  falling  into  sin. 

Neither  is  it  a  main  thing  for  us  to  think  of  going  through  life  with- 
out suffering.  For  God's  servants,  the  best  of  them,  are  ripened  and 
mellowed  by  suffering.  Amos  the  herdsman  was  a  bruiser  of  sycamore 
figs,  a  kind  of  fig  that  never  ripened  in  that  country  unless  it  was 
struck  with  a  rod,  and  then  being  bruised  it  begins  to  ripen.  I  fear 
me  there  are  very  few  of  God's  people  that  will  ripen  without  suffer- 
ing. High  character  might  be  produced,  I  suppose,  by  continued 
prosperity,  but  it  has  very  seldom  been  seen.  Adversity,  however, 
which  seems  our  foe,  is  a  disguised  friend,  and  after  a  little  acquaint- 
ance with  suffering  we  come  to  feel  that  it  is  the  shadow  of  a  greater 
joy.  It  should  be  no  ambition  of  ours  to  get  through  the  world 
smoothly  without  losses  and  without  crosses. 

"Shall  Simon  bear  the  cross  alone, 
And  all  the  rest  go  tree  ? 
No  !  there's  a  cross  for  every  one, 
And  there's  a  cross  for  me," 

And,"  dear  friends,  I  think  also  it  should  not  be  our  ambition  to  go 
through  the  world  without  sadness.  That  is  worse  than  suftering. 
"  A  wounded  spirit  who  can  bear  ? "  Some  men  seem  to  pass 
through  great  trouble  without  any  feeling — pachydermatous  persons, 
thick-skinned.  And  truly  I  have  sometimes  half  prayed  to  have  a 
thick  skin.  It  would  be  a  very  doubtful  blessing.  Oh,  we  need  to 
be  thin-skinned  to  feel  the  slightest  touch  of  God's  hand.  "  Be  ye 
not  as  the  horse  and  the  mule,  which  have  no  understanding,  whose 
mouth  must  be  held  in  with  bit  and  bridle,  lest  they  come  near  unto 
thee."  The  Apostle  says  that  now  for  a  season  if  need  be  ye  are  in 
heaviness  through  manifold  temptations.  Many  read  it  as  if  there 
was  a  needs  be  for  the  trial.  Ah,  so  there  may  be,  but  the  needs 
be  is  for  the  being  in  heaviness.  If  you  could  bear  trial  without 
being  heavy,  well,  then  it  would  scarce  be  a  trial.  By  the  blueness 
of  the  wound  the  heart  is  made  better.  It  is  the  ache  of  the  ache,  it  is 
the  sting  of  the  sting  that  works  the  real  force,  and  if  you  do  not  feel 
the  rod  so  as  to  smart  under  it,  it  becomes  a  non-effectual  rod  to  you. 
So  I  would  not  even  pray  that  we  may  be  kept  from  sadness ;  but 
pray  seven  times,  pray  to-night  from  the  very  bowels  of  your  being, 
"  Lord,  keep  us  from  sin.     May  it  be  said  of  us  as  of  Thy  servant, 


Enduring  Trial.  339 


Job,  'In  all  this  Job  sinned  not.'"  For  remember  if  we  do  not  sin, 
if  the  grace  of  God  prevents  trouble  from  driving  us  into  sin,  then  we 
have  disappointed  Satan.  Satan  did  not  care  what  Job  did,  so  long 
as  he  could  make  him  sin.  "  Give  him  back  his  camels,  give  him 
back  his  sheep  ;  I  can  ride  on  a  camel,  or  I  can  assail  him  through  a 
a  sheep."  His  wealth  may  be  a  means  of  temptation  to  him,  and 
what  he  wanted  was  to  make  the  good  man  sin,  to  make  him  curse 
God  and  charge  Him  foolishly.  Now,  if  in  your  great  trouble,  my 
dear  brother  or  sister,  you  do  not  fall  into  sin,  3'ou  are  more  than  a 
conqueror  over  Satan.  The  arch-enemy  will  fly  away  confounded 
from  you  if  you  are  able  to  resist  him  in  the  darkness  of  your  soul 
and  conquer  him.  May  there  be  a  monument  erected  to  you  as  to 
Christian  of  old. 

"The  man  so  bravely  played  the  man, 
He  made  the  fiend  to  fly. 
Whereof  a  monument  I  stand 
The  same  to  testify." 

Another  thing  will  be  that  if  you  do  not  sin  under  the  special 
trouble  God  will  be  honoured.  He  is  not  honoured  by  preserving 
you  from  trouble,  but  He  is  honoured  by  allowing  you  to  be  tried,  and 
yet  preserving  you  in  it.  When  one  Winstanle}'  built  a  lighthouse  on 
the  Eddystone  Rock,  he  said  he  was  sure  it  would  stand  any  storm, 
and  he  should  like  to  be  in  it  in  the  fiercest  storm  that  ever  blew. 
Well,  he  was  in  it  one  night,  and  there  came  on  a  fierce  storm  and  it 
swept  him  and  the  lighthouse  right  away.  He  was  never  heard  of 
more.  Still,  he  courted  that  trial.  But  now,  the  lighthouse  which 
has  stood  so  long  has  had  all  manner  of  storms  beating  upon  it,  and 
not  a  single  stone  is  moved,  and  the  builder  of  that  lighthouse  is 
honoured  by  the  trial  through  which  his  w^ork  has  passed.  Beloved 
friends,  God  is  glorified  in  every  trial  that  occurs.  See  what  grace 
can  do,  what  suftering  it  can  endure,  what  labours  it  can  perform. 
Grace  is  like  an  athlete  performing  before  God  and  a  cloud  of  wit- 
nesses ;  and,  like  a  mighty  giant,  with  sinews  of  iron,  it  does  what- 
ever it  is  bidden  to  do  ;  it  even  enters  into  contest  with  the  fiend  of 
hell,  and  gives  him  a  deadly  throw ;  and  He  Who  made  the  athlete 
and  trained  him  to  his  work  is  honoured  thereby.  If  you  do  not  sin, 
your  trouble  will  bring  glory  to  God. 

And,  remember  once  more,  if  you  do  not  sin  you  will  never  be  a 
loser  by  your  trouble.  Your  sin  will  be  your  injury;  but  if  you 
stand  clear,  if  you  are  stripped,  you  shall  lose  nothing.  As  one  saith, 
"  It  is  not  a  pleasant  thing  to  strip.  It  may  be  if  you  are  going  to 
bed,  you  are  all  the  readier  for  it.  And  sometimes  a  child  of  God  in 
his  stripping  has  been  enabled  to  go  to  bed  and  die  the  better,  because 
what  he  might  have  needed  if  he  had  further  to  go  in  his  pilgrimage 
it  was  a  mercy  to  be  rid  of  when  he  was  so  near  his  end.  The  Lord 
knows  best.  You  are  put  into  the  fining  pot,  the  fire  may  blaze 
vehemently,  but  you  can  lose  nothing  if  you  are  pure  gold.     If  God 


340  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

makes  and  keeps  you,  so  you  should  be  but  the  brighter  by  reason  of 
the  vehement  heat.  No,  though  you  be  reduced  in  circumstances 
you  shall  be  enriched  in  grace,  and  if  you  be  sick  and  ready  to  die, 
that  readiness  to  die  shall  be  a  readiness  for  eternal  life  in  its  full- 
blown splendour.  Thus,  dear  friends,  I  would  insist  upon  it  that 
our  one  thought  when  we  are  tried — indeed,  always — should  be,  "  Let 
not  iniquity  have  dominion  over  me  ;  keep  me  from  evil ;  "  then  let  the 
trials  come,  even  like  those  of  Job,  it  shall  be  well  with  my  soul. 

II.  So  much  for  that ;  now  for  the  second  thought.  In  all  time  oj 
trial  there  is  a  special  Jear  of  sm.  It  is  well  for  the  child  of  God  to  know 
that  the  time  of  great  affliction  is  a  dangerous  time.  He  is  likely  to 
fall  into  sin.  Hence  it  was  needful  for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  give  a 
testimony  to  Job  that  in  all  this  he  sinned  not.  It  looked  as  if  he 
would  sin,  he  must  sin,  but  he  did  not  sin.  He  still  held  fast  his 
integrity  and  served  his  God.  Dear  friend,  when  you  are  coming  into 
trouble  it  is  a  time  of  testing,  and  there  are  men  that  have  sorely 
grieved  their  God  by  what  they  have  said  and  done  in  the  time  of 
trial.  For  instance,  we  are  very  apt  to  get  impatient.  We  think  a 
trial  lasts  too  long,  that  the  answer  to  prayer  is  delayed  altogether  an 
unconscionable  time.  If  God  be  God,  why  does  not  He  hurry  up  and 
deliver  us  at  once?  In  the  olden  time,  He  did  ride  upon  a  chariot 
and  did  fly;  yea,  He  did  fly  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind.  Why 
are  His  chariots  now  so  long  in  coming  ?  The  feet  of  His  mercy 
seem  shod  with  lead.  That  is  one  of  the  sins  to  which  we  are  very 
prone,  to  get  dictating  to  God  as  to  times  and  seasons,  and  limiting 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel.  I  think,  of  the  two  sexes,  women  most 
usually  carry  the  prize  for  patience,  especially  in  bodily  sickness. 
But  as  for  us  rougher  fellows,  who  ought  to  bear  up  well,  how  often 
do  we  lose  all  patience  when  we  really  are  brought  to  suffer.  And 
that  is  one  of  the  sins  to  which  we  are  very  prone.  Yet  Job 
was  not  impatient.  In  all  these  first  trials  he  sinned  not  as  to 
impatience. 

Sometimes  we  are  tempted  to  the  sin  of  rebellion.  I  have  met 
with  cases — I  think  one  or  two  are  here  to-night — cases  where  there 
has  been  great  trial,  and  in  a  strong  season  of  pain  one  said,  "  God 
has  taken  away  my  mother;  I  shall  never  forgive  Him.  I  can  never 
love  Him  as  I  did."  I  thought  then  it  was  a  dreadful  word  to  say, 
and  so  it  was.  I  heard  one  say  of  his  dying  child,  whom  I  was 
called  in  to  see,  "  That  is  my  last  child,  and  God  is  not  so  unright- 
eous as  to  take  my  child  away.  If  He  docs  I  will  never  believe  in 
Him  again."  I  put  my  hand  upon  him,  and  I  said,  "Your  child  will 
die.  She  is  in  a  consumption  from  which  it  is  impossible  she  should 
recover,  and  what  is  more,  I  fear  you  will  die  yourself."  He  looked 
at  me.  I  said,  "  A  child  of  God  cannot  speak  as  you  speak  without 
some  heavy  disappointment  being  very  near  him."  And  it  was  so. 
Ah,  if  it  comes  to  rebellion  against  God,  you  know  it  will  be  a  poor 
out  of  it  for  us.  If  we  stand  out  against  Him  we  shall  be  consumed 
with  terror ;  we  do  but  bring  a  heavier  rod  upon  ourselves.     Yet 


Enduring  Trial.  341 


that  is  a  temptation  into  which  Job  did  not  fall,  for  in  this  respect  he 
sinned  not. 

Sometimes  we  sin  by  despair.  "  Well,"  sa3's  a  child  of  God,  "  I 
shall  never  look  up  again,  I  shall  never  hope  again,  I  shall  never  be 
cheerful  again."  Why  not,  dear  friends,  why  not?  You  arc  bidden 
to  believe  all  this.  If  any  walk  in  darkness  and  see  no  light,  let  him 
trust.  Now  is  the  time  for  trust,  not  for  despair.  The  child  that  is 
sullen  will  probably  have  a  severer  discipline  yet  to  bring  him  to  his 
right  bearing.  God  grant  that  we  may  never  sin  by  a  sullen  despair. 
And  some  sin  by  unbelieving  speech.  I  will  not  repeat  the  naughty 
things  that  God's  children  have  sometimes  said.  Job  said  nothing  of 
the  kind.  "  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away  ;  blessed 
be  the  name  of  the  Lord."  Some  even  have  been  driven  into  a  kind 
of  atheism  by  successive  troubles  :  "  There  cannot  be  a  God,  or  He 
would  not  let  me  suffer  so."  Beloved,  you  must  not  get  into  that,  or 
you  will  greatly  grieve  your  God.  Job  sinned  not  in  that  way, 
neither  must  we. 

The  sound  of  the  bell  chides  me ;  I  must  hasten  on,  as  I  have  to 
make  the  service  short  to-night,  and  notice 

in.  Thirdly,  in  acts  of  luourning  we  are  not  to  sin.  Hark,  you  are 
allowed  to  weep,  you  are  allowed  to  show  that  you  suffer,  you  are 
allowed  to  give  expression  to  your  woe.  Listen,  and  see  what  Job 
did.  "Job  arose  and  rent  his  mantle,  and  shaved  his  head,  and  fell 
down  upon  the  ground  and  worshipped,  and  in  all  this  Job  sinned 
not."  She  did  weep  over  her  child ;  well,  and  she  may  not  be  sinner. 
Those  may  have  been  perfectly  holy  tears.  He  did  mourn  when 
his  beloved  was  taken  from  him.  I  should  have  thought  far  less  of  him 
if  he  had  not.  He  did  right  to  mourn.  Job  was  not  wrong  in  rending 
his  mantle.  He  would  have  been  wrong  if  he  had  thrown  it  away 
altogether.  He  was  not  wrong  in  shaving  his  head.  As  I  have  told 
you,  he  did  not  tear  out  his  hair  as  some  do  in  despair  ;  he  deliberately 
took  the  razor  and  shaved  his  head.  He  sinned  not  in  his  mourning. 
Jesus  wept;  you  may  weep.  It  may  perhaps  be  a  comfort  in  your 
great  sorrow  to  let  the  hot  floods  flow,  and  they  may  cool  your  spirit. 
His  acts  were  moderate  acts,  acts  of  mourning  toned  and  moderated 
by  his  faith.  His  words  also,  though  very  strong,  were  true: 
"  Naked  came  I  out  of  my  mother's  womb,  and  naked  shall  I  return 
thither."  If  we  say  no  more  than  the  truth,  we  may  say  it,  though 
perhaps  sometimes  it  is  better  to  say  nothing,  like  Aaron,  who  held 
his  peace.  **  I  was  dumb  with  silence,  I  opened  not  my  mouth, 
because  Thou  didst  it."  Job  mourned,  and  yet  did  not  sin,  for  he 
mourned  and  worshipped  as.  he  mourned.  Oh,  this  is  what  I  com- 
mend to  you  that  are  mourning  to-night.  If  you  must  be  on  the 
ground,  worship  on  the  ground.  If  your  heart  is  bowed  down, 
emulate  the  seraphim,  who  fall  on  their  faces  and  worship  God.  I 
believe  some  of  the  finest,  purest,  sweetest,  and  strongest  devotion 
has  come  to  God  from  hearts  that  were  breaking  with  grief.  Re- 
member that,  then,  in  acts  of  mourning  there  is  not  a  necessity  to  sin. 


342  The  Bntish  Weekly  Pulpit. 

IV.  But,  fourthly,  tn  charging  God  foolishly  there  is  greatsm.  "  Job 
sinned  not,"  and  the  phrase  tantamount  to  that  is,  "  nor  charged  God 
foolishly,"  And  here  let  me  say  this,  that  to  call  God  to  our  judg- 
ment-seat at  all  is  sin.  "  It  is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth 
Him  good."  He  is  absolutely  sovereign,  and  He  may  do  what  He 
will,  and  we  are  out  of  place  when  we  begin  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
God.  And,  in  the  next  place,  we  sin  in  requiring  that  we  should 
understand  God.  What,  is  my  God  to  explain  everything  to  me  or 
else  I  will  revolt  from  Him  ?  Blessed  be  His  name.  He  is  inscrutable, 
and  I  am  glad  to  have  Him  so.  Do  you  want  God  to  explain  things 
to  you  ?  Beloved,  this  is  unbelief.  This  is  indeed  making  yourself 
to  be  wiser  than  God.  No ;  let  us  bow  before  Him.  He  giveth  no 
account  of  His  matters.  Bow  before  God,  and  ask  not  to  know  why 
this  or  why  that.  He  hath  done  it,  and  it  must  be  right.  But  we  can 
easily  charge  God  foolishly  when  we  require  Him  to  explain  Himself 

But  sometimes  we  charge  God  foolishly  when  we  think  He  is  un- 
just. "  Oh,"  says  one,  "  when  I  was  a  worldling  I  prospered.  Ever 
since  I  have  been  a  Christian,  I  have  had  no  end  of  losses  and 
troubles."  You  mean  by  that,  then,  that  God  does  not  treat  you 
justly.  Half  a  minute,  half  a  minute.  If  He  were  to  treat  you  justly, 
where  would  you  be  ?  If  He  were  now  to  call  you  to  account  for 
your  sins,  and  deal  with  you  with  the  naked  edge  of  the  sword  of 
justice, — ah  !  you  would  not  be  here  to  complain,  you  would  be  in 
hell  to  despair.     Never  accuse  God's  justice. 

Some,  however,  will  charge  and  question  His  love.  "  How  can 
He  be  a  God  of  love  to  permit  me  to  suffer  so  ?  "  And  yet  you  for- 
get that  word,  "  As  many  as  I  tenderly  love  "—for  that  is  the  Greek 
word — "As  many  as  I  tenderly  love,  I  rebuke  and  chasten."  The 
more  He  loves  you  the  more  He  will  rebuke  you,  for  He  sees  in  you  a 
something  which  is  so  precious  to  Him  that  He  would  make  it 
"  perfect  through  suffering."  God  loves  you  much,  my  sister,  or  you 
would  not  have  to  suffer  so.  "  Oh,"  said  one  to  me,  when  I  was  in 
great  anguish,  great  pain,  hardly  bearable,  "  you  are  one  of  God's 
children,  are  you  ?  Then  I  thank  God  I  am  not  one."  Oh,  how  my 
eyes  flashed,  as  I  said  I  would  take  an  eternity  of  such  pain  as  I 
had  sooner  than  be  in  his  place,  for  to  be  without  the  love  of  God 
would  be  hell  to  me ;  but  to  have  His  love  whatever  I  might  suffer, 
was  a  heaven  to  my  spirit.  And  every  child  of  God  under  such  a 
taunt  would  feel  the  same.  Beloved,  we  are  willing  to  have  His  love 
with  every  drawback  that  can  be  conceived  so  long  as  we  may  but 
know  Him  to  be  our  Father  and  our  Friend;  Besides,  it  is  all  in 
love : 

"  In  love  I  correct  thee,  though  called  to  refine, 
I  make  thee  at  length  in  My  likenss  to  shine." 

Then  sometimes  we  begin  charging  His  power,  and  think  He  can- 
not help  us.  Throw  that  to  the  winds,  the  winds  -will  have  it,  and 
let  it  be  forgotten.     "  Is  anything  too  hard  for  the  Lord  ?  "     And 


Enditring  Trial,  343 


then  we  get  charging  His  wisdom.  If  He  be  so  wise,  how  could  He 
suffer  me  to  get  weary  as  I  am,  and  to  be  tried  as  I  am  ?  Thou, 
who  art  thou,  that  thou  shouldst  measure  the  wisdom  of  God  ?  Shall 
the  emmet  begin  to  measure  the  wisdom  of  the  man  who  built  St. 
Paul's  Cathedral  ?  Shall  some  tiny  animalcula,  sporting  with 
m^'riads  of  others  in  a  drop  of  water,  begin  to  judge  the  sun  ?  Who 
art  thou,  what  art  thou,  •  that  thou  fliest  against  God  ?  Thou  art 
nothing,  less  than  nothing.  Wilt  thou  call  the  Infinite  Wisdom  to 
thy  bai  ?  That  be  far  from  thee.  Job  did  not  so,  for  he  sinned  not, 
nor  charged  God  foolishly. 

V.  Now  lastly,  as  I  must  close,  in  coming  clean  out  of  trial  is  our 
great  honour.  .  If  we  are  tried  and  come  clean  out  of  it,  then  the  great- 
ness of  the  trial  is  in  part  our  honour.  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not." 
Now  suppose  your  life  was  this — -brought  up  tenderly  from  a  child, 
well  educated,  left  a  sufficient  sum  of  money  to  supply  every  wish, 
happily  married,  no  sickness,  a  long  life  ;  well,  if  that  is  all,  I  could 
not  say,  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not."  But  supposing  it  should  be 
thus — from  birth  to  suffer,  throughout  life  a  struggler,  at  home  a 
wrestler,  and  abroad  a  soldier  and  a  cross-bearer,  yet  full  of  joy  and 
peace  through  believing.  Tried,  tried  to  the  uttermost,  yet  found 
faithful.  Then  there  is  something  in  it.  Why,  there  is  no  honour  in 
being  a  feather-bed  soldier — a  man  who  puts  on  his  fine  regimentals, 
and  has  got  a  fine  helmet  ;  you  can  see  your  face  in  it  like  a  looking- 
glass — such  a  gentleman.  All  you  ever  hear  of  him  is  that  j'ou  hear 
his  spurs  jingle  as  he  walks  over  your  floor — such  a  swell  never 
smelt  gunpowder  in  his  life.  Now  that  is  not  much  to  write  about  in 
a  book  of  history.  If  we  could  have  our  choice,  and  we  were  as  good 
as  God  is,  we  should  choose  the  troubles  which  He  has  chosen.  Am 
I  going  to  have  a  little  bit  of  a  puddle  about  the  size  of  a  duckpond 
all  my  life  ?  Nay,  Lord,  if  Thou  wilt,  put  me  on  the  Atlantic,  make 
me  big  enough  by  Thy  grace  to  be  uplifted  to  the  heavens  and  to  go 
down  to  the  deeps  ;  for  though  such  a  voyage  may  have  a  thousand 
discomforts  and  dangers,  yet  when  it  is  over  safely,  there  is  some 
honour  in  it,  something  to  talk  about  in  heaven.  If  we  did  not  know 
troubles  we  should  sit  down  there  nearly  mum  ;  but  now  we  are  getting 
comfort  to  make  songs  out  of  throughout  all  eternity,  something  to 
turn  round  and  talk  to  our  brethren  about,  the  infinite  mercy  and  love 
of  God,  who  helped  us  and  delivered  us.  Give  me  an  interesting  life 
after  all. 

And  if  it  is  to  be  an  interesting  life,  then  it  must  be  one  that  has  its 
full  share  of  trouble,  as  Job  had,  so  that  it  can  be  said  in  the  summing 
of  it  up,  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not."  And  the  honour  of  a  Chris- 
tian, or,  let  me  say,  the  honour  of  God's  grace  in  a  Christian,  viz., 
when  we  have  practised  a  detailed  experience  of  obedience — detailed 
obedience.  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not,"  in  neither  what  he  said,  in 
what  he  did,  in  what  he  did  not  say,  in  what  he  did  not  do.  "  In  all 
this  Job  sinned  not." 

How  you  arc  apt  to  think  you  will  shut  yourself  up  in  a  cupboard 


344  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

and  never  go  out  in  the  world  any  more,  never  do  anything.  Why, 
that  would  be  one  big  black  sin  that  will  blot  out  all  your  life.  No, 
no,  no,  no,  no.  Go  on  acting,  go  on  suffering,  "  breast  the  wave, 
Christian,"  swim  to  the  other  shore,  and  make  God's  infinite  mercy  to 
be  seen  in  you,  so  that  with  a  life  crowned  with  acting,  crowned  with 
suffering,  it  shall  be  said,  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not,  nor  charged 
God  foolishly."  God  grant  us  a  detailed  experience  of  complete 
obedience  through  His  grace. 

Now  I  feel,  as  I  must  finish,  that  I  would  say  just  this.  As  I 
read  the  verse  through  it  looks  too  dry  to  me.  I  must  wet  it  with  a 
tear.  "  In  all  this  Job  sinned  not,  nor  charged  God  foolishly."  And 
I  who  have  never  had  a  thousandth  part  of  all  this,  I  have  sinned  ; 
and  in  times  of  bitter  anguish  have  charged  God  foolishly.  Dear 
friends,  is  this  true  of  some  of  you  ?  If  so,  let  the  tear  drop.  That 
tear  won't  wash  out  the  sin.     Fly  to  that 

*'  Fountain  filled  with  blood 
Drawn  from  Emmanuel's  veins.'' 

For  sins  of  impatience,  sins  of  petulance,  sins  of  rebellion,  sins  of  un- 
belief are  real  sins,  and  they  must  be  washed  away  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb,  and  nowhere  else.  Oh,  how  dear  that  fountain  is,  how  dear  to 
you  that  have  to  be  in  bed  and  suffer,  for  you  still  sin.  How  dear  to 
us  whose  occupation  is  to  serve,  for  we  have  the  sins  of  our  holy 
things,  and  we  need  to  be  washed  from  them.  And  you  that  go  into 
business  every  day,  and  mix  up  with  every  sort  of  people,  how  much 
you  need  a  daily  washing.  Come,  beloved,  let  us  go  together  and 
say,  "  Lord,  forgive  us ;  "  and  when  we  have  done  that,  you  that  are 
God's  people,  I  would  like  to  say  this  to  some  of  you  who  are  not 
God's  people  :  suppose  I  were  to  sum  up  your  life,  so  many  days  spent 
in  gaiety,  so  many  days  in  frivolous  amusement,  was  sometimes 
drunken,  sometimes  would  use  profane  language,  and  so  on.  Oh, 
what  a  story  that  would  be  about  you,  if  I  were  to  say,  "  In  all  this 
Job  sinned  not."  Why,  you  have  done  nothing  else  but  sin,  some  of 
you;  and  God  has  loaded  your  table,  and  clothed  your  backs,  and 
kepi  you  in  health,  or  restored  you  from  sickness ;  and  in  all  this  you 
have  done  nothing  else  but  sin  and  charge  God  foolishly.  I  want 
you  to  come  to  that  same  fountain  and  cry  to-night,  "  O  forgive  us  ; 
we  have  been  anti-Jobs,  we  have  been  the  very  opposite  of  him,  for 
in  all  our  comforts  and  mercies  we  have  never  shown  due  gratitude 
to  God,  and  done  nothing  else  but  transgress  against  Him."  The 
Lord  bring  us  all  to  His  feet,  and  then  may  He  keep  us  in  all  future 
troubles  to  stand  firm  and  not  to  sin.  I  know  some  of  you  are  going 
into  great  trouble ;  you  have  got  it  into  your  minds  to-night,  and  sitting 
here  you  have  felt  depressed  about  it.  Now  pray.  Lord,  if  Thou  wilt 
lead  me  by  this  rough  road,  keep  my  feet  that  I  stumble  not,  and 
preserve  me  even  to  the  end  with  garments  unspotted  from  the  world, 
and  I  will  ask  no  more  of  Thee  but  this  one  thing,  holy  Father  : 
Keep  me  like  Thy  dear  Son,  serving  Thee  with  heart  and  soul  and 
strength  till  I  go  up  higher  to  dwell  with  Thee  for  ever. 


Pulpit  Prayers.  345 


PULPIT  PRAYERS. 
By  the  Rev.  John  McNeill. 
Regent  Square  Presbyterian  Chur:h,  Sunday  morning,  Septemb:r  21  f/,  1890. 
Opening  Prayer. 
Lord,  we  bless  Thee  for  this  opportunity  of  coming  into  Thy 
presence.  Wilt  Thou  open  widely  for  us  the  gate  of  Thy  mercy  ! 
Let  us  in  to  the  very  secret-place  of  the  tabernacle  where  Thou  dost 
dwell  !  Draw  us,  and  we  will  njn  after  Thee.  Speak  to  us  by  Thy 
Word  and  Spirit,  and  our  whole  souls  shall  listen.  We  sliall  be 
stirred  up  in  every  faculty  of  our  being  to  praise  and  magnify  Thy 
holy  name.  The  Lord  be  praised  this  morning,  says  every  heart  among 
us — every  believing  heart — for  all  the  mercy  and  all  the  faithfulness 
that  are  commemorated  by  our  gathering  together  now.  The  Lord 
open  the  windows  of  heaven  and  pour  down  upon  us  a  rich  blessing. 
Take  away  all  our  sin,  look  over  and  forget  all  our  provocations,  our 
offences,  our  continual  unworthiness,  and  so  deal  with  us  that  this 
day  Thy  grace  in  us  shall  grow  and  flourish,  that  this  day  the  powers 
of  evil  in  us  shall  be  mightily  weakened,  and  subdued,  and  cast  out. 
Lord,  we  cast  ourselves  upon  that  greatness  of  Thine  which  Thou 
hast  ofttimes  shown  to  us  in  Thy  holy  place.  Repeat  to  us  Thy 
former  mercies,  only  more  abundantly,  even  as  Thou  art  always  will- 
ing to  show  to  Thy  people.  We  thank  and  praise  Thee  again  for 
our  gathering  here.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  sight  that  opens  to  our 
eyes  when  we  come  into  this  familiar  place,  when  we  set  ourselves 
once  again  at  the  entrance  of  this  familiar,  this  dry  round  of  routine 
of  praise,  and  prayer,  and  preaching,  and  holy  service.  Lord,  we 
thank  Thee  that  it  has  all  come  round  to  us  again,  and  we  are  come 
back  to  it.  Now  do  we  beseech  of  Thee,  make  Thine  own 
presence  to  be  felt,  and  Thine  own  power  to  be  acknowledged. 
Although  all  is  seemingly  fair,  and  desirable,  and  beautiful,  unless 
the  Lord  Himself — nothing  less  than  that — unless  the  Lord  Him- 
self be  with  us,  this  is  a  fair  but  a  deceitful  prospect ;  the  sun  does 
not  shine,  our  faces  are  not  bright,  this  is  a  well  without  water,  a 
cloud  without  rain ;  notwithstanding,  what  seems  to  be  desirable,  it 
is  all  bleak,  and  barren,  and  unfruitful,  if  God  the  Father,  and  God  the 
Son,  and  God  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  not  with  us.  But  Thou  art  with 
us,  O  God,  and  we  are  with  Thee.  We  stop  at  this— rather,  we 
begin  at  this ;  we  lay  hold  on  Thee  in  these  ordinances.  Lead  us, 
O  God ;  send  forth,  as  of  old,  Thy  light  and  truth ;  lead  us  and 
guide  us  into  renewed  experience  of  pardon,  and  peace,  and  of  spiri- 
tual blessing.     For  Jesus  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 

Prayer  before  Sermon.* 
Lord,  we  thank  Thee  for  these  inspired  words,  by  which  Thou  dost 
enable  us  to  pour  out  our  hearts  before  Thee.     We  thank  and  praise 
Thee  that  we  are  able  to  tell  Thee  from  our  hearts  that  every  item  of 


After  singing  Psalm  ciii. 


346  TJic  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


this  programme  of  grace  and  faithfulness  is  true.  There  are  the  things 
that  we  know,  our  eyes  have  seen,  our  hands  have  handled,  our  ears 
have  heard,  our  own  tongues  have  tasted  the  grace  and  the  goodness 
of  the  God  of  Israel,  Who  to  us  is  Jesus  Christ,  our  living,  our 
adorable  Redeemer.  O  our  God,  our  Father,  and  Saviour  and  Com- 
forter and  Friend,  accept  of  the  praises  of  our  hearts  this  morning 
because  Thou  hast  redeemed  us  from  destruction,  because  Thou  hast 
forgiven  all  our  iniquities — all.  We  hear  a  voice  which  wakens 
up  in  our  heart,  and  would  say,  "  Are  they  all  forgiven  ?  "  "  He 
healeth  all  our  diseases,  he  forgiveth  all  our  iniquities."  O  God,  we 
thank  Thee,  we  praise  Thy  glorious  name ;  we  marvel  and  adore  as 
often  as  we  come  to  the  merc3^-seat,  with  a  deeper  admiration,  with  a 
greater  wonder  that  all  this  overwhelming  grace  and  mercy  are  indeed 
given  to  us  individually  who  believe  in  Thy  revealed  Son.  And  we 
ask  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  touch  our  hearts  now,  and  find  in  our 
souls  true  and  acceptable  worship.  Here  are  no  priests  with  swing- 
ing censers;  here  we  do  not  come  to  smoking  altars,  dragging 
forward  our  helpless,  innocent  lamb  of  substitution  and  sacrifice. 
But  we  ask  Thee  to  find  within  the  courts  of  this  New  Testament 
house  a  true  and  deep  spiritual  worship,  find  for  Thyself  in  our  own 
thought,  in  our  own  purpose,  in  our  own  feelings,  all  manner  of 
service  coming  to-day  with  incense,  with  sacrifice — willing  sacrifice. 
Waken  us  up,  O  God,  that  our  very  soul  within  us  may  be  a 
heavenly  temple  where  God  the  Lord  is  enthroned,  where  we  offer  to 
Thee  incense  and  a  pure  offering,  where  upon  Thine  own  altar  we  lay 
down  ourselves  as  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacrifices  unto  Thee, 
body,  soul  and  spirit,  all  that  we  have,  yield  freely  lunto  Him  Who 
gave  Himself  entirely  for  us,  and  continually  devotes  all  His  love 
and  grace  to  further  our  personal  redemption.  We  thank  and  praise 
Thee,  O  God,  as  a  united  people  for  all  Thy  mercy  to  us  in  the 
weeks  gone  by,  when  we  were  separated  one  from  another :  for  all 
journeying  mercies,  for  all  that  we  have  seen  elsewhere  of  Thy  good- 
ness and  of  Thy  truth  ;  and  for  all  Thy  people  who  have  steadily 
stood  by  this  dear  old  place.  We  give  Thee  thanks  for  all  the 
messages,  for  all  the  messengers;  we  thank  Thee  that  now  Thou  hast 
brought  us  back  again.  Enable  us  to  raise  our  Ebenezer,  saying, 
"  Hitherto  hath  the  Lord  helped  us."  Help  us,  that  in 
our  very  hearts  we  may  have  some  strong  and  clear 
understanding  that  the  Lord  is  with  us,  that  He  is  revealing  Himself 
to  us.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  that  we  have  received  in  past  weeks. 
Those  of  us  who  have  been  witnessing  Thy  wonders  in  the  sea, 
those  of  us  who  have  been  at  coast  or  country,  drinking  in  recreation 
and  strength  and  peace  at  every  faculty,  yea,  at  every  pore.  Our 
God,  we  thank  Thee  for  the  wealth  that  Thou  dost  give  to  us  in  the 
wealth  of  nature  ;  for  all  that  the  eye  can  delight  in,  and  that  the  car 
can  hear,  and  that  the  soul  can  find  that  rest  in  and  meditate  upon 
that  prompts  with  remembrance  of  a  present  God.  But,  above  all,  we 
thank  Thcc  for  the  sanctuary,  for  the  house  of  prayer,  for  the  open 


Pulpit  Prayers.  347 


Bible,  for  the  preached  ministry,  for  the  old  familiar  faces  of  our 
brothers  and  sisters  in  Christ  Jesus  that  greet  us  as  we  greet  them 
as  we  cross  the  familiar  threshold  and  take  our  place  in  Thy  worship 
and  service  as  of  old.  Our  God,  we  thank  Thee  for  all  that  Thou 
hast  been  to  us,  and  for  all  that  Thou  hast  done  for  us,  and  we  ask 
of  thee  that  Thou  wouldst  enable  us  again  to  consecrate  ourselves 
and  all  that  we  have  to  a  more  faithful,  a  more  devoted,  and  a  more 
useful  service  in  the  days  that  are  to  come.  Remember  our  thoughts, 
remember  our  meditations,  3'ea,  remember  our  vows  when ''in  quiet 
solitude  we  thought  of  Thee,  as  we  thought  of  this  place,  as  we 
thought  of  this  da}^,  as  we  thought  of  our  work  waiting  for  us,  and 
in  some  quiet  place,  some  lonely  place,  we  lifted  up  heart  to  God, 
and  talked  to  Thee  about  all  this.  We  anticipated  this  very  hour, 
and  we  asked  Thee  to  be  sure  not  to  forget  us,  to  gather  Thyself 
together  with  us  again,  and  to  reveal  to  us  the  arm  of  the  Lord  in 
our  midst  as  of  old.  We  thank  Thee  for  these  times.  How  quiet 
was  the  sea,  how  solemn,  how  mighty  !  How  quiet  was  the  moor- 
land, how  lonely  Ave  were!  If  Christ  had  appeared  walking  to  us 
across  the  moor  we  had  not  been  greatl}^  surprised,  it  looked  so  like 
His  own  word,  and  we  would  not  have  been  surprised  to  see  His 
beautiful  and  blessed  feet  once  again  travelling  over  it.  O  Christ,  we 
thank  Thee  that  the  four  corners  of  this  earth,  since  Thou  wast  here, 
are  all  full  of  Thee.  It  never  can  be  the  same  empt\',  godless,  heartless 
world  again.  Every  nook  and  crann}'-  of  it  is  filled  with  suggestions 
of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  Who  came  into  it.  Who  loved  it,  Who 
died  for  it.  Who  rose  again.  Who  is  present  still  by  His  word  and 
Spirit,  and  a  thousand  messages.  And  now,  O  God,  we  thank  Thee 
for  particular  mercies ;  Thy  servant  here  and  this  people,  as  pastor 
and  people  we  thank  Thee  for  particular  mercies.  We  thank  Thee 
that  in  a  particular  hour  of  danger  when  there  flashed  through  our 
minds  swift  thoughts  of  a  crash,  of  maimed  bodies  of,  it  might  be, 
a  weakened,  a  broken,  or  a  finished  ministry  ;  and,  lo  !  the  shock 
came,  and  it  passed,  and  we  were  as  we  were  before,  with  Thy 
ministry  of  protection  in  between.  Thou  didst  give  Thine  angels 
charge  concerning  us,  and,  lo  !  we  are  alive.  Our  God,  we  thank 
Thee,  we  praise  Thee.  What  can  we  say  ?  Words  are  weak. 
Thou  knowest  our  hearts,  and  now  we  ask  that  Thou  wouldst  accept 
all  such  thanks  given  to  Thee.  We  have  all  our  personal  tale  to  tell. 
We  can  all  point  to  some  particular  place  and  say,  "  Here,  here,  the 
promise  was  made  to  me;  at  this  turn  of  the  road  some  particular 
Scripture  leaped  into  life  and  meaning,  was  fulfilled  to  me,"  and  the 
thing  that  hath  been  is  the  thing  that  shall  be.  Thou  wilt  always  be 
with  us,  Thine  arm  shall  always  work  deliverance  for  Jacob,  and  we 
shall  be  immortal  till  our  work  here  is  done.  What  manner  of  persons 
ought  we  to  be,  O  God,  to  whom  Thou  hast  shown  such  great  mercy, 
so  large,  so  full,  so  abundant,  so  ipinute,  so  particular  ?  And  now 
we  ask  of  Thee  that  Thou  wouldst  baptise  us  with  Thy  Holy  Spirit 
this  day  for  all  the  work  and  service  that  lies  before  us.     Dry  our 


348  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

eyes  if  we  be  weeping ;  comfort  our  hearts  if  we  be  in  distress ; 
brighten  our  whole  prospect  and  outlook  with  Thine  own  presence, 
and  with  thy  exceeding  great  and  precious  promises ;  and  enable  us 
once  again  to  take  up  the  yoke,  enable  us  once  again  to  take  our 
place  on  the  gospel  field.  How  white  it  is  to  harvest !  I-ord,  send 
us  back  to  our  work  as  ministers,  elders,  deacons,  Sunday-school 
teachers,  heads  of  households,  witnessers  and  testifiers  for  Christ,  each 
in  his  and  in  her  own  place.  Oh,  help  us  to  burn  and  shine  for  the 
Lord  our  God.  Help  us  this  very  day  to  preach  as  if  we  had 
never  preached  before.  Help  us  this  day  to  teach,  to  sow  the  seed 
with  liberal  hand,  doubting  not  that  God  is  with  us,  and  that  our  words 
and  our  work  shall  tell  to  eternal  days.  Now,  hear  us.  Oh,  hear 
us  !  Open  Thine  ear,  open  Thine  heart,  open  Thy  word,  and  as  of 
old  make  this  place  of  Thy  feet  glorious  by  saving  souls,  by 
strengthening  Thy  people,  by  bring  all  heaven  into  quick  contact 
with  our  need  here  upon  earth.     For  Christ's  sake  we  ask  it.    Amen. 

KNOWLEDGE   AND    LOVE. 
A  Sermon  preached  at  the  Leeds  Parish  Church  before  the  British  Association,  by 
The  Rev.  J.  R.  Illingworth. 
"If  any  man  will  do  His  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." — St.  John  vii.  17. 
"  All  men  naturally  desire  knowledge,"   said  the  "  master  of  those 
who  know,"  and  it  is  a  statement   never  more  re-echoed   than  to-day. 
But   among  the  varieties   of  knowledge  there  is   one,  and   one  only, 
which   concerns   us  all,   learned    and    unlearned    alike,   and  that  '  is 
religious  knowledge — the  knowledge  of  our  relation  to  God. 

This,  is  the  subject  of  the  treatise  of  Aristotle,  whose  words  I  have 
quoted,  and  it  is  a  subject  that  modern  society  is  eager  to  discuss  and 
hear  discussed ;  nor  can  it  be  far  removed  in  one  phase  or  another 
from  the  thoughts  of  an  intellectual  age.  For  practical  convenience 
the  sciences  may-  be  separated,  though  the  separation  must 
be  more  or  less  artificial,  and  cannot  in  the  last  resort  be  sundered 
from  their  root.  History,  mathematics,  chemistry,  social  science,  all 
lead  up  ultimately  to  the  question.  Who  and  what  is  God,  and  what 
is  His  relation  to  the  world  He  has  made  ? 

Among  men  with  an  intellectual  aim,  secular  and  sacred  science 
cannot  be  divorced,  but  when  sorrow  comes  with  years,  and  the  trials 
of  life  press  hardly,  no  amount  of  general  culture  or  intellectual 
attainment  can  compensate  for  the  omission  of  that  which  alone  can 
'  bring  a  man  peace  at  the  last.'  Nor  can  we  make  any  real  progress 
until  we  have  learnt  to  accept  the  axiom  contained  in  the  text. 

This  dependence  of  knowledge  upon  the  will  is  a  thing  which  men 
are  not  ready  to  accept.  Why,  we  are  asked,  should  religion  differ 
from  other  truth  ?  The  answer  is  that  it  does  not  so  differ,  we  only 
imagine  a  difterence  from  the  failure  to  understand  what  true  know- 
ledge is  ;  we  live  in  an  age  of  intellectual  distractions ;  literature 
increases  and  leisure  grows  less.     We  have  no  time  to  think  and  yet 


Knowledge  and  Love.  34Q 


are  expected  to  have  opinions.  The  volume  gives  place  to  the  essay, 
the  essay  to  the  paragraph,  the  paragraph  to  the  latest  catchword  of 
science,  and  intelligent  appreciation  takes  the  place  of  intellectual  effort. 

We  breathe  an  atmosphere  of  opinion  and  miscall  it  modem 
thoiight,  but  if  we  look  at  our  real  thinkers  we  lind  at  once  that  moral 
qualities  are  involved  in  pursuit  of  the  simplest  science.  Francis 
Bacon  and  John  S.  Mill  are  both  emphatic  in  tracing  intellectual 
fallacies  to  ethical  causes — in  other  words,  to  the  region  of  the  will. 

Take  a  physical  science,  and  consider  what  a  call  it  makes  upon 
him  who  would  successfully  pursue  it.  There  must  be  infinite 
patience,  unflagging  perseverance,  and  the  enthusiasm  which  alone 
makes  patience  and  perseverance  possible.  These  are  among  the 
necessaries  for  the  adequate  knowledge  of  any  science,  and  it  is  a 
high  degree  of  moral  excellence  they  involve. 

If  we  turn  from  abstract  to  human  virtues,  from  natural  to  social 
science,  the  same  virtues  are  absolutely  necessary,  with  one  addition. 
The  political  or  social  philosopher  who  is  to  be  worthy  of  the  name 
must  also  be  as  patient  and  persevering,  as  independent  and 
enthusiastic,  as  the  biologist  or  chemist,  but  must  also  possess 
sympath}'  and  courage,  for  he  is  confronted,  not  with  inert  matter, 
but  by  men  with  hearts  and  passions  which  react  upon  his  own.  If 
he  quails  before  antagonism,  or  is  misled  by  respect  of  persons,  his 
theories  will  remain  untested,  unreal,  the  dreams  of  a  dodnnaire.  If 
they  are  to  fulfil  their  object,  he  must  leave  the  study  for  the  market- 
place, and  face  misrepresentation,  failure,  disappointment,  danger, 
and  possible  death  !  Not  only  does  the  student  impress  his  moral  per- 
sonality upon  the  subject-matter  or  the  living  object,  but  they  in  their 
turn  influence  him,  colour  his  imagination,  dictate  hismodeof  reasoning. 

In  this  light  the  knowledge  of  God  resembles  all  other  knowledge, 
differing  from  it  only  in  degree.  While  we  may  stop  short  in  the 
science  of  our  fellow-men,  God  once  known  in  any  degree  makes  an 
immediate  personal  demand  upon  our  conduct.  To  reject  that  demand 
is,  by  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  to  refuse  to  know  Him,  while  to 
comply  with  the  demand  is  to  do  His  will,  and  so  to  verify  the  teach- 
ing of  the  text  that  if  any  man  willeth  to  do,  he  shall  know  of  the 
teaching.  God  means  to  us,  above  all  things,  a  holy  being,  and 
holiness  casts  an  obligation  upon  us  who  come  near  it.  To  be  in  the 
presence  of  holiness  is  to  feel  an  obligation  to  be  holy.  This  obligation 
is  part  of  the  very  nature  of  holiness.  To  decline  the  obligation  is 
to  deny  the  nature  of  holiness,  to  be  blind  to  its  existence,  and  there- 
fore to  Him  Whose  attribute  it  is.  There  is,  /here/ore,  nothing 
unreasonable  in  the  assertion  that  conduct  is  the  key  to  creed,  for  the 
analogy  of  all  knowledge  argues  this.  The  only  diflerence  in  this 
respect  between  secular  and  sacred  science  is  that  the  former  is 
departmental,  while  the  latter  is  universal.  There  are  certain  virtues 
which  a  man  of  science  may  neglect  as  far  as  success  in  his  science 
is  concerned,  but  the  man  of  religion  who  breaks  one  commandment 
is  guilty  of  all. 

Nor  are  we  false  in  asserting   that   this   same  law  must  guide  the 


3  so  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 

whole  course,  as  well  as  the  commencement,  of  religious  life.  Every 
step  in  science  is  won  by  experiment,  and  so  in  religion;  to  do  more 
is  to  know  more,  and  to  grow  weary  in  well-doing  is  to  have  the 
understanding  darkened.  Speculative  questionings  of  mere  curiosity 
are  sternly  discouraged  in  Scripture.  "  Lord,  are  there  few  that  be 
saved  ?  "  is  met  by,  *'  Strive  to  enter  in."  "  Lord,  and  what  shall 
this  man  do  ?  "  by,  "  What  is  that  to  thee  ?  " 

There  is  a  quantitative  relation  between  our  doing  and  knowing. 
We  shall  learn  exactly  as  much  of  science  as  our  experiment  has 
justified,  of  God  as  our  conduct  may  deserve.  The  same  line  of 
thought  may  help  us  to  meet  a  further  objection  of  the  day.  Know- 
ledge which  is  based  on  conduct  is  a  personal  property  which  outsiders 
cannot  share.  This  many  resent.  They  expect  belief  to  be  universal 
— open  to  all ;  to  be  read  in  a  book  and  criticised  at  will.  But  such 
is  not  the  case  with  any  other  sort  of  knowledge.  .Science  is  the 
individual  possession  of  the  earnest  experimentalist.  When  its 
results  (such  as  steam  aud  electricity)  are  embodied  in  practical 
appliances  we  know  the  danger  of  such  appliances  in  ignorant  hands, 
and  its  speculative  results  are  equally  unsafe  in  the  mouth  of  one 
who  knows  nothing  of  the  method  of  their  attainment ;  and  neither 
more  nor  less  is  this  the  case  with  religious  truth.  The  irreligious 
world  may  all  unconsciously  absorb  its  sunshine,  appropriate  the 
peace,  the  freedom,  the  love  which  it  has  so  incorporated  in  our 
secular  lives  that  we  think  of  them  as  secular  things  ;  but  they  were 
won  for  us  by  the  men  of  religion  at  the  cost  of  life,  and  no  more 
make  those  who  inherit  them  at  secondhand  religious  than  the  daily 
employment  of  the  railway  or  telegraph  makes  the  business  man 
scientific.  We  are  too  apt  to  appropriate  the  labours  of  other  men 
without  due  acknowledgment.  We  take  a  kind  of  credit  to  ourselves 
for  being  the  heirs  of  all  ages,  and  are  tinged  with  more  contempt 
than  reverence  for  those  who  worked  so  nobly  in  darker  days  to  amass 
the  fortune  we  so  indolently  spend.  And  so  when  we  turn  to  religious 
questions,  we  expect  to  find  ready  to  our  hands  the  things  for  which 
martyrs  suffered,  ascetics  prayed  and  fasted,  and  which  penitents 
have  mourned  a  lifetime  to  regain.  All  truth  resents  such  treatment, 
but  the  truth  of  religion  more  than  all.  We  must  approach  it  as 
little  children,  each  beginning  life  again.  We  must  seek  it  as  lor  the 
pearl  of  great  price — a  hidden  treasure.  We  must  be  willing  to 
forego  all  that  hinders  in  the  pursuit  of  it,  to  cut  o?i  the  right  hand, 
to  pluck  out  the  right  eye,  to  forego  perchance  a  familiar  friendship, 
and  all  this  because  it  is  no  abstraction  we  are  seeking,  but  a  Person, 
and  that  Person  the  Most  High  God;  He  Who  first  revealed  Himself 
as  a  jealous  God,  because  He  desired  to  lead  us  on  to  find  in  Him 
the  desire  of  our  hearts  ;  "the  chiefest  among  ten  thousand ; "  "the 
altogether  lovely ;  "  and  in  Whom  we  can  regain  more  than  we  have 
foregone  for  His  sake. 

Secular  knowledge  might  be  discovered,  but  Divine  truth  is  a 
revelation.  We  have  not  chosen  Him,  but  He  has  chosen  us,  and 
He  appeals  to  all  the  faculties  of  our  complex  being.     It  was  not  in 


Knowledge  and  Love.  35: 


the  critical  attitude  of  the  faculties  that  the  saints  of  old  spoke. 
From  this  personal  character  it  follows  that  religious  knowledge 
must  be  mystic,  incommunicable.  The  religious  man  may  be  able  to 
adduce  reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  him,  but  he  feels  all  the  while 
that  his  arguments  cannot  produce  conviction.  They  but  draw  their 
colour  therefrom,  and  are  too  secret,  too  spiritual,  too  sacred  to  pro- 
duce. Our  belief  is  sure.  The  influence  of  our  life,  prayers 
answered,  judgments  unmistakable,  punishment  for  secret  sin — these, 
as  they  gather  round  our  inner  history,  make  us  hear  the  same  voice 
speaking  w'hich  said  to  Nathanael,  "  Before  that  Philip  called  thee, 
when  thou  wast  under  the  fig-tree,  /  saw  thee."  Saintly  example  may 
call  us  to  Christ,  but  it  is  only  the  sense  that  His  eye  is  upon  us 
that  can  change  probability  into  certainty,  and  elicit  the  confession, 
"  l^hou  art  the  Son  of  God,  Thou  art  the  King  of  Israel."  The  know- 
ledge of  God  depends,  primarily,  upon  the  desire  to  do  His  will.  It 
is  revealed,  not  invented.  It  may  be  described  and  commended,  but 
not  imparted  to  our  fellow-men. 

"  Come,  and  I  will  show  you  what  the  Lord  has  done  for  my  soul  " 
is  the  limit  of  a  possible  missionary  appeal.  From  this  vein  the 
Church  of  Christ  draws  a  practical  corollary  which  men  do  not  like 
to  draw — that  moral  purification  is  necessary  to  the  knowledge  of 
God.  There  may  have  been  earnest  seekers  after  truth  who  have  not 
found  Him,  but  these  are  few  and  far  between.  Those  who  bandy 
words  about  Agnosticism  have  not  been  in  earnest  as  the  Church  of 
Christ  counts  earnestness.  Earnestness  means  to  bring  our  secret  sins 
into  the  light  of  God's  countenance ;  to  mourn  over  them,  forsake 
them,  and  acquiesce  in  the  solemn  fact  that  we  have  marred  our  purity 
for  ever.  The  very  fact  that  men  consider  it  an  insult  to  have  un- 
belief attributed  to  sin  shows  how  little  they  have  studied  the  effect 
of  sin  on  the  soul.  If  we  take  any  kind  of  sin — sins  of  youth,  waste 
of  time,  bodily  indulgence,  sins  of  the  tongue,  thoughts  of  the  heart, 
of  envy,  jealousy,  malice,  analyse  any  one  in  effect  if  you  can,  and 
your  consequent  incapacity  to  draw  near  to  God,  3'ou  will  find  sin  is 
not  an  isolated  thing  ;  they  \veave  themselves  together  until  they  dim 
our  vision,  till  we  fail  to  see  what  God  really  is,  and  in  proportion  as 
we  have  lost  Him  we  need  penitential  purification  to  regain  the  vision. 
We  believe  we  are  persons  in  relation  to  a  Person,  and  the  highest 
form  of  personal  relationship  revealed  is  love ;  consequently  our  duties 
in  whatever  way  they  are  done  are  ultimately  regarded  as  doings  to  be 
done  for  the  sake  of  love.  A  violation  of  the  law  of  love  must  bring  with 
it  a  loss  of  insight,  dislike,  and  at  last  hatred,  in  which  love  violated  in- 
variably ends.  Therefore  an  attempt  to  do  better,  all-important  as  that 
is,is  still  incomplete  without  the  emotional  sorrow  which  wounded  love 
involves,  and  incomplete  in  tiie  very  point  where  conduct  inlluences 
creed.  So  regarded,  the  knowledge  of  God  may  indeed  be  hard  of 
attainment,as  calling  for  personal  eflbrt  long  sustained.  But  it  is  within 
the  reach  of  all,  simple  as  well  as  sage.  All  men,  of  whatever  intellec- 
tual capacity,  are  capable  of  loving,  and  may  follow  love's  leading  if 
they  will.     "  And  he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,  and  knoweth  God." 


352  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  October  $tJi.     Luke  xx.  9-19.     Golden  Text,  Ps.  liii.  3. 
The  Parable  of  the  Vineyard. 

There  is  no  being  whose  claims  are  so  little  understood  by  men  as 
the  claims  of  God.  When  the  conduct  of  men  towards  God  is  repre- 
sented in  a  parable,  we  can  see  better  its  ingratitude  and  treachery. 
Every  one  will  admit  that  the  lord  of  the  vineyard  had  a  right  to  de- 
mand its  fruits.  And  God  has  a  right  to  our  obedience  and  our  love.  To 
Him  we  owe  all  we  enjoy,  and  the  very  power  of  enjoyment  comes 
from  Him.  But  how  do  men  too  often  behave  towards  God?  In  the  same 
way  that  these  husbandmen  behaved  to  their  lord.  They  refuse  to  obey 
God,  and  are  angry  with  those  who  reprove  their  disobedience. 

These  husbandmen  treated  the  servants  worse  and  worse.  They 
beat  the  first  servant,  shamefully  used  the  second,  and  wounded  the 
third.  So  do  sinners  increase  in  wickedness,  for  every  sin  com- 
mitted and  not  repented  of,  prepares  for  the  commission  of  a  greater. 
Christians  who  look  back  on  their  days  of  rebellion  perceive  that 
they  were  fast  growing  from  bad  to  worse.  There  was  some  fear 
of  evil  in  early  youth,  which  was  lost  as  they  grew  older  in  sin. 
When  the  Saviour  had  concluded  His  parable.  He  declared  the 
punishment  the  lord  would  inflict  on  the  husbandmen.  "  He  will 
come  and  destroy  these  husbandmen,  and  shall  give  the  vineyard  to 
others."  Now  this  prophecy  was  intended  as  a  warning  to  the  Jews, 
who  had  persecuted  God's  servants  the  prophets,  and  who  were  now 
plotting  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  people  understood  that 
this  warning  was  for  them,  for  they  exclaimed,  "  Chalilah"  ("May  it 
not  be  ").  If  they  had  been  as  anxious  to  avoid  sin  as  they  were  to 
avoid  sujffcring,  they  would  have  escaped  this  punishment.  Jesus 
now  changed  the  figure  from  a  vineyard  to  a  building,  and  He  quoted 
a  passage  from  Ps.  cxxiii.,  "The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected, 
the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner."  These  words  are  full 
of  severity  and  awful  foreboding  for  all  the  rejecters  of  Christ.  He 
wa?  the  Stone  given  by  God  as  a  sure  foundation  upon  which  we  might 
build.  But  we  can  spurn  and  reject  this  Stone,  but  it  is  to  our  own 
hurt.  He  is  either  the  Rock  on  which  we  build,  or  else  He  is  "  a 
Stone  of  stumbling."  And  if  rejection  is  persisted  in,  then  the  issue 
must  be  utter  destruction — "  It  shall  grind  him  to  powder."  The  blessed 
Saviour,  who  might,  like  a  stone,  be  a  support  and  defence,  will  become, 
if  we  refuse  to  believe  in  Him,  the  instrument  of  our  destruction. 

These  Jews  were  rejecting  builders  upon  whom,  after  a  few  years 
of  grace,  "the  Stone"  fell  and  ground  to  powder.  Away  in  a  lonely 
Highland  valley  there  lies  a  huge  rock  that  has  fallen  from  the  face 
of  a  tall  black  cliff.  A  shepherd  was  passing  beneath  it,  and  suddenly, 
when  the  finger  of  God's  will  touched  it,  it  came  down,  leaping  and 
bounding,  and  it  fell ;  and  the  man  that  was  beneath  it  is  there  now, 
"ground  to  powder."  That  is  Christ's  illustration  of  His  rejecters. 
Make  Him  the  foundation  on  which  you  build,  and  you  will  be  safe. 
•  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 

No.  127,  Vol.  III.  OCTOBER  9,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  IDEAL  MINISTRY. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

Preached  in  the  City  Temple,  London,  on  Sunday  Evening,  Sept.  2^th,  1S90. 

"  When  they  heard  these  things  they  were  filled  with  vvrath,  and  rose  up,  and 
tlirust  Him  out  ot  the  city,  and  led  Him  unto  the  brow  of  theihill  whereon  their 
city  was  built,  that  they  might  cast  Him  down  headlong." — St.  Luke  iv.  28,  29. 

Are  there  any  such  perorations  in  connection  with  the  pulpit  eloquence 
of  this  day  ?  The  preacher  retires  amid  thunders  of  applause,  or 
amid  tepid  compliments,  or  without  recognition,  or  with  more  or  less 
of  well-calculated  or  ill-calculated  criticism.  But  when  does  the 
congregation  ever  rise  up  filled  with  wrath,  seize  the  minister,  lead 
him  to  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  threaten  to  cast  him  headlong  from 
the  eminences  of  the  city  ?  Never !  We  have  fallen  upon  other 
times.  Hear  the  trumpery  criticism  of  this  day  :  "  The  sermon  was 
so  quiet,  so  delightfully  quiet ;  the  preacher  was  so  pleasant,  so 
tranquil,  so  composed  ;  never  betrayed  the  faintest  excitement."  Or 
we  get  it  again  in  another  form  :  "  The  sermon  was  so  comforting, 
soothing,  healing ;  there  was  balm  in  it ;  the  preacher  was  a  son  of 
consolation.  How  richly  he  dwelt  upon  the  Divine  promises !  How 
aptly  and  happily  he  applied  them  to  human  necessity  ! "  There  is 
room  for  all  that  kind  of  preaching.  It  is  not  a  kind  of  preaching  in 
either  case  to  be  despised  or  held  in  light  esteem.  Sometimes  we 
need  quietness,  oftentimes  we  need  healing.  The  broken-hearted  are 
the  majority  of  every  congregation,  if  they  knew  themselves.  We 
need  the  balm  that  is  in  Gilcad,  and  we  need  no  other  physician  but 
the  One  Who  is  there.  All  that  is  true,  so  create  space  for  such  a 
ministry,  for  we  need  it  all. 

But  where  is  the  other  kind  of  eloquence?  It  must  be  the  right 
kind  in  some  instances,  at  least,  because  it  is  associated  in  this  text 
with  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  This  was  not  some  wandering 
preacher  who  had  gone  forth  without  licence  or  authority,  or 
without  adequate  cause,  and  had  excited  public  passion,  or  excited 
religious  hatred.  This  speaker  was  the  Son  of  God,  He  Who  spake 
as  never  man  spake :  and  yet  when   He  had  uttered  a  few  words,  to 


354  The  British  IVcekly  Pulpit. 

us  apparently  so  simple  and  so  inofiensive,  the  whole  congregation  rose 
lip  in  a  mass,  filled  v.'ith  wrath,  and  led  Him  forth  to  the  brow  of  the 
hill  on  which  their  city  was  built,  that  they  might  cast  Him  down 
headlong. 

There  should  be  room  for  that  ministry  as  well  as  the  other.  We 
do  not  like  it.  Therefore,  perhaps  we  need  it  the  more.  "  We 
would  rather  not  be  disturbed.  We  have  disturbance  enough  in 
business  and  in  politics.  When  we  go  to  the  sanctuary  we  want  to 
hear  something  to  calm  us,  and  soothe  us,  and  comfort  us."  That  is 
bad  reasoning.  When  we  go  to  the  sanctuary  we  should  go  for 
truth.  Sometimes  truth  will  be  like  a  child-angel,  so  sweet,  so  tender, 
so  familiar,  so  domestic,  so  necessary  to  the  completeness  of  the 
household.  Sometimes  it  will  be  as  the  voice  of  a  lute,  just  what  we 
need ;  and  sometimes  it  will  rage  and  storm  and  judge  the  world  and 
thunder  against  its  iniquities  and  corruptions.  We  need  it  all.  Christ's 
was  the  perfect  ministry,  and  in  Christ  we  find  all  this  kind  of  preach- 
ing. And  only  that  ministry  is  right,  four-square  to  the  edge,  that 
can  be  both  tender  and  judicial,  comforting  and  critical,  sympathetic 
and  damnatory. 

Nor  must  the  preacher  be  afraid  of  the  people  or  of  his  own  income. 
That  is  the  great  curse  of  every  age  of  the  pulpit,  that  a  man 
should  think  whether  he  is  diminishing  his  own  resources  when  he 
declares  this  or  that  part  of  the  counsel  of  God,  Those  who  do  not 
like  it  must  go  and  take  their  own  gold  with  them.  It  will  buy  them 
nothing.  For  such  metal  there  is  no  exchange  with  God,  It  will  be 
a  mistake  to  upbraid  the  ministry  of  the  time  with  self-consideration 
to  that  degree.  The  preaching  of  this  day  is  as  fearless  as  it  has 
been  in  any  other  day.  Not,  perhaps,  so  fearless  in  every  church; 
but  wherever  there  is  fearless  preaching  there  is  a  congregation 
rising  to  thrust  the  preacher  out  of  existence.  The  fearless,  all- 
truth-speaking  preacher  is  hated  everywhere.  He  is  not  and  cannot 
be  a  popular  man.  He  can  have  no  sympathy  with  the  majority  of 
his  race.     He  must  be  prepared  for  consequences, 

V/hat  a  wondrous  ministry  was  Christ's  !  In  verse  twenty-two  we 
read,  in  the  same  chapter,  "  And  all  bare  Him  witness  and  wondered 
at  the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out  of  His  mouth."  A  few 
verses  after,  the  whole  of  the  people  in  the  synagogue  rose  up,  being 
filled  with,  wrath.  What  a  change  He  wrought  !  What  a  wizard 
He  was  !  Now  look  at  the  people,  "  How  benignant,  how  com- 
plaisant," they  say.  "Did  charmer  ever  charm  like  this?  Hear 
that  music  and  say  was  the  like  ever  heard  in  Israel  ?  "  In  five 
minutes  niore,^by  historical  allusions  which  the  people  alone  could 
understand,  the  same  people  rose  up,  being  filled  with  wrath,  and 
would  have  killed  the  very  charmer  whose  entrancing  power  they  had 
just  acknowledged. 

And  was  there  ever  any  exciting  preaching  in  the  Church  ?  Read  : 
"  And  as  they  spake  unto  the  people,  the  priests  and  the  captain  of 
the  temple,  and  the  Sadducces  came  upon  them,  being  grieved  that 


The  Ideal  Ministry.  355 


the}'  taught  the  people,  and  they  laid  hands  on  them,  and  put  them 
in  hold."  They  do  the  same  to-day.  If  you  were  to  preach  apos- 
tolically  you  would  be  put  in  prison.  The  magistrate  before  whom 
you  would  be  tried  would  not  understand  the  case.  What  case  is 
there  that  a  magistrate  really  thoroughly  understands  all  round  and 
round  where  the  Gospel  is  concerned,  where  high  moral  impulses  are 
involved,  and  where  the  real  good  of  the  people  is  the  question  of  the 
hour  ?  The  magistrates  are  never  on  the  side  of  the  apostolical 
preachers.  The  magistrates  have  always  suggested  prison  as  the 
best  treatment  for  men  wiio  preach  the  Gospel.  It  looks  energetic  ; 
if  a  magistrate  were  to  sympathise  with  the  preacher  it  would  look 
sentimental.  A  magistrate  seems  to  be  doing  something  for  his 
dignity  when  he  puts  somebody  in  prison.  Read  the  life  of  George 
Fox ;  read  the  Life  and  Journals  of  John  Wesley ;  study  .the  bio- 
graphy of  George  Whitefield ;  read  the  present  day  records  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  and  say  when  were  apostolical  preachers  other- 
wise treated  than  Christ  Himself  was  treated  in  the  very  instance 
before  us. 

Understand  that  we  are  not  saying  a  word  against  this  same 
popular  quiet  preaching,  in  which  a  man  speaks  for  an  hour  and  says 
nothing  that  would  at  all  offend  or  exasperate  his  audience.  We  are 
not  undervaluing  healing  preaching.  God  forbid.  For  we  all  need 
it ;  if  not  to-da}',  yesterday  ;  if  not  yesterday,  to-morrow.  But  we 
want  to  point  out  that  the  counsel  of  God  is  full-orbed,  now  soft  as 
when  Zephyrus  on  Flora  breathes,  and  now  a  wind  that  silences 
Euroclydon. 

"  But  the  times  have  changed."  Have  they  ?  Who  changed 
them  ?  Is  the  devil  changed  ?  Has  that  miracle  at  last  been 
wrought  ?  Has  evil  washed  its  hands  and  come  out  of  the  catharism 
pure  and  stainless  ?  What  has  changed  ?  Is  the  thief  honest  ? 
Why,  that  is  a  paradox,  a  contradiction  in  terms.  Are  there  no 
thieves  to-day  ?  Is  the  miser  generous  ?  When  did  he  convert 
himself?  If  he  is  generous  he  is  not  a  miser;  if  he  is  a  miser  he 
is  not  generous.  "  The  times  have  changed."  When  ?  Services 
may  have  changed,  transient  relations  may  have  been  transformed 
and  modified,  but  the  times  have  not  changed  in  the  sense  of  making 
sin  less  sinful,  dishonesty  less  thievish,  miserliness  less  worldly.  We 
find  these  great  radical  principles  and  policies  abiding.  But  what  if 
we  should  be  the  real  thieves  ?  That  is  a  harrowing  suggestion. 
But  what  if  the  magistrate  should  be  the  real  thief,  and  the  little  boy 
who  took  the  pocket  handkerchief  should  be  honest  in  his  soul  and 
only  thievish  in  his  feelings  because  of  some  impulsion  or  compul- 
sion not  easily  understood  by  those  who  are  outside  the  circle  and 
atmosphere  within  which  he  lives.  What  if  the  man  WMth  the  fine 
clothing  and  the  gold  ring  and  the  high  position  be  the  real  thief? — not 
a  vulgar,  common,  street  thief,  that  is  the  very  poorest  kind  of  felon  ; 
but   the   calculating,    smooth-tongued,  long-headed,   nimble-fingered 


356  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

gentleman,  who  writes  well  and  reads  much,  and  talks  fluently,  and 
has  his  turns  of  piety — what  if  he  in  the  soul  of  him  and  in  the 
whole  track  of  his  policy  be  the  real  thief  ? 

Have  the  times  changed  ?  In  that  direction  they  may  be  changed. 
Refined  sin  may  have  displaced  rough  criminality,  but  the  devil  is 
inconvertible,  and  will  be  the  same  when  the  hour  of  doom  has 
struck.  Do  not  misunderstand  things,  and  do  not  be  such  wonderful 
optimists  and  poets  as  to  see  improvements  where  there  are  really 
no  improvements  at  all.  If  there  are  improvements  at  all,  prove 
them,  recognise  them,  be  thankful  for  them ;  but  understand  that  the 
devil  cannot  change.  If  he  is  dead  the  times  may  have  changed.  If 
we  have  any  reason  to  believe  that  he  is  still  hidden  in  some  corner 
of  God's  universe,  he  is  as  fruitful  of  poison  and  iniquity  as  he  ever 
was.  What  if  we  be  the  misers?  That  is  an  exasperating  sugges- 
tion. The  man  who  makes  it  ought  to  be  led  out  and  cast  down — 
down  from  the  top  of  the  highest  hill  that  is  accessible.  What  if  we 
be  the  misers  ?  I  that  ?  You  who  gave  a  hundred  pounds  all  at 
once  may  be  the  miser.  Why  did  you  give  it  ?  In  what  atmos- 
phere did  you  act  ?  What  was  your  regnant  motive  ?  Go  into 
your  soul  and  ask  your  soul  torturing  questions  until  you  get  at  the 
truth.  If  you  gave  it  honestly,  gratefully,  lovingly,  you  wall  be 
blessed,  you  shall  have  it  back  a  hundred  fold.  The  question  is. 
Did  you  or  did  you  not  ?  and  that  question  you  must  force  back 
upon  yourself  until  you  bleed.  Is  not  every  man  more  or  less 
miserly  ?  Who  gives  what  he  'ought  to  give  ?  Who  gives  to  the 
point  of  devoting  his  last  crust  to  Christ  ?  Does  he  give  anything 
who  withholds  anything  ?  Does  he  answer  God's  appeal  ?  He  has 
his  meals  regularly  and  fully,  and  he  sleeps  through  all  the  night  of 
the  world's  darkness  and  sorrow.  These  are  questions  which  I  must 
put  to  myself  and  hold  a  long  inquest  with  my  own  life.  And  it 
may  turn  out  that  I  am  a  thief,  a  miser,  a  felon,  a  self-indulgent 
wrong-doer.  If  judgment  thus  begins  at  the  house  of  God,  what 
wonder  that  everybody  in  the  synagogue  should  rise  up  inflamed  with 
wrath  ?  Yet  so  curiously  are  we  constituted,  so  wondrously  made, 
that  we  have  a  positive  delight  in  hearing  the  sins  of  other  people 
denounced.  Thus  we  eke  out  our  own  virtues.  We  do  like  the  man 
in  the  next  pew  to  have  the  truth  told  plainly  to  him.  We  love  to 
hear  drunkenness  denounced,  whereas  we  may  be  the  real  drunkards. 
The  man  who  drinks  his  potass  may  be  the  real  winebibber.  That 
is  no  paradox,  it  is  a  real,  plain,  literal  possibility  in  life.  Men  are 
Avhat  they  are  in  the  soul  of  them.  Less  the  habit,  more  the  spirit, 
must  be  taken  as  the  judge  and  estimate  of  the  man's  spiritual 
quality. 

Speaking  thus,  how  different  an  aspect  is  put  upon  everything. 
The  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  shall  be  first.  Many  shall 
come  from  the  cast  and  from  the  west,  and  from  the  north  and  from 
the  south,  and  shall  sit  down  in  God's  Kingdom  of  light,  and  we 
ourselves,     pretentious,    ostentatious,   pharisaic    professors,  shall  be 


The  Ideal  Min islry.  ^^y 


cast  out  because  we  nodded  our  heads  at  certain  dogmas,  but  ga\  > 
no  heed  to  the  commandments.  We  sought  to  suck  the  honey  of  th 
beatitudes,  but  never  attempted  to  obey  the  law. 

Great  mistakes  may  thus  be  made  about  any  ministry.  You  hear 
a  man  once,  and  judge  him  altogether.  Mow  foolish  and  unreason- 
able, how  wholly  unjust  as  well  as  unwise  is  this  course.  If  yoii»ha<l 
heard  Jesus  Christ  in  the  twenty-second  verse,  so  to  say,  you  would 
have  gone  away  with  this  report:  "So  gracious  in  Mis  speech,  so 
musical,  tender,  comforting."  If  you  had  gone  away  from  the  twenty- 
eighth  verse  you  would  have  said,  "  Exasperating,  maddening  His 
congregation.  Instead  of  taking  that  people  into  I  lis  hand,  and  play- 
ing upon  them  as  a  skilful  man  would  play  upon  an  instrument  Ih 
roused  them  to  madness;  yea,  so  vehement,  so  terrible  was  He  ii; 
style  that  all  the  people  rose  up  and  seized  Him,  and  led  Him  out,  aiui 
would  have  killed  Him  on  the  spot."  Neither  report  would  have  given 
a  fair  idea  of  the  ministry  of  Christ. 

Yet  this  is  just  how  ministers  are  treated  to-day.  A  man  wh'  ■ 
never  heard  a  minister  before  falls  upon  some  occasion  when  the 
minister  is  very  tender  and  sympathetic,  and  thinks  he  is  always  so  ; 
or  falls  upon  another  occasion  when  the  minister  is  denunciatory,  and 
goes  away  and  reports  him  in  terms  that  are  full  of  all  evil  suggestion. 
You  never  know  any  ministry  that  has  anything  in  it  until  you  have 
heard  it  seven  years  long,  in  all  its  moods,  tenses,  variations,  shapes, 
colours,  in  the  whole  gamut  of  its  strength.  What  is  trueiof  a  ministry 
is  true  of  God's  Book.  We  must  read  it  all  if  we  are  to  judge  it 
fairly.  It  is  true  of  the  Gospel ;  we  must  hear  it  all  before  we  may 
pronounce  upon  it  with  wisdom  and  ripeness  of  judgment. 

So  with  Christ  our  Lord.  Hear  Him  :  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  blessed  are  the  merciful,  blessed  are  the  weak,  blessed  are  tin 
peacemakers."  Oh,  how  the  beatitudes  flow  from  His  sacred  lip>. 
Hear  Him  :  "Woe  unto  you.  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites;  wuc 
unto  you,  ye  lawyers ;  woe  unto  thee,  Chorazin  ;  woe  unto  thee, 
Bethsaida."  Where  are  the  beatitudes  now?  It  is  the  same  man,  in 
the  same  brief  three  years'  ministry.  Behold,  you  must  take  in  the 
evening  and  the  morning  to  make  the  day.  God's  great  sky  has  in 
it  four  directions,  and  every  one  must  be  estimated  and  set  in  its 
proper  relation  to  the  other  if  you  would  understand  the  geometry 
of  God's  canopy.  Blessed  be  God,  the  severity  is  always  against  thf 
sin.  It  is  sin  that  is  predestinated  to  go  to  hell.  It  is  sin  that  ir^ 
foreordained  to  be  damned.  Some  persons  do  not  like  these  words, 
"  hell "  and  "  damned,"  yet  how  wondrously  men  change  in  their 
estimate  even  of  such  terms  and  of  the  doctrine  and  preaching  with 
which  they  are  associated.  I  know  a  remarkable  artist  who  came  to 
a  church  with  which  I  was  very  familiar,  and  heard  a  sermon  on  the 
damnation  of  wickedness,  and  fled  away  in  horror  because  she  did 
not  believe  in  hell  and  in  damnation.  Years  have  come  and  years 
have  gone,  and  she  is  now  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  where 
there  is  a  real  hell,  where  there  is  no  want  of  literal  fire.  So  curiously 


358  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

are  we  made,  and  so  mysterious  is  the  reaction  which  is  the  possibiUty 
of  our  lives. 

We  must  have  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  We  must  hear  of  the 
night  as  well  as  of  the  day,  and  we  must  not  as  ministers  and 
churches  allow  ourselves  to  be  cozened  out  of  half  the  truth  because 
theije  are  people  who  will  come  in  thousands  to  hear  our  musical 
utterances  about  Christ,  who  would  be  exasperated  and  offended  if 
we  held  up  the  law  in  its  terror.  We  must  lose  them  ;  we  must  bear 
our  lot  as  bravely  as  we  can.  Better  the  pews  be  empty  to  the  point 
of  desolation ;  better  that  the  minister  should  starve  than  that  we 
should  never  hear  that  God  is  Judge  as  well  as  Saviour.  All  the 
gentleness  is  for  the  sinner.  God  never  turns  against  the  prodigal ; 
He  is  always  against  the  self-righteous.  The  self-righteous  is,  of 
course,  the  greatest  sinner,  but  God  has  no  pity  upon  him,  because 
He  cannot  have  pity  where  there  is  no  pity  for  himself,  that  is  to  say, 
for  the  sinner.  The  man  himself,  the  man  is  self-righteous,  self- 
satisfied,  he  wants  no  more ;  he  is  the  perfect  man  and  the  upright, 
yea,  he  is  the  temple  of  the  living  God,  and  other  men  are  the  filth 
and  the  off-scouring  of  the  race.  God  can  have  no  pity  for  that  man. 
He  can  only  encounter  him  with  sternness  and  judgment,  and  visit 
him  with  the  final  penalties.  But  where  there  is  a  broken  heart, 
where  there  is  a  contrite  spirit,  where  there  is  a  desire  to  come  home 
again,  all  the  angels  are  sent  down  to  make  the  way  easy,  and  great 
welcomes  await  the  returning  prodigal.  God  is  gentle  and  good 
towards  any  soul  that  can  weep  over  its  own  guilt  and  its  own 
sorrow.  Let  us,  therefore,  take  heart  and  come  before  Him  with 
tears.     He  will  dwell  with  the  contrite  in  spirit. 

Brethren,  this  is  my  conclusion  :  It  ought  to  be  the  supremcst 
blessing  of  society  to  have  within  it  a  pulpit  that  can  be  both  gentle 
and  terrible.  When  you  lose  that  pulpit  you  lose  a  saving  element 
from  your  social  constitution.  It  oughtito  be  the  supremest  educational 
force  in  morals  to  have  a  pulpit  that  is  afraid  of  no  face  of  clay,  to 
have  a  pulpit  that  will  speak  all  the  counsel  of  God,  come  weal,  come 
woe.  Do  not  let  us  misunderstand  this.  He  is  the  great  preacher 
who  preaches  to  himself.  Yea,  he  is  the  man  to  be  trusted  who  first 
takes  up  the  law  and  smites  himself  with  it,  and  tells  you  across  the 
ruins  of  a  broken  law  that  he  is  criminal  as  well  as  preacher.  I 
would  listen  to  that  man.  It  is  an  infinite  impertinence  on  the  part 
of  any  man  to  preach  the  law  as  if  he  kept  it.  It  is  an  infinite  help 
to  us  to  hear  any  man  preach  the  law  who  says  he  has  broken  it 
through  and  through,  yet  by  the  mercy  of  God  he  has  crawled  home 
again,  and  has  begun  to  taste  the  sweets  of  Divine  forgiveness. 

In  this  spirit  I  begin  my  twenty-second  year  of  ministry  amongst 
you.  God  help  us  both  to  be  faithful,  most  gentle,  most  tremendous, 
a  voice  tender  as  love,  a  judgment  terrible  as  the  thunders  of 
heaven.  Only  in  such  a  ministry  can  we  find  any  approach  to  the 
completeness  of  the  Divine  ideal. 


Peace. 


Prayer  before  Sermon. 


359 


Almighty  God,  help  us  to  hear  all  Thy  truth.  Give  us  the  hcarinq; 
ear,  the  understanding  heart,  lest  we  reject  any  portion  of  th< 
counsel  of  heaven.  Speak,  Lord,  for  Thy  servant  hcareth.  W'' 
want  to  hear  every  tone  of  Thy  voice.  Not  one  word  of  Thine  would 
we  allow  to  fall  to  the  ground.  We  want  to  hear  Thy  command- 
ments. The  thunder  and  the  lightning  and  the  great  earthquakes 
shall  not  keep  us  back  from  the  commandments  of  God.  We  want 
to  hear  Thy  beatitudes,  Thou  lovely  One,  fairest  among  ten  thousand. 
Whose  voice  is  music,  Whose  eyes  are  morning.  We  would  hear  tb.< 
commandments  and  the  beatitudes,  the  great  law  and  the  tcndt  r 
benedictions.  We  would  keep  company  with  the  prophets  and  with 
the  minstrels,  and  with  the  apostles  and  with  the  evangelists.  We 
would  hear  all  their  utterances,  and  treasure  them  in  our  hearts  as 
revelations  from  heaven.  Forgive  us  wherein  we  have  neglected  on(^ 
portion  of  Thy  Word  or  cultivated  one  at  the  expense  of  the  other. 
We  have  lost  the  proportion  of  facts,  we  have  heeded  not  the  com- 
pulsions of  thought,  we  have  not  known  all  the  way  and  all  the  counsel 
of  God.  Dost  Thou  not  speak  in  great  thunder,  and  hast  Thou  not 
also  a  still,  small  voice?  Are  not  Thine  the  cataracts,  and  are  not  Thin' 
also  the  rills  and  the  streams  that  make  glad  the  City  of  God  ?  Th< 
Lord  give  us  fearlessness  of  soul  that  we  may  pursue  our  quest  afte  i" 
truth  amid  all  dangers,  difficulties  and  perils,  and  when  the  voice  is 
harsh  and  terrible  may  we  still  listen  to  it,  for  in  the  judgments  of  God 
there  is  no  want  of  music.  Find  a  way  for  Thyself  into  our  hearts, 
abide  in  our  judgment  and  in  our  conscience,  accept  the  sovereignty  of 
our  will.  These  prayers  will  be  heard  because  we  baptise  them  with 
the  blood  of  atonement.  We  offer  them  all  at  the  altar  of  the  Cross, 
we  make  them  mighty  in  the  name  that  is  above  every  name  in 
which  name  the  universe  ever  bows  its  knee  before  God.     Amen. 


PEACE. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Bishop  of  Newcastle  (Dr.  Ernest  Roland  Wilberforck). 

Frcachcd  at  All  Saints    Churchy   Hull,  before  the  Members  of  the  Chunk 
Congress. 

"  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you  ;  not  as  tlie  world  p^iveth 
give  I  unto  you." — St.  John  xiv.  27. 

From  out  of  the  deep  hush  of  the  upper  chamber  at  Jerusalem. 
Judas  gone  out  into  the  congenial  night,  the  Master  alone  with  th< 
eleven,  these  words  proceed,  and  there  is  in  them  alike  the  suggestion 
of  a  coming  separation  and  a  breath  of  benediction. 


36o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Before  the  eye  of  Him  from  Whom  no  secrets  are  hid,  the  train  of 
quickening  events  stood  up  clear  and  sharply  defined.  Already  He 
could  see  the  pale  and  lonely  figure  battling  in  that  sharpest  conflict 
in  the  garden,  till  the  falling  drops  of  blood  betoken  the  agony  begun  ; 
He  saw  the  long-drawn  shadows  cast  by  the  moon  as  the  sweet  Pass- 
over wind  is  rippling  the  trembling  olives,  Hesaw  the  glare  of  torches, 
the  hurrying  soldiers ;  already  He  feels  the  traitor's  kiss,  sees  ranged 
round  Him  the  blasphemers,  the  revilers,  the  cowardly  assailers  of  a 
bound  and  helpless  Man ;  already  before  Him  rise  three  crosses, 
where  under  a  darkenec}  sky  the  blood  is  gleaming,  and  the  rocks  are 
rending,  and  the  graves  are  opening;  yet  upon  the  restful  quiet  of  that 
secluded  room  fall  the  tones  of  the  Master's  gentle  voice,  broken  only 
now  and  then  by  a  word  from  a  disciple ;  and  with  all  that  is  to  come, 
and  that  so  shortly,  "  naked  and  opened  before  Him,"  from  the  depths 
of  His  own  peace.  He  makes  the  magnificent  bequest  to  His  followers, 
"  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  unto  you." 

Often  must  this  scene  have  come  back  to  the  minds  of  the  apostles  ; 
often  when  racked  with  pain,  foreboding  disappointment,  fear,  or 
doubt,  these  words  of  power  and  of  hope  must  have  returned  to 
them,  and  nevei-  without  something  of  the  blessing  which  they 
promised. 

And  if  to-day,  gathered  as  members  of  the  Church  Congress — the 
Church  descended  directly  from,  and  traceable  distinctly  back  to,  the 
Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church,  founded  by  Christ  and  His  disciples 
— if  to-day  we  look  far  and  near,  as  well  to  the  Church  at  large  as  to 
the  microcosm  of  our  own  souls,  do  not  these  words  speak  to  us  in 
tones  which  at  once  address  the  deepest  instincts  of  our  nature,  and 
point  us  to  sure  standing  ground  where  all  else  is  treacherous  and 
uncertain. 

We  look  out  into  the  world  at  home,  where  for  centuries  the  Cross 
of  Christ  has  been  planted ;  where  generations  have  been  baptised 
into  His  name  ;  where  He  has  never  left  Himself  without  witness ; 
where  true  and  steadfast  hearts,  made  strong  by  Him,  have  found 
power  to  endure  unto  the  end,  as  seeing  Him  that  is  invisible;  where 
simple  faith  and  childlike  trust  have  proved  the  victors  in  many  a 
stricken  field,  the  mightiest  of  the  mighty  arrayed  on  the  other  side ; 
where  blameless  lives  have  been  often  lived  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
cruel  surroundings  and  the  deadliest  forms  of  temptation ;  where  the 
miracle  of  a  changed  heart  is  often  seen  ;  where  the  haunting  devil 
has  been  extruded  and  triumphs  of  the  Holy  Ghost  have  been  wit- 
nessed ;  where  baptismal  robes  have  been  worn  white  even  to  the 
very  end,  and  the  garment  of  righteousness  has  been  wrapped  by 
a  pierced  hand  over  forms  which  once  verily  flaunted  in  the  most 
meretricious  of  the  sinful  garments  of  the  world ;  into  such  a  world 
we  look,  marked  everywhere  with  the  victories  of  Jesus,  but  can  we 
say  truly  that  His  peace  is  there  ? 

Doubt,  mystery,  and  despair  rise  round  so  many  with  walls  that 
seem. impenetrable;  pain,  misery,  and  sorrow  stalk  through  the  land  ; 


Peace.  36 1 

impurity  and  intemperance  go  hand  in  hand  witli  unbelief,  and  their 
deadly  work  is  being  done  ;  the  cries  of  children  to  whom  the  very 
name  of  home  is  accursed  ;  the  wail  of  drunken  and  dishonoured 
womanhood ;  the  injustice  between  man  and  man ;  the  brutal 
licentiousness  that  knows  but  one,  and  that  the  basest,  use  for 
woman  ;  the  hardening  and  degrading  forms  of  betting  and  gambling  ; 
the  hideous  selfishness,  the  reckless  carelessness  for  others,  in  the 
race  for  wealth  ;  the  cruel  necessity  that  herds  whole  families  to- 
gether in  one  room,  poisoning  alike  both  atmospheres,  moral  and 
physical ;  the  dolorous  monotony  of  many  toiling  lives,  making  hands 
eager  to  reach  out  to  any  form  of  relaxation  or  excitement,  no  matter 
whence  it  comes  or  whither  it  leads ;  the  problems  all  unsolved  of 
every  great  city — oh,  alike  in  the  roar  that  rises  nightly  from  the 
streets  and  lanes  of  every  town  where  masses  of  humanity  are 
heaped  together  and  in  the  fainter  voices  that  reach  us  from  many  a, 
quiet-seeming  village  there  are  tones  that  seem  to  contradict,  and 
that  absolutely,  the  legacy  of  Christ  our  Lord  as  we  listen  to  the 
record  of  St.  John. 

Or  if  we  look  closer  home,  into  that  human  heart  where  such 
dramas  are  enacted,  and  sometimes  even  such  tragedies  are  wit- 
nessed, is  not  the  absence  of  this  peace  often  one  of  the  foremost 
characteristics  ?  Those  hearts,  often  overshadowed,  perplexed,  beset 
with  fears,  harassed  with  recurrent  temptations,  and  sometimes  even 
honeycombed  with  cruel  doubt ;  hearts  sometimes  quiet,  yea,  peaceful, 
and  then  again  plunged  into  a  world  of  shadows  where  all  the  hills 
are  full  of  noise,  or  again  fighting,  as  it  were,  for  very  breath  and 
life  for  a  time,  like  mariners  upon  whom  the  sudden  cyclone  has 
descended — we  ask  ourselves — Why  is  this,  and  what  can  be  the 
remedy  ? 

And  gathered  thus  before  our  God,  at  the  outset  of  our  delibera- 
tions this  week,  it  is  well  to  examine  somewhat  beneath  the  surface, 
to  be  content  with  no  mere  temporary  palliatives,  but  to  look  to  the 
foundations  of  our  faith,  if  believe  that  the  Gospel  of  our  God  con- 
tains within  it  the  true,  the  only  remedy  for  the  sorrows  and  the 
sadnesses  as  well  as  the  sins  of  humanity. 

"Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you;  not  as  the 
world  giveth  give  I  unto  you." 

The  Master  differences  off  His  peace  from  all  else  claiming  the 
same  patronymic  ;  the  world  promises  peace  without  conflict :  Christ 
assures  us  of  peace  in  struggle,  calm  in  tempest,  stability  while  the 
foundations  of  the  earth  are  shuddering. 

"  My  peace " — yet  He  came  not  to  send  peace  on  earth,  but  a 
sword  ;  clearly,  then.  His  peace  that  we  are  to  look  for  will  bear 
characteristics  of  Himself,  His  work.  His  life.  And  there  rises 
before  us  the  recollection  of  His  life  when  His  sacred  feet  were 
treading  the  hills  and  valleys  of  J udoca,  the  peace  that  was  a'contest, 
the  field  of  battle  where  the  sounds  of  conflict  were  not  hushed  until 
the  sun  sank  low  in  the  west,  and  the  evening  of  His  life  had  come 


362  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


down  upon  the  weary  Toiler ;  and  then  we  see  no  bed  of  ease  on 
which  those  busy  Hmbs  were  laid,  but  thorns  and  spear  and  nails 
conspire  with  the  sharp  and  lacerating  words  to  torture  the  last  hours 
of  that  strange,  unbroken  peace ;  for  through  all  and  in  all, 
remember,  we  ever  read  of  Him  as  the  "  Son  of  Man  Which  is  in 
heaven,"  and  who  is  there  has  peace,  the  peace  of  God. 

If  then  on  such  a  day,  when  we  would  seek  out  and  mend  the 
weak  and  torn  places  in  our  nets,  that  afterwards  we  may  use  them 
better,  rather  than  persuade  ourselves  that  rent  meshes  will  confine 
and  bring  fish  safe  to  land — if  we  would  understand  more  perfectly 
how  Jesus  is  the  great  Physician  of  the  sorrows  we  acknowledge,  the 
Binder-up  of  the  wounds  we  deplore,  we  must  consider  the  nature  of 
His   gift,   and  the  means  ordained  for  its   national   and    personal 

>    application. 

>^  And,  first,  the  peace  of  God.  What  is  it  ?  Inactivity  or  a  change- 
less state  ?  Nay,  but  that  peace  which  is  of  the  essence  of  God  runs 
ever  out  into  deeds  of  active  love.  The  voice  of  a  Divine  necessity 
is  heard  articulately  in  all  creation ;  into  the  pre-existing  peace  of 
God,  the  love  of  God  would  call  His  creatures ;  therefore  creation  is 
begun.  Nor  is  the  love  of  God  contented  with  this  primal  impulse, 
for  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  The  peace  of  God 
then  manifests  itself  through  love  in  work.  If,  therefore,  the  Church 
or  any  individual  heart  would  know  of  the  peace  of  God,  there  must 
be  manifested  by  each  Godlike  activity  as  the  spontaneous  outcome 
of  God-given  love  ;  and  how  many  of  the  evils  we  deplore  have  their 
real  root  in  the  absence  of  this  in  the  Church  or  the  individual. 
Some,  thank  God,  see  this  with  exceeding  clearness,  but  life  is  key- 

\  less^  peaceless,  to  the  selfish. 

^  And,  secondly,  we  have  assurance  that  the  peace  of  God  can  be 
secured  to  His  Church  by  the  continued  life  of  Christ  on  earth. 
We  serve  a  living  present  King,  not  one  absent  or  at  a  far  distance ; 
One  Who  guides  and  governs,  and,  above  all.  Who  loves ;  not  one 
who  from  behind  an  almost  impenetrable  barrier  sometimes  and  at 
long  intervals  looks  forth  upon  us. 

The  teaching  of  the  great  forty  days  when  before  His  ascension 
Christ  lingered  still  on  earth,  held  by  the  love  He  bore  to  His  dis- 
ciples, symbolises  and  declares  His  present  and  continued  life  on 
earth.  He  was  the  same,  though  changed,  with  the  same  powers  of 
eating  and  drinking,  though  the  necessity  for  the  exercise  of  these 
powers  had  left  the  risen  Lord  for  ever,  revealed  in  bodily  presence 
when  least  expected,  and  not  always  recognised  when  He  came. 
Entering  into  the  common  pursuits,  the  walking  and  the  fishing, 
providing  for  the  ordinary  necessities  of  the  body,  as  by  the  "  fire  of 
coals  with  fish  laid  thereon,"  as  well  as  standing  suddenly  within 
the  doors  of  the  secluded  chamber  with  the  words  of  benediction  on 
His  lips.  He  made  known  to  His  disciples  that  He  was  with  them, 
watching,  listening,  guiding,  assisting.  And  this  continued  presence 
on  earth  of  the  living  Lord  is  only  intensified  by  Pentecost,  when 


Peace.  363 

God  the  Holy  Ghost  came  down  to  carry  on  the  work  of  Christ 
inhabiting  the  Church,  and  the  individual  heart. 

I  Icre,  then,  is  one  great  means  whereby  through  the  Church  the 
peace  of  God  is  to  flow  out  into  the  world.  And  if  so,  we  need  not 
be  disma3'ed  though  many  regions  remain  as  3-et  to  be  annexed  to 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  though  many  hearts  know  Ilim  not,  though 
contradictions  to  Mis  will  abound. 

Those  things  should  neither  dismay  nor  confound  us  ;  rather  they 
should  stir  us  up  to  attempt  fresh  conquests.  If  the  life  of  Christ  be 
present  in  His  Church,  if  through  that  life  alone  can  peace  come,  it 
is  ours  to  see  that  over  the  jangling  disputes  of  men,  and  the  oppo- 
sition of  sin  the  word  of  peace  is  spoken,  and  this  by  the  healing  life 
of  Christ  being  poured  into  the  souls  of  men. 

Very  awful  and  yet  most  inspiring  is  it  to  remember  that  in  some 
sort  Christ  has  left  His  character  in  the  hands  of  Christian  men 
and  women.  Men  naturally  judge  our  Master  by  what  they  see 
in  us.  Ours  it  is  to  prove  that  life  and  strength  and  peace  flow 
out  from  Him,  that  there  is  power,  and  in  abundance,  present  to 
heal.  Yet  what  practical  infidehty  we  meet  with  in  Christian 
people ! 

For  w^hat  else  is  that  blank  acquiescence  in  some  of  the  worst  forms 
of  evil  which  is  expressed  in  the  old  formula,  "  These  things  must 
be ;  it  is  no  uSe  tr3''ing  to  stop  this  while  human  nature  is  what  it  is," 
and  the  like  ?  Ay,  but  how  long  is  human  nature  to  be  what  it  is  ? 
Till  the  Divine  nature  is  poured  into  it,  and  then  comes  peace.  And 
for  what  else,  oh,  my  brethren,  have  we  been  made  "  partakers  of  the 
Divine  nature  "  save  that  we  may  w'itness  to  others  of  its  exceeding 
power  and  unfathomable  abundance  ;  that,  strong  in  simple  righteous- 
ness, we  maj'  go  to  and  fro  carrying  the  peace-bringing  life  to  others, 
even  as  we  have  received  it  ourselves ;  that  no  difficulties  should 
daunt  us,  no  rejections  rebuff  us,  no  seeming  want  of  progress  weary 
us,  for  in  "  due  time  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not  "  ? 

Hearken,  my  beloved  brethren.  There  is  no  life  without  assimila- 
tion. The  Church  of  God  must  assimilate  these  broken  lives,  these 
helpless  waifs,  these  careless,  these  defiant,  these  worldly,  these  sin- 
ning, that,  purified  by  the  current  of  the  Divine  life,  proceeding  from 
the  Son  of  God,  her  life  may  broaden  and  increase.  And  the  work 
can  be  done,  but  it  will  depend  upon  the  steadfast  faith  and  lives  of 
individuals  if  ever  it  is  to  be  accomplished.  Not  by  sudden  surprises, 
but  by  slow  and  secret  growth,  is  the  work  of  our  Master  accom- 
plished. Christianity  ever  works  from  the  centre  to  the  circumference ; 
it  is  first  a  faith,  then  a  life,  afterwards  a  victory.  And  one  of  the 
truest  works  of  a  Church  Congress,  I  take  it,  is  to  send  each  one  of 
us  back  to  a  review  of  his  personal  relations  to  Christ,  that  he  may 
see  if  he  has  the  true  power  to  work,  because  his  soul  is  vitalised  by 
faith,  and  because  in  that  faith  he  has  found  his  peace. 

Beneath  a  true  view  of  the  peace  of  God  the  Christian  idea  of 
brotherhood  rises  transfigured,  and  before  a  practical  rendering  of  that 


364  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

idea  many  of  the  disjointed  portions  of  Christianity  would  be  reunited, 
so  making  peace. 

But  for  this  there  must  be  a  true  realisation  of  unity  in  Christ. 
"  The  highest  outcome  of  heathenism,"  it  has  been  finely  said, 
"  reached  to  a  unity,  but  only  a  unity  of  principle,  or  an  abstraction, 
an  It,  not  a  He;  fate,  not  Jehovah."  It  is  of  the  essence  of  Christi- 
anity to  conduct  us  to  a  Person,  to  place  a  hand  in  ours,  to  make  us 
feel  the  expulsive  powers  of  a  personal  love  flowing  into  us,  to  raise 
us  out  of  and  above  ourselves  by  joining  us  to  One  greater,  holier, 
purer,  than  ourselves,  and  to  answer  by  an  objective  reality  that  in- 
stinctive longing  of  the  heart  voiced  from  of  old  by  the  Psalmist, 
"  Oh  set  me  up  upon  the  rock  that  is  higher  than  I."  And  before 
such  an  idea  of  unity  the  little  party  disputes,  the  petty  logomachies, 
the  worse  than  useless  shibboleths,  drop  off  scorched,  confounded, 
ashamed,  and  the  Church  of  God  stands  forth  a  body  of  brothers, 
animated  with  a  common  purpose,  united  by  a  common  love,  worship- 
ping a  common  God. 

There  it  the  power  to  reanimate  the  worn  ;  the  life  of  Christ  can 
yet  through  it  flow  down  into  the  wasted  veins  and  kindle  anew  the 
failing  pulse  of  sin-distraught  humanity,  it  can  bid  the  languishing 
revive  and  glow  again  with  the  warmer  currents  that  herald  and 
betoken  perfect  convalescence — a  power  that  can  once  more,  as  of 
old,  "  turn  the  world  upside  down,"  and  in  that  great  upheaval  teach 
men  to  avail  themselves  fully  of  the  Master's  glorious  legacy,  "  Peace 
I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you." 

Only  let  us  remember,  as  again  to-day  we  set  ourselves  to  bravely 
face  the  old,  and  whatever  the  future  may  have  in  store  for  us  of 
new.  difficulty,  that  the  peace  of  God  is  manifested  chiefly  in  the 
stress  and  turmoil  of  an  energetic  warfare.  The  word  has  gone 
forth  of  old,  and  has  been  ratified  by  Christ,  "  Thou  shalt  keep  him 
in  perfect  peace,  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  Thee."  Yet  a  cry  comes 
to  us  from  the  pages  of  the  New  Testament  as  the  word  of  exhorta- 
tion from  a  leader  to  his  troops  upon  the  very  eve  of  battle,  "  Fight 
the  good  fight  of  faith ; "  and,  standing  there,  the  soldier  of  Christ 
begins  to  see  that  the  serried  ranks  who  march  with  him  reach 
onward  even  to  the  shores  of  Paradise,  and  that  by  far  the  larger 
wing  of  the  army  has  already  proved  victorious,  as  the  "  Church 
expectant "  has  passed  into  the  presence  of  her  Lord ;  and  with 
that  view  there  comes  the  sense  of  peace,  of  final  and  assured 
victory. 

And,  brethren,  we  need  toi  be  reminded  at  once  of  our  personal 
responsibility  in  the  conflict,  and  of  the  means  for  calm  though 
strenuous  endeavour;  for  we  may  not  think  that  lapse  of  time  will 
end  disputes  or  dissipate  temptations ;  rather,  if  I  read  the  New 
Testament  aright,  will  the  sounds  of  strife  increase  as  the  shadows 
deepen  round  the  world's  eventide ;  we  may  not  see  the  victory,  nay 
there  may  be  continual  personal  conflict  even  to  the  very  end ; 
yet   when    the  archangel's  trump  shall   sound,  and  the  combatants 


TJic  Trite  Test  of  Character.  365 


divide,  we  may  be   found   upon  the  victorious  sidt-,  and  then  conies 
peace. 

Oh,  from  that  blessed  union  of  the  Lord  with  His  followers  comes 
strength  for  the  contest,  conies  peace  in  all,  a  peace  none  know  who 
have  not  stood  by  their  Master's  side  in  His  painfulness  and  weari- 
ness, in  His  wholehearted  seeking  for  the  lost  sheep  of  His  house- 
hold ;  who  have  not  asked  Him  the  secret  meaning  of  His  words, 
alone,  in  the  hush  of  evening,  when  the  busy  feet  are  still,  and  have 
heard  the  great  assurance  from  the  loving  lips,  "  Peace  I  leave  with 
you,  My  peace  give  I  unto  you." 


THE  TRUE  TEST  OF  CHARACTER. 

A'otcs  of  a  Scnnm 

By  the  Rev.  Professor  Marcus  Dods,  D.D. 

Preacledin  Wallace  Green  Presbyterian  Churchy  BcrwicJc,  on  Su?iday,  September 
21  st,  1890. 

"  Whosoever  heareth  these  sayings  of  Mine  and  doeth  them,"  etc. — 
Matt.  vii.  24-29. 

Our  Lord  preached  this  and  preceding  parables  to  convey  a  correct 
idea  of  the  kingdom  He  designed  to  set  up,  and  the  righteousness 
required  of  those  who  were  members  of  it.  He  does  this  by  con- 
trasting what  He  required  with  what  was  general  among  men,  and 
concludes  by  showing  the  disastrous  consequence  of  mistaking  the 
one  for  the  other.  In  contrasting,  He  uses  three  figures^ ist,  the 
sheep  in  wolves'  clothing,  those  who  put  on  an  appearance  for  the 
purpose  of  deceiving ;  2nd,  the  thorn  bush  decorated  with  artificial 
flowers  and  fruit,  which  may  deceive  for  a  night  and  even  look 
beautiful,  but  cannot  last;  and  3rd,  the  man  who  has  built  a  man- 
sion correct  in  every  detail  that  meets  the  e^'e,  but  lacking  the  chief 
requisite  of  a  house,  namely,  a  foundation.  All  these  having  merely 
the  appearance  without  the  thing  are  shown  to  be  utterly  worthless. 
-Two  objections  rise  to  everyone's  mind  as  they  read  this  passage  : 
First,  no  man  would  be  such  a  fool  as  to  do  what  is  here  said  to  be 
done.  No  man  would  build  a  house  in  the  dried-up  bed  of  a  moun- 
tain torrent.  This  is  the  objection  of  a  pedant,  and  yet  is  worthy  of 
consideration  ;  for  what  a  man  will  never  do  in  earthly  matters  is  just 
what  many  men  do  in  matters  of  religion.  Second,  our  Lord  pre- 
dicts disaster  to  the  man  who  hears  and  does  not,  while  at  the  last 
day  it  is  the  man  who  says  he  has  done  many  things  who  liiids  him- 
self shut  out.  It  is  by  this  very  inconsistency  our  Lord  would  bring 
out  His  meaning.  The  inward  influence  must  be  shown  by  life.  In 
a  word,  there  must  be  Christian  conduct  as  well  as  profession.     Not 


366  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

loud  verbal  profession,  not  even  the  performance  of  striking  and 
public  deeds,  which  need  no  backing  of  character,  yet  imply  that 
there  is  that  backing,  but  the  outflow  of  loving  heart-service  result- 
ing from  fellowship  with  the  Father.  The  fleece  on  the  wolf,  the 
fruit  on  the  bush,  the  house  without  foundation  may  look  real, 
genuine  and  spurious  may  be  identical,  but  done  for  the  purpose  of 
pretending,  of  appearing  to  be  what  is  not  there,  and  not  the  spon- 
taneous outflow  of  what  is  in  the  man  are  absolutely  worthless  in 
reality.  Bad  men  cannot  do  good  works;  good  men  do  them 
because  of  the  goodness  in  them.  Christ  came  to  gather  into  one 
kingdom  all  men.  Those  who  already  held  the  field  had  misunder- 
stood altogether  what  righteousness  was.  They  lived  blameless,  so 
far  as  the  law  required  of  them.  Christ  came  with  His  fan  in  His 
hand  prepared  by  one  blast  to  show  how  useless  such  righteousness 
was.  The  distinction  between  what  they  had  and  what  He  required 
was  no  slight  one.  A  few  formal  observances  or  zealous  prayers 
were  not  sufficient.  There  must  be  the  right  motive  which  impels  right 
action  in  spite  of  everything.  Christ  warns  His  hearers  first  against 
trusting  to  appearances.  There  is  more  danger  of  show  in  religion 
than  in  worldly  matters.  There  public  sentiment  is  against  it.  The 
man  is  generally  despised  who  would  try  to  appear  what  he  is  not. 
Even  those  who  are  not  free  of  this  failing  themselves  notice  it  in 
others,  and  dislike  it.  Then  there  is  no  class  more  numerous  than 
the  respectable  people.  People  who  live  under  the  influence  of  social 
opinion,  whose  judgment  of  right  and  wrong  is  regulated  by  what 
people  will  say  on  the  matter,  in  this  being  totally  the  reverse  of 
Christ's  action  when  on  earth,  as  they  think  the  poor  wretch  sunk 
in  sin  much  further  from  righteousness  than  the  formal  Pharisee  who 
is  outwardly  religious.  Those  persons  are  building  a  house  without 
foundation.  They  are  shallow  in  religion  ;  would  treat  God  as  some 
courtiers  treat  a  monarch  when  they  desire  a  favour,  as  if  He  were 
a  Lord  to  be  propitiated  by  certain  acts  of  religion,  considering  that 
God  is  the  one  who  benefits,  while  God  has  arranged  it  all  for  our 
benefit — an  essential  of  human  life  and  happiness.  Thus  they  are 
content  with  a  formal  religion,  while  all  the  time  the  nature  is  un- 
changed. Then,  again,  most  people  admire  some  one  quality  or 
character  in  man.  It  is  their  ideal,  yet  they  do  not  possess  it  them- 
selves, only  admire  it.  Often  the  very  thinking  about  it  leads  them 
unconsciously  to  assume  the  possession  of  it ;  not  intendnig  to  impose 
on  others,  they  yet  do  so.  It  is  thus  in  religion  a  man  admires  a 
Christian  life  and  gradually  gets  the  reputation  of  it,  until  at  last  he 
comes  to  consider  himself  as  having  it,  and  contents  himself  with 
such  reputation  without  the  reality.  Christ  would  impress  on  us  the 
insufficiency  of  mere  hearing,  while  we  are  often  ready  to  think  we 
have  done  enough  if  we  have  been  ready  to  hear.  We  have,  per- 
haps, resolved  to  amend,  to  give  heed  ;  at  any  rate,  we  approve  of 
the  Word,  but  unless  the  hearing,  result  in  doing,  it  is  utter  failure. 
Christ's  word  is,  "  Do  the  will  of  My  Father."     The  result  of  such 


Scnnonclle  for  Children  on  the  lulernalional  Lesson.       3O7 

conduct  is  portrayed  in  strong  language.  It  is  certain  destruction, 
not  resulting  from  anything  of  a  special  kind,  but  through  the 
ordinary  emergency  of  life.  Such  is  sure  to  be  the  end.  For  a  time 
a  man  may  restrain  his  natural  inclination,  as  the  wolf  may  for  a 
while  appear  a  sheep,  but  some  time  the  test  will  come  and  he  will 
awake  to  the  reality.  He  will  be  alarmed  to  find  difficulty  in  keep- 
ing up  appearances,  to  realise  that  all  his  life  he  has  merely  been 
impelling  himself  so  to  act,  while  all  the  same  his  nature  was  un- 
changed. The  awaking  may  come  to  himself  without  the  sham.e  of 
public  exposure,  or  it  may  not  come  until  after  life  is  ended,  but  it 
is  certain  to  come  some  time.  Only  wait,  and  the  true  character  is 
sure  to  be  revealed.  Let  us  ask  what  is  the  foundation  of  our 
character  ?  Beneath  the  ground  of  traditional  morality,  of  pious 
desire  and  hope,  get  to  ourselves.  Find  out  the  ground  of  our 
actions,  the  reason  for  our  holy  actions,  and  judge  by  that.  In  a 
word,  is  Christ  your  foundation?  There  is  no  solid  ground  for 
character  except  this.  This  alone  will  stand  the  test  of  storm  and 
judgment. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  OiN  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  October  I2th.     Liikc  xxii.  7-20.    Golden  le.xi,  i  Cor.  xi.  26. 

The  Lord's  Supper. 

We  are  told  that  in  Rabbi  Duncan's  last  long  illness  he  looked 
out  from  his  bed  one  day,  and  saw  quietly  seated  on  the  floor  a  little 
friend  of  his,  looking  at  him.  The  conversation  was  to  this  effect : 
"  Oh,  missy,  are  you  there  ?  What  are  you  at  in  your  Bible  lesson 
at  Mr.  Oliphant's?"  "  We  have  just  finished  the  Passion  week." 
"Oh,  lassie,  lassie,  there  was  never  a  week  like  that  since  the  world 
began,  and  there  never  will  be  a  week  like  it  again — that  was  the  week 
of  weeks.  There  are  in  the  heavens  a  heap  of  fixed  stars,  and  all 
of  them  probably  have  suns  around  them  ;  but  never  in  the  universe 
of  God  did  there  take  place  such  things  as  took  place  that  week  on 
this  earth.  It  is  a  wonderful  place  this  earth."  By  this  time  the 
old  professor  had  forgotten  the  child,  though  her  round  solemn  eyes 
were  still  looking  at  him.  In  the  lesson  to-day  we  have  come  to 
the  most  wonderful  day  in  this  most  wonderful  week.  In  telling  the 
story  of  a  day,  we  always  begin  with  the  morning  ;  but  the  Jews 
always  began  with  the  evening.     This  day  began  at  six  o'clock  on 

■*  These  Scrmonctles  arc  original  or  abridged. 


368  The  British   IVcckly  Pulpit. 

Thursday  evening  and  ended  at  six  o'clock  on  Friday  evening.  The 
Jews  reckoned  their  day  from  sunset  to  sunset. 

Our  Lord  spent  Wednesday  and  part  of  Thursday  in  retirement, 
perhaps  with  His  disciples  in  the  house  at  Bethany,  until  Thursday 
evening,  when  He  went  into  Jerusalem  again  for  the  Last  Supper. 
Jesus,  as  a  Jew,  would  keep  this  feast  of  the  Passover.  Jesus 
said,  early  in  His  ministry,  "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to 
destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets.  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfil."  The  disciples  asked  Him  where  they  should  prepare  the 
passover  for  Him,  Jesus  gave  them  instructions.  With  what  holy 
awe  the  two  apostles  must  have  beheld  the  man  carrying  a  pitcher 
of  whom  their  Master  had  spoken.  Jesus  knew  the  exact  moment 
when  this  man  would  be  carrying  the  pitcher.  Jesus  knows  all  the 
circumstances  of  our  lives,  small  and  great.  He  not  only  knows  their 
circumstances,  but  He  will  if  we  love  Him  so  order  them  that  they 
shall  work  together  for  our  good. 

Only  think,  in  this  great  Passover  of  Passovers  that  Christ  our 
Passover  just  about  to  die  for  us,  so  loved  His  own  as  not  to  forget 
the  smallest  trifles  that  had  to  do  not  with  their  souls  only  but  with 
their  bodies.  All  the  little  details  had  room  in  His  memory.  What 
a  heart  of  love  is  revealed  here  ! 

Of  all  the  touching  words  that  Jesus  uttered  at  the  Last  Supper 
perhaps  the  most  touching  were  these  :  "  This  is  My  body ;  this  is 
My  blood."  The  disciples  had  been  unwilling  to  believe  that  He 
would  die,  but  cOuld  they  doubt  it  any  longer  ?  He  would  die  a 
cruel  death — His  body  would  be  broken  like  the  bread — His  blood 
would  be  poured  out  like  the  wine.  Jesus  told  His  "little  children  " 
that  the  hour  of  His  departure  had  come,  and  He  gave  them  the 
new  remembrance  feast— in  place  of  the  old  Passover  feast — "  Do 
this  in  remembrance  of  McJ*  He  foresaw  how  great  the  tendency 
would  be  to  forget  Him.  Knowing  that  some  of  us  might  be  tempted 
to  forget  and  some  to  misunderstand  Him,  He  instituted  this 
remembrance  feast  in  love. 

You  can  remember  a  thousand  things,  but  there  are  times  when 
you  do  forget  Him  who  gave  Himself  for  you.  Love  makes  forget- 
fulness  impossible,  and  if  we  loved  our  Lord  as  we  ought  it  would 
be  impossible  not  to  remember  Him. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 


No.  128,  Vol.  III.  OCTOBER  16,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT .  OF    CHRISTIAN    DOCTRINE. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Bishop  of  Manchester  (Dr.  James  Moorhouse). 

Preached  at  Holy  Trinity  Church,  Hull,   at  the   Church   Congress. 

"We  know  in  part  and  we  prophesy  in  part."— i  Cor.  xiii.  9. 

It  is  universally  acknowledged  amongst  us  that  in  the  religious 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  we  can  discern  a  gradual  development. 
God  not  only  spake  to  the  fathers  in  the  old  time  "  in  many  parts 
and  in  many  modes,"  but  also  with  a  largeness  of  truth  and 
spirituality  of  feeling  which,  on  the  whole,  increased  through  the 
ages  until  the  great  revelation  of  the  fulness  of  the  times.  So  much 
is  admitted.  The  law  of  development  unquestionably  prevailed 
under  the  old  covenant.  Shall  we  then  say  that  it  ceased  to  have 
validity  when  that  covenant  came  to  a  close,  or  that  it  passed  over  as 
a  rule  of  the  new  order,  at  the  coming  of  the  Christ  ?  In  one 
respect  this  must  be  denied.  The  revelation  giveji  to  us  of  the 
nature  of  God  and  of  His  relation  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ,  was  final  and 
complete.  The  great  spiritual  truths  of  our  Lord's  teaching  are  as 
unchangeable  as  His  divinit}'.  The  age  will  never  come  when  it  "will 
be  less  true  than  it  is  to-day  that  God  is  our  Father,  that  man  is  our 
brother,  that  love  is  the  law  of  our  life,  that  Christ  died  to  save  us 
from  our  sins,  and  that  from  His  throne  above  He  sent  His  Holy 
Spirit  to  make  us  partakers  of  His  holiness.  Nay,  more;  whatever 
changes  time  may  bring  in  the  scope  of  our  ethical  thought  and 
practice,  it  will  never  obliterate  those  eternal  lines  of  human  duty 
which  have  been  laid  down  once  for  all  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 
But  although  the  revelation  of  the  Father  in  the  Son  be  thus  final 
and  unchangeable,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  our  understanding 
and  exposition  of  that  revelation  are  so.  "We  know  in  part  and  we 
prophesy  in  part."  Our  Lord's  words  may  be  simple  and  plain,  but 
too  often  we  read  them  without  intelligent  apprehension.  A  kind 
of  mist  rests  on  them,  springing  from  the  steaming  marsh  of  our  own 
worldly  life,  or  our  spiritual  vision  is  obscured  by  narrow  capacity 
and  the  misleading  suggestions  of  current  habits  and  opinions. 
Thus,  although   the  Lord's  words  may  admit  neither  of  change  nor 


3^0  The  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

improvement,  it  may  well  be  that  His  Church's  grasp  and  represen- 
tation of  them,  like  the  teaching  of  the  prophets  of  old  time,  may 
be  the  subject  of  growth  and  development. 

Now,  an  imperfect  apprehension  and  statement  of  the  truth  will 
necessarily  contain  good  and  evil,  perfect  and  imperfect  elements. 

Such  a  combination  is  manifestly  susceptible  of  improvement,  and 
will,  in  fact,  approach  more  nearly  to  the  truth  which  it  has  only 
partially  expressed,  if  in  process  of  time  it  drops  more  and  more  of 
those  evil  or  imperfect  elements  which  have  been  added  by  the  sin 
or  error  of  human  interpreters.  Is  there,  then,  reason  for  hoping 
that  this  may  actually  be  the  course  of  Christian  thought — that  as  the 
centuries  pass  it  will  drop  more  and  more  of  the  impure  mixture  of 
human  haste  and  prejudice,  and  come  nearer  in  love  and  insight  to  the 
simple  teaching  of  our  Divine  Master  ? 

I  think  that  such  a  hope  is  plainly  suggested  by  the  promise  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  that  He  will  be  with  His  people  "  all  the  days,  even  till 
the  end  of  the  age ;  "  and  yet  more  plainly  by  His  promise  of  another 
Comforter,  whose  office  it  should  be  "  to  bear  witness  of  Him ;  to 
bring  to  remembrance  all  which  He  had  said ;  to  take  of  His,  and 
show  it  to  His  disciples."  Under  the  guidance  and  illumination  of 
this  Spirit,  then,  we  may  confidently  hope  that  the  reason  and  con- 
science of  the  Christian  Church  will  constantly  strive  to  exclude 
whatever  of  false  or  evil  has  come  down  to  it  from  darker  or  less 
faithful  ages;  and  that,  though  this  struggle  may  be  often  frustrated 
or  hindered  by  unbelief  or  misfortune,  it  will  never  cease.  Remem- 
bering, indeed,  the  weakness  of  man  and  the  vicissitudes  of  history, 
we  must  not  expect  too  much  from  it  in  any  special  age.  There  will 
naturally  be  ebbings  and  flowings  in  that  tide  of  Christian  thought 
which  seeks  to  cover  with  its  fertihsing  waters  the  waste  places  of 
the  world's  ignorance.  Even  when  heathen  resistance  has  been  over- 
come, obstacles  may  arise  from  the  immaturity  of  Christian  thought 
and  feeling.  Beliefs  which  the  reason  suspects  and  challenges  may 
have  become  so  dear  and  venerable  by  long  entertainment,  may  have 
offered  so  grateful  a  shade  to  the  generations  which  they  sheltered,  that 
the  heart  will  cling  to  them  in  spite  of  misgivings. 

This  conservatism  indeed  of  the  emotions,  while  appearing  to 
retard  the  progress  of  truth,  may  not  be  wholly  without  its  use  and 
place.  It  holds  back  the  stronger  and  more  eager  spirits,  and 
prevents  them  from  rushing  forward  so  fast  and  so  far  as  to  pass 
out  of  the  sight  and  reach  of  the  lagging  masses  of  the  race.  It  thus 
helps  to  keep  up  the  solidarity  of  humankind,  and  secures  that  unity 
of  thought  and  interest  without  which  such  a  thing  as  corporate 
development  would  be  impossible. 

In  spite,  however,  of  all  these  drawbacks  of  human  weakness, 
error,  and  affection,  I  believe  it  to  be  true,  as  has  been  said  by  a 
well-known  philosopher  of  our  own  time,  that  "  our  historical  inheri- 
tance of  religion  is  richer  in  the  elements  of  moral  truth  and  power 
than  any  ever  entrusted  to  any  previous  age."     Nay,  I  think  that  it 


The  Development  of  Christian  Doctrine.  371 

is  not  impossible  to  indicate  roughly  the  great  stages  of  progress 
through  which  that  inheritance  has  been  reached.  I  do  not,  of 
course,  mean  that  there  has  been  a  regular  and  continuous  succes- 
sion of  such  stages,  or,  again,  that  there  has  ever  been  any  one  age 
in  which  many  of  the  essential  aspects  of  Christian  truth  have  been 
totally  obscured. 

He  who  ventured  on  such  a  statement  would  speedily  be  contra- 
dicted by  enthusiastic  specialists,  who  would  have  no  difficulty  in 
showing  him  that  even  in  the  darkest  times  individuals  or  small 
communities  recognised  clearly  what  the  majority  of  their  fellow- 
Christians  were  neglecting.  In  spite,  however,  of  all  such  excep- 
tions and  irregularities,  it  will  not  be  difficult,  I  believe,  to  discern  in 
the  history  of  the  Church  the  traces  of  a  real  development  of  Chris- 
tian doctrine.  This  development,  it  is  true,  has  often  been  of  a  very 
partial  kind. 

Of  the  contents  of  revelation  different  ages  have  taken  special 
portions  as  the  object  of  their  careful  study  and  exposition.  They 
have  spent  their  whole  energy  upon  the  task  of  exploring  and 
determining  the  precise  meaning  of  some  single  class  of  truths, 
and  have  too  often  not  only  suffered  other  fundamental  verities  to 
be  neglected,  but,  their  own  self-imposed  task  accomplished,  have 
sunk  into  mental  and  spiritual  lethargy,  leaving  the  future  work  of 
development  to  be  undertaken  by  another  and  unexhausted  genera- 
tion of  believers. 

Thus  it  was  the  special  task  of  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era  to  determine  the  Scriptural  doctrine  upon  the  nature  and 
relations  of  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Blessed  Trinity.  Then,  with 
the  irruption  of  the  barbarians,  a  dense  cloud  of  darkness  passed 
over  the  rational  heaven  of  the  Church,  and  the  great  problem  of  the 
nature  of  man,  and  of  its  relation  to  the  grace  of  God,  already  opened 
and  illuminated  by  the  genius  of  Augustine,  was  dropped,  with  much 
else;  while  minds  were  narrowed,  and  knowledge  dwindled,  and 
worship  hardened  into  formality,  and  thought  lost  itself  in  scholastic 
trivialities.  It  was  a  period  of  rational  ebb  and  decline.  The  ages, 
however,  as  they  passed  were  not  altogether  unfruitful.  Noxious 
weeds  of  superstition  might  indeed  flourish  in  the  darkness,  but  at 
the  same  time  minds  were  gathering  power,  spiritual  needs  and 
aspirations  were  making  themselves  felt,  and  in  the  great  schools  of 
the  later  middle  age  men  began  to  ask  once  more  what  were  the 
spiritual  means  and  benefits  of  redemption,  and  what  the  conditions 
of  their  use  and  attainment  by  sinful  men.  It  is  no  more  than  might 
have  been  expected,  that  in  that  age  of  rudimentary  spiritual  develop- 
ment attention  should  have  been  largely  directed  to  those  outward 
means  and  ordinances  through  which  the  life  of  Christ  was  offered 
to  human  faith ;  or  that  in  an  exaggerated  estimate  of  the  value  of 
these  the  minister  should  have  become  the  priest,  and  the  sacraments 
the  supposed  seeds  and  channels  of  magical  operations.  The  less 
these  earth-bound  souls  Suit  within  themselves  the  power  to  see  and 


372  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

grasp  the  spiritual  and  heavenly  the  more  did  they  long  to  have  their 
conscious  spiritual  impotence  supported  by  something  which  was  per- 
ceptible to  sense. 

Once  again,  in  the  dawn  of  the  Renaissance,  human  thought  went 
forth  eagerly  on  the  quest  of  truth  in  every  direction,  and  in  none 
with  greater  boldness  and  enthusiasm  than  in  that  which  was  so 
familiar,  the  way  of  revealed  religion.  After  ages  of  neglect  the 
newly  opened  Word  of  God  spoke  to  them  with  the  force  and  fresh- 
ness of  an  audible  voice  from  heaven.  It  reached  depths  of  their 
soul  which  had  hardly  yet  been  sounded,  it  touched  feelings  and 
stimulated  capacities  which  had  slumbered  for  centuries ;  thus  filling 
life  with  interest  and  work  with  sanctity.  In  the  dazzling  light  of 
this  intellectual  rebirth,  priestly  authority  and  sacramental  miracles 
became  not  only  less  credible,  but  less  desirable.  Awaking  to  new 
spiritual  needs  and  capacities,  men  sought  a  directer  and  a  diviner 
mode  of  communion  with  heaven,  and  they  found  in  St.  Paul's  gospel 
of  salvation  by  faith  the  very  revelation  which  they  sought. 

The  centre  of  interest  and  effort  was  suddenly  changed.  It  was 
found  not  in  the  Church  and  the  sacraments,  valuable  and  necessary 
as  these  might  be,  but  in  the  believing  soul,  the  living  temple  of  God, 
that  consecrated  scene  of  penitent  efforts  and  divine  approaches  and 
joy-inspiring  triumphs,  which  angels  desired  to  look  into. 

Once  again,  tired  by  its  mighty  effort,  and  losing  interest  in  what 
it  thoroughly  grasped  and  defined,  the  reason  and  conscience  of  the 
Church  seemed  to  sink  into  a  kind  of  lethargy.  Thought  lost  its  free- 
dom, and  the  heart  its  joy,  and  to  the  dry,  dogmatic  age  which  followed 
the  Reformation  the  Bible  became  little  better  than  a  miraculous 
oracle,  and  life  nothing  more  than  a  petty  theatre  of  mean,  secular 
interests,  in  which  at  length  men  felt  it  hardly  worth  their  while  to 
play  a  part.  Then  came  the  great  Evangelical  revival,  taking  all 
kinds  of  outward  forms,  now  known  as  Quietism,  now  as  Methodism, 
and  now  as  Evangelicalism  ;  but  everywhere  essentially  the  same — a 
revival  rather  than  an  advance. 

As  at  an  earlier  time,  it  concentrated  attention  on  the  individual 
soul,  on  the  subjective  appropriation  of  salvation- — stopping  too 
often  at  the  gaining  of  heavenly  gifts  and  experiences,  without  going 
on  to  insist  decisively  on  the  appointed  divine  end  of  such  gains. 
Had  the  great  change  come  ?  Was  the  man  converted  ?  Had  he  laid 
hold  on  Christ  ?  had  he  experienced  the  joy  of  adoption  ?  These 
were  the  main  questions,  and  with  the  answers  to  these  interest  and 
effort  too  often  ended.  Nay,  so  blind  were  many  good  men  of  that 
period,  and  so  proud  of  their  blindness,  that  the  very  imperfection 
and  fragmentariness  of  their  conceptions  seemed  to  them  a  special 
merit. 

To  confine  attention  to  the  work  of  Christ,  to  the  offer  of  pardon 
and  life  in  Him,  and  to  the  acceptance  of  that  offer  by  faith  was  called 
preaching  the  Gospel. 

To  go  further,  to  call  attention  to  tlie  fact  that  the  work  of  Christ, 


The  Development  of  Christian  Doctrine.  373 

the  ministry  of  the  Spirit,  the  ordinances  of  the  Church,  yea,  and 
the  subjective  moods  of  mind  and  heart  which  appropriated  the 
benefits  of  these,  were  all  only  means  to  an  end — the  reproduction  in 
each  man  of  the  image  of  Christ ;  and  hence  to  make  much  of  the 
revealed  features  of  that  image,  and  of  the  daily  Divine  discipline, 
effort,  and  abstinence  by  which  it  might  be  perfected ;  all  this  was 
looked  upon  with  suspicion,  as  a  departure  from  the  simplicity  of  the 
truth,  as  legalism,  formalism,  or  even  a  magnifying  of  human  merit 
to  the  disparagement  of  the  grace  of  God.  What  wonder  that  so 
crippling  and  injurious  a  mistake  provoked  a  violent  reaction,  and 
even  a  contempt  which  would  have  been  more  loudly  expressed  but 
for  the  respect  inspired  by  the  characters  of  good  and  holy  men  ? 

But  now  once  more,  in  our  own  days  we  are  beholding  what  I  be- 
lieve is  not  merely  a  revival  of  lost  truths,  but  a  distinct  advance  in 
the  human  apprehension  of  the  Gospel.  Without  losing  sight  of 
the  vast  importance  of  past  gains,  of  the  dogmatic  definitions  of  the 
early  centuries,  of  the  later  discovery  of  the  preciousness  of  the 
means  of  grace,  or  of  the  mighty  grasp  of  reforming  times  upon  the 
critical  importance  of  a  realising  faith ;  we  are  now  discerning,  I 
believe,  more  clearly  than  ever  before,  that  all  these  are  concerned 
mainly  with  what  is  preparatory  and  instrumental,  with  what  looks 
forward  to  a  great  spiritual  end ;  the  realisation  in  the  heart,  in  the 
Church,  and  in  the  State  of  the  ideal  set  before  us  in  our  Lord's  life 
and  teaching.  The  signs  of  such  a  development  may  be  discerned,  I 
believe,  in  many  directions. 

First,  in  the  much  greater  proportion  of  attention  which  is 
directed  to  the  personal  teaching  and  example  of  our  Divine  Master. 

We  feel  instinctively  that  the  dogmatic  teaching  of  St.  Paul's 
Epistles,  though  by  no  means  exhausted,  has  been  very  largely 
apprehended  and  realised.  True,  it  is  not  the  less  important  for 
that;  but  it  is  on  this  account  a  less  necessary  and  interesting 
object  of  attention.  In  the  teaching  and  life  of  our  Divine  Master, 
on  the  other  hand,  we  feel  that  there  are  depths  which  have  never 
yet  been  sounded,  lessons  which  have  never  yet  been  learnt,  light 
for  our  perplexity  which  has  yet  to  spring  forth  and  illuminate  the 
heaven  of  our  thought  and  practice. 

It  is  with  us  in  this  respect  very  much  as  it  was  with  the  Hebrews 
in  respect  of  our  Lord's  priesthood  and  sacrifice.  No  one  can  say 
that  the  doctrines  of  "repentance  from  dead  works,"  of  "  faith 
toward  God,"  of  "  resurrection  from  the  dead,"  and  of  "  eternal 
judgment"  are  not  of  first-rate  and  eternal  significance;  but  they 
had  been  apprehended  and  realised,  and  so  to  the  Hebrews  had 
become  rudimentary  and  almost  self-evident.  There  was  little  need 
of  insisting  upon  them.  Powerful  temptations  had  given  a  greater 
claim  upon  attention  to  the  true  meaning  of  that  priestly  and  sacii- 
ficial  system  of  the  law  of  Moses  which  threatened  to  draw  away 
the  thoughts  of  believers  from  the  one  all-Guflicicnt  Sacrifice,  and  to 
reimpose  the  broken  yoke  of  the  ceremonial  law. 


374  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

It  was  necessary,  then,  in  order  to  secure  what  had  been  already 
gained,  that  an  advance  should  be  made  to  the  better  knowledge  of 
other  truths,  as  yet  but  imperfectly  apprehended. 

Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  a  like  necessity  is  felt  in  the  Church 
of  the  present  day — a  necessity  which  proclaims  itself  in  such 
exclamations  as  these — " Christianity  is  a  personal  religion,"  "Christ 
in  Christianity,"  "We  want  now  not  St.  Paul,  but  St.  Paul's  Divine 
Master."  Nay,  the  urgency  of  this  need  is  felt  not  only  in  the  old 
Churches  of  Europe,  but  also  in  those  heathen  lands  which  are  being 
awakened  from  the  sleep  of  centuries  by  the  light,  now  painfully 
striking  upon  weak  eyes,  of  European  thought  and  civilisation. 
What  is  the  report  with  which  missionaries  have  been  lately  startling 
the  -minds  of  thoughtful  Christians  ?  tThat  they  are  met  everywhere, 
in  India  and  Africa  alike,  with  the  demand,  "  Tell  us  about  Jesus : 
tell  us  what  He  said  and  did  ;  let  us  hear  the  words  of  love  which  go 
straight  to  our  hearts ;  which  are  so  like  what  is  good  in  our  old 
creeds,  and  yet  so  much  better  than  the  best  which  they  taught  us." 
All  this  surely  means  that  the  four  Gospels  will  be  studied  in  our 
days  as  they  have  never  been  studied  before  ;  with  an  eagerness  and 
a  .seriousness  which  have  their  birth  in  the  felt  needs  of  a  larger 
thought  and  a  deeper  humanity. 

Secondly,  I  believe  that  the  social  movements  of  our  own  time — 
themselves  largely  due  to  the  Gospel — are  enabling  us  to  gain  a 
better  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  words.  For  ages  we 
have  been  so  much  under  the  dominion  of  prevailing  thoughts  and 
habits  that  we  have  been  literally  unable  to  believe  that  the  Lord  meant 
what  he  said.  Men  who  loved  Him  lived  lives  so  utterly  unlike  that 
which  He  set  forth  by  His  teaching  and  example  that  we  have  felt  it 
necessary  to  bring  precept  and  practice  into  some  sort  of  tolerable 
harmony,  by  all  kinds  of  ingenious  and  non-natural  interpretations. 
The  Lord  could  not — so  it  has  seemed  to  us — He  could  not  have 
meant  His  words  to  be  taken  literally. 

Such  an  acceptance  of  them  would  involve  nothing  less  than  a 
social  revolution,  a  change  which  would  unsettle  everything,  and  let 
loose  upon  the  children  of  peace  all  the  destructive  forces  of  selfish 
passion.  That  the  Lord  intended  to  create  a  vast  social  change,  that 
He  meant  by  the  arms  of  love  to  conquer  all  the  wild  impulses  of 
selfish  passion,  seems  hardly  to  have  been  conceivable.  I  cannot  say 
that  all  this  has  been  changed — that  would  mean  what  is  called  the 
millennium — but  assuredly  all  is  changing. 

I  have  lived  for  more  than  sixty  years,  and  I  can  remember  the 
time  when  to  have  required  employers  to  consider  in  fixing  wages,  in 
arranging  workshops,  in  building  cottages,  in  determining  the  hours 
of  labour,  not  only  profits,  but  also  and  more,  the  physical,  moral,  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  working  mcn,would.hav(i  been  looked  upon  as  a  kind 
of  lunacy.  Christ  might  indeed  have  said  that  one  human  soul  was 
of  more  value  than  the  whole  world,  but  that,  no  doubt,  was  a  kind  of 
Oriental  figure,  and  at  any  rate  it  was  no  concern  of  those  who  took 


The  Development  of  Christian  Doctrinr,  375 

the  trouble  of  prosecuting  worldly  labours  in  order  to  make  money. 
No  change  whatever  has  been  made  in  the  words  of  Christ,  but  how 
much  more  those  words  have  come  to  mean  to  us,  through  the 
reluctant  recognition  which  has  been  forced  upon  all,  partly  by  the 
teaching  of  great  humanitarians,  and  partly  by  the  combination  of 
labourers,  that  after  all  man  is  more  than  mone}',  that  character  is 
greater  than  possessions,  that  human  truth  and  honour,  purity  and 
love  arc  more  than  all  the  victories  of  war,  or  the  accumulations  of 
peace.  What,  again,  could  seem  to  be  more  Utopian  than  our  Lord's 
command,  "  When  thou  makcst  a  dinner  call  not  thy  friends,  nor  thy 
brethren,  neither  thy  kinsmen,  nor  thy  rich  neighbours,  ....  but 
call  the  poor,  the  maimed,  the  lame,  and  the  blind."  We  are  far 
enough  yet,  it  is  true,  with  all  the  luxuries  and  extravagances  of  our 
London  seasons,  from  laying  that  precept  to  heart,  but  at  least  the 
movements  of  our  time  have  brought  some  kind  of  obedience  to  it 
within  more  measurable  distance.  We  do  see  rich  ladies  in  large 
numbers  going  down  into  the  poorest  slums  of  our  cities  to  carry  to 
the  least  fortunate  of  the  race  the  help  of  Christian  love  and  the 
light  of  Christian  refinement.  We  do  see  noble-hearted  men  giving 
up  all  the  enjoyments  of  a  brilliant  society  to  live  in  the  midst  of 
the  wretched  and  depraved,  and  to  find  a  deeper  delight  in  the 
restoration  to  miserable  outcasts  of  the  lost  image  of  God  than  any 
which  the  world  can  offer.  We  do  see  colleges  and  public  schools 
establishing  or  assisting  Christian  Missions  to  the  ignorant,  the 
depraved,  and  the  fallen,  and  eagerly  contributing  not  only  money, 
but  sympathy  and  personal  aid,  to  make  the  love  of  Christ  a  living 
succour  where  succour  is  most  needed.  In  the  light  thrown  upon 
our  Master's  words  by  such  movements  as  these  we  are  almost 
beginning  to  believe  that  He  meant  what  He  said,  and  that  perhaps, 
after  all,  armed  Europe  will  never  suppress  the  aggressions  of  selfish- 
ness by  the  cannon  and  the  sword,  nor,  indeed,  in  any  other  way  than 
that  which  Christ  has  disclosed  to  us,  by  "  doing  good  to  those  who 
hate  us,  and  by  praying  for  those  who  despitefully  use  us  and  perse- 
cute us,"  so  overcoming  evil  by  good. 

But,  thirdly,  in  whatever  degree  modern  social  and  industrial 
movements  have  contributed  to  dispel  the  mists  of  prejudice  which 
cling  to  Christ's  words,  it  is  impossible  to  conceal  from  ourselves  the 
selfish  motives  by  which  such  movements  are  often  disfigured  and 
defeated.  Do  we  not  know  forms  of  socialism  which  are  little  better 
than  political  materialism,  prescribing  the  worship  of  gold  as  a  god, 
turning  the  State  into  a  providence,  and  taking  the  equal  division  of 
loaves  and  worldly  advantages  for  salvation  ?  Have  we  not  recently 
seen  these  mean,  secular  aspirations  too  faithfully  reflected  in  the 
savage  threats  and  lawless  violence  of  some  who,  in  their  eagerness 
to  win  a  larger  share  of  the  products  of  labour  (possibly  in  some  cases 
their  due),  have  not  hesitated  to  infringe  personal  liberty  and  to 
imperil  social  order  ?  Never  does  organised  oppression  wear  so  ugly 
a  look  as  when   it  is  practised  by   those  who  inscribe  liberty  and 


3/6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

fraternity  on  their  banner ;  and  never  does  the  contemptible  cry,  Rem 
qiiociinqiie  modo  rcm^  sound  so  forbiddingly  as  when  it  comes  from 
the  lips  which  have  cursed  so  bitterly  the  unscrupulous  greed  of  the 
employer.  If  these  blind  feelings  forth  after  a  juster  and  more  loving 
order  of  human  life  are  to  escape  their  present  perils,  and  to  win  real 
blessings  for  the  poor  and  wretched,  they  must  seek  nobler  motives, 
a  higher  point  of  view,  and  an  ampler  justification  of  their  claims. 

If  God  and  Christ  and  the  eternal  world  are  to  be  ignored  or 
denied,  if  man  is  to  be  the  highest  object  of  regard,  if  the  best 
pleasures  are  held  to  be  the  pleasures  of  sense,  and  if  the  ultimate 
law  of  human  life  is  to  be  gathered  from  the  order  of  nature,  then  all 
the  lofty  theories  of  the  socialist  are  baseless,  and  all  his  efforts  are 
foredoomed  to  failure.  For  men  are  not  born  equal,  but  unequal  in 
every  quality  of  body  and  mind,  the  forces  of  nature  do  not  favour 
the  survival  of  the  poor  and  feeble,  but  only  of  the  fittest ;  and  so  long 
as  men  are  incapable  of  prizing  character  above  strength,  and  self- 
sacrifice  above  the  pleasures  of  sense,  all  clamorous  assertions  of 
equality,  and  all  State  decrees  for  the  equal  payment  of  labour, 
will  only  end  in  the  dismal  and  heart-breaking  failure  of  M.  Louis 
Blanc's  State  workshops.  It  is  Christianity,  and  Christianity  alone, 
which  can  at  once  justify,  elevate,  and  direct  the  industrial  efforts 
and  aspirations  of  our  time.  If  all  are  members  of  one  great  spiritual 
family,  with  one  Heavenly  Father,  one  Saviour  Brother,  and  one 
destiny  of  redemption  from  sin,  then  all  are  brethren  and  equal,  then 
the  laws  of  the  lower  natural  order  are  seen  to  have  no  exclusive 
sway  and  currency  in  this  high  moral  sphere,  then  money  is  of  no 
value  but  to  lighten  labour,  to  give  leisure  for  improvement,  and  to 
remove  the  hindrances  to  moral  and  spiritual  development.  Then 
violence  will  be  as  impossible  as  oppression,  and  idleness  as  covetous- 
ness,  for  all  will  seek  not  their  own,  but  another's  wealth,  and  find 
the  only  true  greatness  and  happiness  in  'service.  Strange  as  it 
sounds,  it  is  profoundly  true  that  we  shall  never  succeed  in  our  efforts 
to  secure  a  juster  distribution  of  wealth  until  we  come  to  feel  that 
wealth  in  itself  is  of  no  intrinsic  value.  He  alone  could  sell  all  that 
he  has  and  give  to  the  poor  who  has  found  his  treasure  in  heaven. 
And,  therefore,  whether  men  see  it  or  not,  the  only  true  law  of  life  for 
our  industrial  future  is  that  which  has  been  formulated  by  Christ  for 
all  time,  "  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness, 
and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  to  you," 

Here  we  have  a  formal  statement  of  the  sunimwn  homim  of  man. 
Is  it  a  true  statement  ?  No  question  at  the  present  day  presses  more 
urgently  for  settlement.  For  how  can  we  determine  which  of  all  the 
modern  attempts  at  social  reconstruction  are  possible  and  hopeful, 
worth  thought  and  assistance,  until  we  know  the  goal  which  we  should 
endeavour  to  attain  ?  Wc  cannot  be  agnostic  on  this  question  in 
such  an  age  as  ours  without  the  deadliest  peril,  for  if  we  refuse  to 
incur  the  trouble  and  responsibility  of  its  consideration,  our  senses 
will  settle  it  for  us,  to  the  corruption  and  degradation  of  our  life. 


The  Development  of  Christian  Doctnne.  377 

What,  then,  is  supremely  good  for  us,  what  is  the  one  thing  needful  ? 
Is  it  the  Love  of  God,  or  the  praise  of  man  ?  Is  it  character  or 
possessions  ?  Is  it  what  we  are,  or  what  we  have  ?  Is  it  the  food 
of  the  senses,  or  the  eternal  life  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  ? 
We  must  gain  a  complete  and  final  answer  to  that  question,  if  we 
would  rid  our  life  of  perplexity,  vacillation,  and  disappointment.  Do 
we  believe,  as  our  Divine  Master  taught  us,  that  we  are  the  children 
of  an  Omnipotent  Fatherl}^  Love,  which  is  the  source  and  basis  alike 
of  our  life  and  the  life  of  all  creatures  ?  Do  we  believe  that  to  restore 
to  us  the  broken  communion  with  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  lived  and 
died  ?  Then,  surely,  we  shall  acknowledge  that  to  live  in  the  light  of 
that  love,  to  reflect  its  brightness,  to  feel  its  warmth,  to  share  its 
impulses,  and  to  do  its  work  is  the  highest  felicity  whether  of  earth  or 
heaven  !  To  will  as  God  wills  is  to  be  noble  and  happy.  It  is  to 
have  the  rare  power  of  finding  in  all  outward  things  the  occasion  of 
lofty  thought  and  feeling,  to  see  the  goodness  of  the  Divine  love  in  the 
impartial  sun  and  rain,  to  behold  its  beauty  in  the  hue  of  the  lily,  and 
the  far  shining  of  the  sea,  to  realise  the  outgoings  of  its  sympathy  and 
pity  in  the  innocence  of  the  child  and  the  patient  faith  of  the  sufferer, 
to  recognise  the  touch  of  its  redeeming  discipline  in  the  pain  of  re- 
morse, the  stirrings  of  compunction,  and  the  birth-throes  of  better 
resolve.  So  to  live  is  to  win  back  again  clearness  of  vision  and  readi- 
ness for  self-sacrifice,  to  rise  into  a  sphere  so  lofty  that  its  clear  air  is 
never  obscured  by  the  mists  of  selfishness,  to  have  a  heart  sensitive 
to  every  touch  of  Divine  feeling,  and  an  intellect  which  is  the  willing 
servant  of  the  loftiest  principles  of  truth.  Then,  if  social  troubles 
arose  how  prompt  and  easy  would  be  their  solution.  Capitalists 
would  ask,  not  how  can  we  get  as  large  a  share  as  possible  of  the 
products  of  human  toil  and  prudence,  but  how  can  we  so  moderate 
our  just  claim  as  to  secure  to  our  fellow-creatures  the  opportunity  of 
a  good  and  noble  life  ?  And  labourers,  on  their  part,  with  the  same 
lofty  conception  of  the  true  aim  of  existence,  would  consult,  not  how 
to  wring  the  last  possible  farthing  from  the  capitalist,  but  how  so  to 
frame  their  requirements  as  to  conform  to  the  necessities  of  trade,  to 
the  advance  of  the  common  interest,  and  to  the  progress  of  mutual 
confidence  and  love.  All  this  may  seem,  perhaps,  to  som.e  of  you,  the 
merest  Utopian  dream.  Call  it  what  you  please;  still,  if  it  be  accord- 
ant with  the  will  and  teaching  of  Christ,  I  believe  that  it  will  one  day 
be  realised  by  redeemed  men  on  this  earth.  For  I  believe  in  a  true 
development  as  well  of  goodness  as  of  truth.  Nay,  more,  I  see  the 
signs  of  such  a  development  in  the  course  of  Christian  history,  and  in 
the  movements  of  our  own  time,  and,  above  all,  in  that  promise  of  our 
Divine  Master,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  all  the  days,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  age."  If  He  be  here,  if  I  lis  spirit  of  love  dwell  in  the  heart  of  our 
struggling  Christendom,  I  know  that  it  must  be  pressing  us  forward 
in  the  direction  marked  out  in  the  Divine  counsel,  and  that  in  spite 
of  human  ignorance,  sin,  and  opposition  it  will  one  day  bring  us  to 
he  appointed  goal. 


378  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Do  you  ask  me  how  long  I  think  it  will  be  ere  the  Spirit  of  God 
has  thus  taken  of  the  things  of  Christ  and  made  them  blessed 
realities  in  the  thought  and  life  of  the  world  ?  I  cannot,  of  course, 
presume  to  answer  such  a  question.  I  know  how  suddenly  moral 
influences  which  have  been  slowly  gathering  force  sometimes  leap  to 
their  triumph.  I  know  how  in  the  history  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
the  darkest  night  has  been  sometimes  broken  by  a  supernatural  sun- 
rise of  grace.  In  some  such  sudden  movement  and  victory  I  expect 
that  the  world  will  see  the  fulfilment  of  Christ's  promise  of  His 
return.  But  of  course  if  we  set  aside,  as  we  have  no  business  to  do, 
that  Divine  promise  of  help  and  demand  of  expectation,  and  if  we 
construe  the  rate  of  moral  progress  in  the  future  by  that  in  the  past, 
we  shall  be  constrained  to  admit  that  it  may  be  slow  and  variable, 
continuing  through  long  ages  and  generations,  with  many  a  halt, 
many  a  deviation — aye,  and  many  a  falling  back.  But  even  so,  even 
in  the  most  unfavourable  event,  is  it  nothing  to  believe  in  dark  and 
chaotic  times  that  we  are  moving  after  all  under  Divine  guidance  to 
a  divinely  determined  goal  ?  What  of  defeat  is  too  shameful  for 
endurance,  or  what  of  misfortune  is  too  heart-breaking  to  be  borne, 
if  only  we  may  hope  that  all  things  are  working  together,  both  effort 
and  opposition,  both  faith  and  unbelief,  for  the  establishment  of  that 
kingdom  of  which  Christ  is  the  light  and  life  ? 

I  conclude  by  three  short  words  of  counsel  which  are  naturally 
suggested  by  our  subject. 

First,  it  is  necessary  to  advance  in  order  to  preserve  what  is  of 
eternal  value  and  significance  in  our  teaching.  At  all  times  the 
human  mind  naturally  strives  to  find  a  rational  relation  between  the 
various  particulars  of  its  knowledge.  It  endeavours  to  bring  them 
into  a  reasonable  harmony,  to  include  them  within  a  single  intelligible 
scheme.  It  follows,  then,  that  in  any  given  age  the  eternal  verities 
of  religion  will  be  brought  into  rational  relations  with  what  in  that 
age  is  looked  upon  as  histopcal  and  scientific  truth.  When,  how- 
ever, as  time  goes  on,  doubt  is  thrown  upon  those  historical  and 
scientific  conclusions,  that  doubt  will  be  reflected  on  those  eternal 
tiuths  of  religion  which  human  reason  has  associated  with  them. 
Then  a  new  need  arises.  We  must  carefully  separate  that  which  is 
certain  and  essential  in  our  historical  inheritance  of  religion  from 
that  which  was  merely  accidental,  which  was  only  added  to  it  to 
serve  the  needs  of  intellectual  harmony. 

The  necessity  for  what  I  may  call  this  "  advance  of  separation  "  is 
specially  great  in  our  own  time,  because  more  than  in  almost  any 
previous  age  what  is  merely  human  in  our  religious  traditions  and 
doctrines  is  being  called  in  question.  To  save,  then,  what  is  eternally 
true,  we  must  not  hesitate  to  advance  in  the  separation  from  it  of 
what  is  accidentally  and  already  more  or  less  discredited. 

Secondly,  while  not  hesitating  to  advance,  we  must  be  satisfied  to 
advance  slowly  and  prudently,  so  as  not  to  overrun  the  will  or 
capacity  of  those  we  seek  to  take  with  us.     However  true  may  be 


Pulpit  Prayer.  'i,y() 


our  principles,  and  however  benevolent  our  aims,  we  shall  fail  if  wc 
reckon  on  moral  capacity  which  does  not  exist,  or  on  Christian  know- 
ledge which  has  not  yet  been  realised.  If  we  would  raise  men  we 
must  keep  within  reach  of  them,  and  count  it  a  higher  thing  to  bring 
the  whole  of  Christendom  one  step  nearer  to  Christ's  ideal  life  in  a 
decade  than  to  dart  forward  to  the  end  in  thought  and  imagination 
in  a  moment.  •  For  the  moral  redemption  of  the  race,  then,  insight 
is  not  more  necessary  than  patience,  that  tender  consideration  of  the 
true  shepherd  who  restrains  his  own  impatience  that  he  may  carry 
the  lambs  in  his  arms  and  gently  lead  those  that  are  with  young. 

And,  lastly,  in  all  circumstances,  whether  our  advance  be  slow  and 
halting,  or  swift  and  hopeful,  we  must  make  ceaseless  endeavours  to 
reach  the  appointed  goal.  The  way  to  it  may  be  strait  and  hard,  but 
at  least  it  is  plain  and  unmistakable,  for  it  has  been  marked  out  for 
us  by  the  pierced  feet  of  Him  who  waits  to  welcome  us  at  the  end. 
Many  a  time,  no  doubt,  human  pride,  folly,  or  wilfulness  will  stray 
from  it  into  the  crooked  paths  of  falsehood  and  selfishness,  but  not  the 
less  must  we  strive  unceasingly  to  press  back  into  the  appointed 
path. 

Our  place  is  among  our  brethren,  however  far  they  may  stray. 
We  are  to  be  their  memory  and  their  conscience,  the  living  voice 
which  ever  cries  in  their  midst,  "  This  is  the  way,  walk  ye  in  it." 
And  though  sometimes  the  star  of  our  hope  may  look  dim  and 
distant,  may  seem  to  our  straining  eyes  to  waver  and  flicker  and 
almost  disappear,  we  must  still  press  onward  with  a  faith  which  is 
stronger  than  sight  and  surer  than  reason.  We  have  a  sure  ally  in 
the  divinely  implanted  instinct  of  human  aspiration.  For  it  is 
true,  as  one  has  nobly  said,  that  "  an  eternal  longing,  an  unwearied 
pressure,  a  beating  of  the  labouring  wings,  however  far  the  height 
and  lone  the  track,  mark  the  spiritual  tendencies  of  Christendom." 
It  is  for  us  to  appeal  to  this  Divine  witness  and  impulse,  and  in  the 
days  of  doubt  and  danger,  when  foes  are  many  and  shadows  are 
dark  and  hopes  are  low,  to  stay  our  souls  upon  that  promise  of  Him 
to  whom  all  human  power  is  weakness  and  all  human  wisdom 
foolishness :  "As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  every  knee  shall  bow  to 
Me  and  every  tongue  shall  confess  to  God." 

A   PULPIT   PRAYER. 

By  the  Rev,  Arthur  Mursell. 

O  Lord,  we  look  to  Thee  and  we  desire  so  to  depend  upon  Thee  as 
that  we  may  derive  the  inspirations  of  our  own  friendship  from  Thee, 
so  that  in  our  degree  the  sympathy  which  we  show  to  one  another  may 
be  like  Thine  own.  Thou  art  never  weary  of  supporting  the  weight 
of  those  who  cast  themselves  upon  Thee,  and  Thou  hast  wrought 
out  a  sacrifice  by  which  the  still  heavier  weight  of  all  our  trans- 
gressions may  not  only  be  sustained,  but  carried  away  and  cast  into 
the  depths  of  the  sea.     Lord,  we  praise  Thee  for  that  record  which 


38o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

is  inscribed  in  Thy  word  of  the  scape-goat  which  went  away  from 
the  midst  of  the  people  with  their  sin  upon  his  head,  and  how  under 
the  upHfted  hand  of  the  priest  that  scape-goat  went  further  and 
further  with  his  load  from  those  whom  he  had  relieved,  until,  lost  in 
the  oblivion  of  the  distance  of  the  wilderness,  the  sins  were  carried 
all  away.  We  bless  Thee  that  our  sin  is  laid  upon  a  still  more 
efficient  and  complete  Scape-goat,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world,  and  in  that  taking  away  we  feel  that  the  weight 
is  removed,  and  that  the  impediment  goes  out  of  the  pathway  by 
which  otherwise  we  should  be  let  and  hindered  in  our  approach  unto 
Thee.  Look  over  our  transgressions,  then,  we  pray  Thee,  and 
may  there  be  nothing  to  hinder  the  closeness  of  our  access  unto 
Thee ;  and  may  we  feel  that  we,  even  we,  with  all  our  past  trans- 
gressions, and  with  all  our  proneness  to  wander  and  to  err,  that  we 
find  the  place  of  the  lost  sheep  which  is  held  so  close  to  the 
seeking  Shepherd's  heart  and  breast,  that  there  is  nothing  but  the 
love  of  forgiveness  and  of  safety  to  be  experienced,  and  nothing 
but  forgetfulness  of  all  the  sin.  Lord,  we  praise  Thee  for  the  many 
times  in  which  in  Thy  Word  this  completeness  of  Thy  pardon  is 
reiterated.  And  we  desire  to  have  the  ear  of  faith  unstopped,  so 
that  we  may  hear  the  voice  of  the  Parent  who  awaits  the  returning 
prodigal  at  the  gate,  not  only  commanding  the  shrift  in  the  tone  of 
the  High  Priest  upon  the  sinner,  but  calling  for  the  best  robe  to  be 
put  upon  the  naked  and  shivering  limbs  of  the  penitent  child.  Lord, 
we  beseech  Thee  to  give  us  such  a  view  of  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
and  such  an  intense  appreciation  of  all  that  it  has  done  for  us,  such 
a  thorough  feeling  of  our  need  of  it  and  of  the  supply  of  that  need 
in  it,  that  we  may  feel  that  indeed  we  are  complete  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  dedicating  all  our  life  and  all  our  service  and  all  our  aspira- 
tion to  Him,  may  we  humbly  wait  by  the  wayside  for  Him  to  call 
us  to  some  simple  service.  And  wherever  the  cry  of  sadness  is 
heard,  whenever  the  challenge  glove  is  thrown  down  at  the  feet 
of  sympathy,  then  may  we  be  ready  to  run  in  the  footsteps  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  His  dear  name  to  do  what  good  we  may.  Oh,  fill  our 
hearts  with  tenderness  and  love.  We  would  aspire  after  no  other 
sentiment  than  this,  that  we  may  love  even  as  we  have  been 
loved,  and  even  as  Christ  still  loves  us  all.  So  shall 
the  sigh  of  our  sympathy  carry  at  least  some  sign  of  sincerity 
and  relief  with  it  to  those  who  need  it ;  and  Thou  knowest  that  there 
are  many  amongst  us  who  do  need  it.  Comfort  them  in  their  mourn- 
ing from  whatever  source  or  from  whatever  cause  that  mourning  may 
arise.  Draw  very  near  to  such  as  are  bereaved,  and  fill  up  with  a 
sense  of  Thine  own  presence  the  void  which  aches  in  the  hearts 
which  arc  tried.  Bring  together,  we  entreat  Thee,  in  the  bonds  of 
affection  and  tenderness,  all  those  who  are  left  in  families  which  have 
been  in  any  wise  invaded  by  trial,  and  grant  that  in  their  mutual  love, 
and  in  the  sense  of  the  love  of  their  common  Redeemer  towards  them, 
there  may  be  happiness  and  joy  for  years  to  come  on  earth  and  then 


Pulpit  Prayer.  38 1 


the  eternal  and  the  inseparable  reunion  in  Heaven.  Lord,  we 
have  friends  there  beyond  the  veil,  and  sometfmes  they  seem 
to  visit  us  very  closely.  Sometimes  in  Thy  house  and  at  Thy 
table  we  see  their  faces,  hear  their  voices,  and  almost  clasp  their 
hands.  Oh,  we  bless  Thee  for  these  gleams,  because  they  are  hints 
of  the  eternal  reality  which  is  beyond  that  veil.  Help  us  to  live  as 
seeing  the  invisible,  and  may  we  love  Him  through  Whom  we  sec  it 
more  and  more  intensely  because  of  the  sweetness  of  His  revelation 
and  His  life.  We  have  many  petitions  to  present  before  Thee,  many 
cares,  as  it  were,  to  roll  upon  Thine  all-willing  and  all-powerful,  and 
all-loving,  and  ali-sustaining  heart.  Lord,  do  Thou  look  down  in 
tenderness  upon  those  left  at  home,  those  who  are  sick.  We  beseech 
Thee,  Lord,  to  draw  nigh  to  them,  and  bless  them,  and  cause  Thy 
face  to  shine  upon  them,  and  may  we  find  them  cheerful,  and  strong, 
and  patient,  when  we  return  to  them.  And  whatever  may  be  the 
special  solicitude  or  care,  do  Thou,  O  Lord,  solace  us  in  the  bearing 
of  it,  and  comfort  us  whatever  form  our  trial  or  our  anxiety  may 
take.  Lord,  upon  all  those  that  love  Thee  let  Thy  constant  blessing 
descend ;  and  upon  those  who  love  Thee  not,  oh  let  the  tidings  of 
Thine  own  great  love  come  with  such  power  as  that  their  hearts  shall 
be  melted  and  drawn  towards  Thee.  And  now  we  pray  for  Thy 
blessing.  We  ask  Thee  to  quicken  us  by  the  power  and  inspiration 
of  Thy  Holy  Spirit.  Bless  us  individually;  bless  us  in  our  house- 
holds ;  bless  us  as  a  Church  and  people.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the 
glimpses  of  Thy  face  which  Thou  dost  afford  us.  We  thank  Thee 
for  all  quickening,  and  all  blessing,  and  all  inspiration  from  time  to 
time,  and  we  pray  Thee  to  help  us  patiently  to  bear  whatsoever 
anxiety  may  be  around  us.  May  we  still  feel  that  nothing  can 
disturb  or  hurt  us  so  long  as  our  patient  waiting  is  for  Thee, 
and  our  firm  faith  and  trust  are  in  Thee.  Lord,  give  unto 
us  all  the  wisdom  that  we  need.  We  need  Thy  light, 
and  we  need  more  Thy  love.  May  we  be  found  with 
those  who  seek  to  humbly  sit  at  Thy  feet  to  ascertain  Thy  will,  and 
to  do  it  wherever  Thou  dost  appoint  it  for  us.  And  give  unto  us  that 
peace  which  is  the  very  basis  of  all  prosperity,"  that  peace  amongst 
ourselves,  that  union  which  is  the  strength  of  those  who  seek  to  co- 
-  operate  in  Thy  work.  Thus  shall  peace  be  within  our  walls  and 
prosperity  within  our  palaces,  and  for  our  brethren  and  companions' 
sake  we  will  now  say,  "  Peace  be  amongst  us."  Lord,  now  do  Thou 
draw  near  to  us,  and  let  the  light  of  Thy  countenance  rest  upon  us. 
Hear  us  whilst  we  pray  for  the  furtherance  of  Thy  kingdom  every- 
where, for  Thy  manifested  and  felt  presence  in  the  midst  of  all  special 
assemblies  which  may  contemplate  gathering  in  the  week  which  is  to 
come  in  Thy  name,  and  in  the  interests  of  Thy  church  throughout  the 
world.  Let  Christian  missions  receive  an  impulse  and  an  impetus, 
and  may  the  hearts  of  those  who  are  far  away  from  home  be  sustained 
by  the  tidings  which  they  shall  hear  of  the  expressed  sympathy,  and 
of  the  much  prayer,  and  of  the  deep  soliritndf  nf  f'hri'^tians  who  work 


382  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

in  the  same  cause  at  home.  Lord,  let  Thy  kingdom  come  and  Thy 
will  be  done  among  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  O  Lord,  rain 
down  Thy  rich  and  Thine  abundant  blessing.  Let  the  people  praise 
Thee,  O  Lord  ;  yea,  let  all  the  people  praise  Thee ;  for  Christ's  sake. 
Amen. 

"MINE,"   AND    "HIS." 

"  My  beloved  is  mine,  and  I  am  His." — Song  of  Songs  ii.  i6. 

A  Cotmnunion  Address  by 

Rev.   Alexander  Jeffrey, 

At  Trinity  Presbyterian   Church,  Maryland  Point,  Stratford,  Lotidon,  on 
Sunday  Morning,  September  2Zth,  1890. 

"  He  is  mine,"  because  He  gave  Himself  for  me.  "  He  is  mine," 
because  by  the  hand  of  my  faith  I  laid  hold  on  Him.  "  He  is  mine," 
because  when  He  knocked  I  opened  and  gave  Him  entrance.  "  He 
is  mine,"  and  I  am  rich  beyond  compare.  "  All  things  "  are  mine, 
since  Christ  is  mine. 

His  death  is  mine,  for,  like  a  broad,  blood-sprinkled  shield,  it 
comes  between  me  and  the  stroke  of  offended  justice.  His  righteous- 
ness is  mine,  for  it  clothes  me  with  the  fair  white  robes  of  accept- 
ance. His  life  is  mine,  for  it  thrills  through  all  my  being,  and  I  live 
by  it.  His  virtues  are  mine,  for  I  may  claim  them  in  the  time  of  my 
need.  His  joy  in  hours  of  sorrow,  His  peace  in  hours  of  unrest. 
His  patience  in  hours  of  harassment.  His  strength  in  hours  of  weak- 
ness. His  Heaven  is  mine,  and  it  is  waiting  for  me.  Death 
cannot  part  us.  He  who  is  mine  in  time,  will  be  mine  through 
eternity. 

"  And  I  am  His." — His,  for  He  bought  me  with  a  great  price,  and 
I  am  not  my  own.  His,  for  He  "  keeps  me  as  the  apple  of  the  eye," 
and  "hides  me  under  the  shadow  of  His  wings,"  yea,  folds  me 
within  the  pitying  love  of  His  own  most  tender  heart.  His,  for  His 
nail-pierced  hand  of  omnipotence  holds  me,  and  none  can  ever  pluck 
me  from  its  grasp. 

"My  Beloved  is  mine" — here  is  my  priceless  privilege:  "I  am 
His  "—there  lies  my  great  responsibility !  Nothing  I  have  is  my 
own.  His  name  now  rests  on  all  that  belongs  to  me.  He  has 
stamped  His  broad-arrow  of  proprietorship  on  me  and  mine  :  on  the 
very  furniture  of  my  house,-  the  very  books  in  my  study,  and  the 
very  tools  in  my  workshop  !  He  claims  my  time  and  talents,  my 
money,  my  opportunities,  my  influence,  my  all !  Everything  about 
me  is  His. 

My  sins  are  His,  for  He  took  them  over  upon  Himself,  that  He 
might  save  me  from  their  curse.  My  sorrows  are  His,  for  he  makes 
them  His  own,  feeling  tenderly    for  me,  and  with  me,  in  all  life's 

woes. 

"  In  every  pang  that  rends  the  heart, 
The  Man  ol  Sorrows  hath  a  part." 


Sermonctie  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.       383 

My  service  is  His,  and  to  withhold  it  from  Him  when  it  can  be  given 
is  to  rob  Him  of  His  due.  My  aftections  are  His,  for  He  reigns  on 
the  throne  of  my  heart,  and  I  should  love  Him  more  than  life.  My 
intellect  is  His,  and  all  its  powers  must  ever  be  at  His  disposal. 

"  I  am  His,"  body,  soul  and  spirit.  Body  ?  Yes,  body  !  These 
hands  are  His  :  shame  on  them  if  henceforth  they  lie  in  the  lap  of 
indolence,  or  be  lifted  to  do  the  devil's  work  !  These  feet  are  His : 
can  they  ever  venture  again  on  forbidden  paths  ?  or  go  where 
their  Master  went  not  ?  These  lips  are  His — touched  as  with  "  a 
live  coal  from  off  the  altar : "  is  it  possible  that  they  can  ever 
again  utter  an  impure,  an  unkind,  or  a  false  word  ?  These  ears  are 
His  :  will  they  ever  dare  to  listen  with  delight  to  an  obscene  speech, 
or  a  foul  suggestion  ?  These  eyes  are  His  :  shall  I  ever  permit 
them  to  look  upon  sin  with  approval  ?     God  forbid  ! 

Back  to  the  world  I  must  go,  but  not  to  worldliness  :  no  not  to 
worldliness.  For  since  "  Christ  is  mine,  and  I  am  His," 
"  the  world  is  crucified "  and  dead  "  to  me,"  and  I  unto  the 
world."  Henceforth  I  am  Christ's — Christ's  alone,  and  Christ's  for 
ever — consecrated  to  Him  and  to  His  service,  from  this  sacramental 
hour  as  I  have  never  been. 

"  Jesus,  of  Thee  shall  be  my  song  : 
To  Thee  my  heart  and  soul  belong  ; 
All  that  I  have  or  am  is  Thine, 
And  Thou,  blest  Saviour,  Thou  art  mine  ! " 

Now  the  God  of  peace,  who  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord 
Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the 
everlasting  covenant,  make  you  perfect  in  every  good  work  to  do 
His  will,  working  in  you  that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  His  sight 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,  to  whom  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever. 
—  Amen." 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  October  igth.     Luke  xxii.  24-37.    Golden  Text,  Phil.  ii.  5. 

Jesus  Foretells  Peter's  Denial. 

The  "  fall "  of  Peter  lay  very  heavily  on  the  heart  of  Jesus.  He 
thought  about  it,  He  prayed  about  it,  He  spoke  about  it  long  before 
it  happened.  If  any  one  is  inclined  to  think  little  of  a  "  fall,"  let  him 
study  what  one  "fall"  of  one  disciple  was  to  Jesus.  One  sin  of  a 
child  of  God  gives  more  pleasure  to  Satan  than  thousands  of  sins  of 
the  world.  One  sin  of  a  child  of  God  does  more  harm  than  thousands 
of  sins  of  the  world.  One  sin  of  a  child  of  God  is  a  wound  to  Jesus 
— such  as  no  other  sins  could  ever  make. 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


384  iThe  British  Weekly  PulptL 

Jesus  traced  this  sifting  time  to  its  source — its  Satanic  agency, 
"  Behold,  Satan  hath  desired  to  have  you,  that  he  may  sift  3'ou  as  wheat." 
What  a  view  this  passage  gives  us  of  the  malice  of  Satan.  He  had 
succeeded  in  obtaining  one  of  the  apostles  as  his  prey,  and  he  longs 
to  destroy  Peter  too.  It  seems  that  Satan  is  allowed  to  try  the 
saints,  but  these  trials  only  serve  to  make  them  brighter  Christians 
afterwards.  Jesus  watches  over  His  people,  and  were  He  less 
watchful  no  soul  would  ever  reach  the  heavenly  fold.  No  little  child 
is  so  dependent  upon  the  watchfulness  of  its  nurse  as  we  are  upon  that 
of  Jesus.  It  was  Christ  who  delivered  Peter.  He  knew  all  the 
designs  of  the  enemy.  He  had  already  prayed  for  Peter,  and  now  He 
warns  him.  He  laid  up  for  Peter's  comfort  encouraging  words  of  his 
restoration,  and  showed  him  how  even  his  sin  should  turn  to  good 
account.     "  When  thou  art  converted,  strengthen  the  brethren." 

Peter  had  many  strong  points,  but  one  weak  one,  and  that  one  was  at 
the  beginning  of  this  disastrous  fall.  You  know  the  strength  of  a 
rope  is  to  be  measured,  not  according  to  its  strongest  but  in  its 
weakest  point.  When  the  strain  comes  let  it  be  broken  there,  and  it 
is  no  matter  how  strong  the  rest  is.  So  it  is  with  the  strength  of  a 
soul.  Peter's  weak  point  was  his  impulsiveness.  Impulse  has  its 
cold  fits  and  its  hot  fits,  its  bravery  and  its  cowardice.  "  Enter  not 
into  temptation,"  said  his  Lord,  but  Peter  went  on  unheeding.  He 
loved  Christ  far  too  much  to  deny  Him.  He  knew  how  to  take  care  of 
himself.  Peter  thought  himself  an  iron  man ;  but  there  was  a  flaw 
in  his  iron,  though  he  knew  it  not  until  he  entered  into  a  trial  for 
which  he  was  not  fitted ;  then  the  iron  broke  ! 

But  at  length  Peter  obtained  a  martyr's  courage,  and  now  he  wears 
a  martyr's  crown.  The  time  came  when  he  fulfilled  his  own  words  : 
"  I  will  lay  down  my  life  for  Thy  sake,"  and  he  was  stretched  on  a 
cross  like  his  beloved  Master. 

About  seventeen  hundred  years  ago  there  were  thirty  youths  in  the 
Roman  army  who  declared  for  Christ.  And  for  doing  so  they  were 
condemned  to  stand  on  a  frozen  lake,  naked,  in  the  depth  of  a 
northern  winter,  till  they  froze  to  death.  They  said  they  were  quite 
ready  to  die  for  Jesus ;  but  one  of  them  gave  way.  He  v/as  told  that 
if  he  denied  Jesus  he  would  have  a  hot  bath  at  once,  and  he  denied 
his  Lord  and  got  the  hot  bath,  but  this  only  hastened  his  death.  He 
lost  by  his  denial,  after  all.  The  others  stood  firm  confessing  Jesus, 
and  their  faithfulness  so  touched  the  heart  of  one  of  the  officers  there 
that  he  took  off  his  badge  of  office  and  said,  "  I,  too,  will  be  a  Chris- 
tian and  die  with  the  rest."  He  joined  the  others  on  the  ice,  saying, 
"  Now  your  number  is  again  complete."  Thus  the  "  Thirty  Martyrs  " 
died  for  Jesus,  and  their  lives  were  not  wasted,  for  their  brave  confes- 
sion of  Christ  strengthened  their  brethren. 

Never  be  ashamed  to  stand  up  for  Jesus,  and  one  day  He  will  show 
that  He  is  not  ashamed  of  you. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pidptt 

No.  129,  Vol.  III.  OCTOBER  23,  1890.  One  Penny. 

CHRIST'S    SECOND     COMING    A    NECESSITY. 

Notes  of  a  Sertnon  by 

The   Rev,  Arthur  Mursell, 

Preached  in  Stockwell  Baptist  Cliurch  on  Sunday  evening,  October  ^th,  1890. 

"  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  This  same  Jesus 
which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have 
seen  Him  go  into  heaven."— Acts  i.  11. 

It  is  not  always  because  the  wish  is  father  to  the  thought  that  we 
find  certain  rehgious  sections  and  individuals  of  a  special  type  of 
temperament  professing  practically  and  literally  to  anticipate  the 
second  coming  of  the  Saviour  to  the  earth.  The  oldest  men,  whose 
retrospects  include  the  longest  vista  into  the  past  and  whose 
memories  enumerate  the  most  eccentric  variety  of  religious  mani- 
festation— these  will  assure  us  that  there  is  nothing  new  in  these 
anticipations  of  the  definite  and  almost  immediate  coming  of  the 
Saviour,  and  that  there  is  nothing  specially  typical  of  our  own  day 
in  the  extravagances  to  which  they  sometimes  lead.  The  reader  of 
the  everyday  newspaper  will  often  see  in  the  columns  allotted  to 
advertisements  curious,  and  involved,  and  ingenious  calculations, 
evolved  or  drawn  out  of  the  prophetic  data  of  the  Bible,  from  which 
are  gathered  a  very  speedy  close  of  the  dispensation,  and  the  immi- 
nent appearance  of  Messiah  in  the  world  amongst  our  concernments 
and  affairs.  Specific  dates  are  assigned,  and  passing  political  or 
social  events  are  signalised  as  pointing  towards  the  crisis  which  is 
predicted,  until  the  sum  is  worked  with  a  kind  of  arithmetical  pre- 
cision which  tends  to  reduce  the  sublime  almost  to  the  ridiculous. 
Many  of  the  dates  selected  have  long  ago  passed  by,  and  our  grand- 
sires  will  tell  us  that  these  prophets  plied  their  curious  craft  and 
hawked  their  vague  and  nebulous  hallucinations  when  they  them- 
selves were  in  the  nursery.  It  is  usually  rather  a  morbid  mind,  one 
would  think,  which  becomes  cohwebbed  with  these  material  calcula- 
tions, and  it  by  no  means  follows  that  because  a  sect  betakes  itself 
to  prophesying,  the  aspiration,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus,"  is  truly  fervent 
in  the  soul. 

But   for   all  that,  and  without  desiring  to  cast  any  uncharitable 
reflections  upon   those  who  are  thus  almost   ridiculously  definite,  a 


386  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

reverent  and  devout  attitude  of  expectancy  and  hope  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  this,  and  it  is  an  attitude  well  befitting  and  well 
becoming  to  the  Christian  church  and  the  faithful  Christian  heart, 
the  heart  which  beats  under  the  impulse  of  Scripture  inspiration 
and  of  prophetic  promise.  The  watch-towers  of  Zion  should  never 
be  unmanned  of  the  sentinels  who  look  stedfastly  towards  the  east, 
and  however  dark  the  night,  or  however  chaotic  the  clouds  on  the 
horizon,  the  wistfulness  should  never  flag  or  intermit  which  listens 
for  the  sound  of  the  chariot  wheels.  To  gravitate  from  that  spiritual 
alertness  to  which  a  thousand  voices  from  the  world  of  revelation 
would  arouse  the  child  of  God,  and  to  plod  contentedly  in  the  smaller 
orbit  of  a  prosaic  time,  to  succumb  with  an  unambitious  kind  of 
drift  in  the  shallow  round  of  an  ascetic  mood,  or  to  resign  the  soul 
to  the  Babel-noise  of  markets  or  of  merchandise — this  is  a  very  poor 
posture,  one  would  think,  for  those  whose  hopes  are  full  of  im- 
mortality. It  is  a  fitter  and  far  more  Scripturally  enlightened  atti- 
tude for  the  Christian  hope  to  keep  its  finger  delicately  and  sensitively 
upon  the  keyboard  of  prophecy,  not  strumming  the  poor  scales  of 
its  arithmetic,  but  sounding  the  clear  keynote  of  its  promises,  and  in 
the  rapture  of  the  music,  as  its  cadences  rise,  drink  draughts  of  the 
abandon  and  delight  of  hearts  of  earth  which  wait  patiently  but 
hopefully  for  the  Lord  from  heaven. 

For  not  only  is  there  nothing  incredible  in  the  speedy  advent  of  the 
Messiah  to  the  earth,  but  a  devout  discernment  is  well  entitled  to 
contemplate  the  probabilities  which  seem  to  hint  at  the  Saviour's 
coming.  That  He  will  come,  and  that  He  must  come,  surely  is  patent 
to  all,  not  only  from  the  declarations,  the  distinct  declarations,  of  His 
Word,  but  from  the  absolute  necessities  of  the  case.  The  treatment 
which  Christ  received  when  He  paid  His  visit  of  condescension  and 
of  sacrifice  demands  alike  for  His  dignity  and  His  pity  that  He  should 
come  again  on  a  mission  of  vindication  and  reprisal.  Coming  before. 
He  was  despised  and  rejected  of  men  ;  coming  again,  He  shall  be  the 
crowned,  the  Christ,  the  cynosure  of  homage,  and  glorified  and 
admired  by  His  saints  ;  the  same  Christ  stretching  the  same  hands  to 
the  same  race,  and  where  they  pierced  Him  He  shall  show  the  nail 
prints  set,  as  it  were,  with  the  jewels  of  the  power  which  those  who 
inflicted  those  wounds  derided.  It  is  impossible  that  the  claim  of 
Christ  to  be  the  Son  of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world  should  be 
left  partially  recognised  by  man,  or  imperfectly  asserted  by  Himself. 
He  will  come.  He  will  come  to  watch  the  abatement  and  to  hasten  the 
disappearance  of  the  offence  of  the  Cross,  and  to  give  a  rebel  world  a 
gracious  opportunity  of  returning  to  its  loyalty,  and  kissing  the  sceptre 
from  which  they  had  revolted. 

The  sufferings  of  His  own  servants  will  add  a  fervour,  if  needs  be, 
to  the  coming  of  their  Master  to  the  world.  He  will  not  vindicate 
Himself  without  vindicating  them.  He  reads  the  pages  of  history 
with  a  sympathetic  heart,  and  those  chapters  which  are  written  in  the 
blood  of  His  saints  are  precious  archives  in  the  Saviour's  memory. 


Christ^ s  Second  Coming  a  Necessity.  387 

The  flag  of  His  empire  and  the  crown  of  His  reign  shall  be  attached 
to  the  stakes  where  martyrs  have  sighed  forth  their  dying  testimony 
for  His  Cross,  and  the  prelude  and  recitative  of  premonition  shall  give 
way  to  the  air  sung  in  the  Master's  own  present  voice,  as  He  cries, 
"  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye.  My  people."  He  will  not  be  content  with 
deputies,  or  representatives,  or  ambassadors,  but  He  Who  at  one  time, 
and- even  now,  speaks  to  us  by  prophets  and  by  ministers,  shall  speak 
to  us  by  His  Son  as  a  reigning  King  in  the  midst  of  them.  The 
whole  character  of  the  passing  dispensation  is  probationary.  It 
points  to  something  more  permanent  by  itself,  and  the  nature 
of  the  events  which  are  necessary  to  perfect  His  executive  render  the 
second  coming  of  the  Saviour  to  the  world  not  incredible  and  im- 
possible, but  highly  improbable  and  apparently  essential.  He  must 
surely  propose  to  revisit  the  earth,  which  He  found  formerly  in  such 
strange  revolt  against  Him.  It  must  assuredly  be  the  purpose  alike 
of  His  pity  for  mankind,  and  of  His  ambition  for  Himself,  to  answer 
the  cry,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.'*  We  venture  no  pre- 
dictions as  to  the  construction  that  "  quickly "  will  'receive  at  His 
hands,  or  at  His  heart,  or  in  His  calculation ;  but  when  He  sees  those 
who  spurned  Him  returning  to  confess  the  sceptre  which  they  rejected, 
and  to  honour  the  throne  which  they  despised.  He  will  reciprocate  the 
attitude  of  the  world  which  gives  Him  welcome,  and  take  to  Himself 
this  once  revolted  earth  as  a  territory  in  His  universal  and  restored 
empire.  There  is  no  need  for  the  gaze  of  a  dazed  and  bewildered  amaze- 
ment, but  there  is  ample  ground  for  the  vigil  of  intelligence  and  of  sure 
expectancy.  We  will  not,  therefore,  look  with  the  bewilderment  or 
the  open  mouth  of  those  men  of  Galilee,  but  rather  with  the  set 
lip  of  the  children  of  the  promise  who  await  their  coming  Lord, 
assured  that  this  same  Jesus  who  was  taken  from  our  fathers  into 
heaven  will  so  come  to  us  in  like  manner  as  they  saw  Him  go  into 
heaven. 

A  glance,  just  a  very  hasty  one,  at  the  purposes  to  be  subserved  by 
such  an  advent  of  Christ  to  the  earth  will  tend  to  confirm  more  strongly 
its  probability. 

The  first  and  the  initial  purpose  which  lies  right  across  the 
threshold  of  every  movement  in  the  policy  of  Christ  in  His  filial 
capacity  is  the  vindication  of  the  glory  of  His  Father.  It  was  to  lay 
the  basis  of  a  renewed  fatherhood,  after  the  fatherhood  had  been 
forfeited  by  sin,  that  Deity  advised  this  dual  or  twofold  relationship, 
and  exemplified  at  once  the  obedience  of  a  son  and  the  atonement  of 
a  sacrifice.  The  obedience  was  rendered  to  the  Father,  the  atone- 
ment was  offered  to  justice.  It  was  the  paternal  rule  which  required 
the  one;  it  was  the  judicial  necessity  which  demanded  the  other. 
Obedience  was  necessaiy  to  establish  the  tender  relationship  of  child 
to  father.  Atonement  was  necessary  to  balance  and  keep  up  the 
equilibrium  of  that  eternal  attitude  of  righteousness,  without  which  the 
Father  could  not  be  Himself  The  Father  exacts  and  receives  the 
first,  He  participates  in  the  oftering  of  the  second.     We  can  never 


388  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

protest  too  often  or  too  emphatically,  as  we  are  continually  doing, 
against  the  caricature  of  atonement  which  portrays  it  as  a  vehicle  of 
vengeance  wreaked  by  an  outraged  power  upon  innocence  as  the  con- 
dition of  condoning  guilt.  It  is  Godhead's  loving  and  original  scheme 
to  meet  the  challenge  of  absolute  necessity.  It  thus  became  God  in 
this  way,  through  the  medium  of  sacrifice,  though  the  shedding  of 
blood  ;  it  thus  became  Him  to  fulfil  all  righteousness,  and  the  Cross 
was  set  up  as  a  finger-post  upon  the  track  of  Christ's  second  and 
triumphal  entry  into  the  world.  If  one  of  its  bare  aims  pointed  to 
the  red  west  where  the  sun  seems  setting  into  night,  the  other  pointed 
to  the  amber  east  where  it  should  rise  again  in  the  glory  of  the 
morning.  That  same  Jesus  who  seemed  to  sink  with  the  sinking  da}' 
has  travelled  through  the  night  of  death  and  of  the  grave,  that  He  may 
come  again  in  the  glory  that  shall  know  no  night  at  all.  He  began 
His  second  advent  with  the  first  footstep  of  His  exit  from  the  earth. 
He  began  to  come  back  again  the  moment  He  went  out  of  the  world. 
It  was  to  re-enter  in  mbre  regal  robes  that  He  left  the  stage  on  which 
He  seemed  to  die,  and  even  in  His  passing  furnished  a  robing-room 
for  all  who  would  welcome  Him,  or  attend  Him,  by  changing  the  grave 
itself  into  the  wardrobe  of  the  soul. 

This  is  the  obedience  by  which  God  as  a  Son  perfects  our  sonship, 
and  so  vindicates  the  glory  of  the  Fatherhood.  Death  would  have 
baulked  and  frustrated  that  glory  had  not  obedience  overcome  it  and  led 
the  pathway  of  redemption  through  the  shadows  of  the  grave.  So  that 
the  second  coming  of  the  Saviour  should  be  the  coming  of  an  acknow- 
ledged Conqueror  and  King,  of  one  whose  conquest  is  confessed,  and 
whose  royalty  is  accepted.  And  it  shall  not  only  thus  fully 
vindicate  the  Father's  glory,  but  it  shall  institute  a  lasting  and  a 
permanent  separation  between  light  and  darkness,  between  right  and 
wrong,  between  good  and  evil,  between  life  and  death.  Tares  and 
wheat  may  grow  together  till  the  harvest,  but  at  the  harvest-time  the 
winnowing  operation,  the  scattering,  the  division,  must  come.  "His 
fan  is  in  His  hand,  and  He  shall  throughly  purge  His  floor." 
Sifting,  separation,  are  principles  and  conditions  of  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man.  He  shall  come  in  His  glory,  and  it  will  be  in  order  to 
sit  upon  the  throne  of  His  glory,  and  what  is  out  of  harmony  with 
the  splendours  of  that  throne  must  stand  apart  and  be  divided  and  be 
set  by  itself.  The  sheep  who  have  followed  the  Good  Shepherd  will 
be  distinguished  from  the  goats  who  have  forsaken  Him.  The 
discords  and  disloyalty  will  not  be  permitted  to  mar  the  songs  of 
those  who  are  the  children  of  the  kingdom,  nor  shall  the  skull  of 
death  grin  there  with  his  charnel-jaw.  For  at  the  coming  of  the 
Saviour  He  shall  merge  and  blend  the  mediatorial  into  the  final  and 
regal  economy.  A  brighter  and  a  fairer  coronation  shall  accrue  to 
Him  than  the  poor  obedience  and  shows  which  would  have  been  mar- 
shalled by  those  who  would  have  made  Him  a  King  if  He  had  come 
into  the  common  royalty  of  earth.  The  irony  or  satire  of  the  jib, 
which  laughed  at  the  crown  of  thorns  should  be  answered  by  th 


Christ's  Second  Couting  a  Necessity.  389 

splendid  satire  which  comes  from  a  universe  of  the  redeemed,  "  All 
hail,  King  of  the  Jews,  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords."  No  longer 
pleading  at  the  bar,  but  garnering  and  gathering  the  fruits — the 
precious  priceless  fruits  of  tender  intercession — He  shall  merge  the 
vindication  of  His  priesthood  in  the  glory  of  His  reign. 

What  the  features  of  that  glory  shall  be  it  simply  baffles  us  even 
to  picture  or  to  fancy.  If  imagery  may  at  any  time  be  taken  literally, 
or  any  hint  or  suggestion  of  the  reality  be  gathered  from  it,  Christ, 
when  he  comes  again,  will  appear  attended  by  every  conceivable  seal 
of  the  Divine  complacency  and  approval.  Necessarily  so,  for  this  is 
but  saying  that  God  will  find  complacency  in  His  own  world;  it  is 
but  declaring  the  Saviour's  satisfaction  in  the  trial  of  His  own  soul,  it 
is  only  catching  from  Calvary  the  emphasis  of  the  "  It  is  finished," 
for  had  there  been  any  minute  detail  or  punctilio  undone  or  left 
unfolded,  the  gloom  had  never  lifted  at  the  Cross,  and  the  throes  of 
soul- travail  would  add  no  new  birth  to  the  progeny  of  hope.  It 
would,  indeed,  have  been  a  human  sacrifice  if  Deity  had  withheld 
His  seal.  The  Divine  complacency  ever  attests  a  work  which  is 
itself  Divine.  The  Divine  pleasure  and  complacency  is  inseparable 
from  the  work  of  the  Cross,  because  the  work  of  the  Cross  was  a 
Divine  work.  Around  the  manger  at  His  birth  the  angels  sang, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,"  and  pointed  to  the  Babe.  When  He 
was  baptised,  the  Voice  came  from  Heaven,  "  My  beloved  Son,  My 
beloved  Son,"  sunk  under  that  wave.  When  He  was  tempted,  there 
was  angel  ministry  at  hand  to  wipe  the  sweat  of  wrestling  from  the 
Victor's  brow,  and  flout  the  poisoned  reek  of  hell  with  the  feather  fan 
of  heavenly  wind.  In  mountain  clefts  He  often  met  that  smile  which 
lighted  Him  through  the  paths  of  darkness.  If  He  seemed  to  look 
for  it  in  vain  in  the  Garden,  it  was  only  that  the  impress  of  the  seal 
might  be  the  sharper.  It  will  be  from  heaven  and  not  from 
earth  that  His  retinue  shall  be  enlisted,  and  the  evidence 
which  attests  His  royalty  shall  be  the  seal  from  the  girdle 
of  Deity  itself.  He  shall  come  attended  by  signal  proofs  of 
the  vastness,  the  immensity  of  His  triumph.  A  rainbow  planted 
the  first  pillar  of  his  splendid  arch  upon  the  earth  at  the 
point  where  the  cross  was  fixed.  That  arch  shall  be  complete,  and 
shall  plant  its  other  pillar  where  the  Saviour's  throne  is  reared. 
How  much  that  rainbow  shall  bestride  or  cover  in  its  vast  span  who 
shall  dare  to  guess  or  to  tell  ?  Shall  it  only  cover  just  a  few  thousands 
or  millions  of  God's  creatures,  or  shall  it  girdle  the  whole  universe  ? 
Men  are  found  to-day  who  tell  us  that  we  presume  and  dare  when  we 
talk  of  such  enlargement  of  the  girdle  of  hope,  of  life,  of  possibilit}'. 
Dare  that?  Of  course  we  dare  !  We  dare  anything  when  we  have 
paid  a  wrestling  visit  to  the  cross,  when  we  have  seen  the  sacrifice, 
and  when  we  have  bowed  our  head  before  Him  who  cried  "It  is 
finished."  Bivouac  on  Calvary,  rest  near  the  cross,  while  the  "  Father, 
forgive  Ihem  "  swells  out  amongst  the  bloody  ranks  from  the  lips  of 
interceding  patience — this  snaps  every  rusty  link  and  brighten?  the 


390  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

whole  vista  with  the  silver  of  eternal  hope.  I  can  prove  nothing.  I 
can  bring  no  mathematical  proof  to  show  that  all  shall  live  again ;  but 
I  can  hope  all  things  when  the  love  of  Christ  constrains  me,  and  I 
can  find  a  rock  in  Scripture  for  the  anchor  of  mj'  wildest  and  most 
splendid  dreams  when,  with  the  thrill  of  His  love  within  me,  I  read 
of  His  destroying  death  and  him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is, 
the  devil,  that  He  may  deliver  us  who,  through  fear  of  death,  were 
all  our  hfetime  subject  to  bondage. 

Coming,  then — coming  as  He  surely  will  amidst  the  homage  of  all 
creatures,  there  is  surely  room  to  hope  faintl}',  without  presumption, 
that  He  will  receive  that  homage,  not  only  with  complacency  from 
His  willing  worshipper,  but  with  clemency  from  His  vanquished 
foes.  Foes  no  longer,  the}-  will  submit  themselves  to  His  rule,  and 
willingly  abase  themselves  before  Him.  Will  it  be  like  the  Lowly 
One  of  Galilee  to  spurn  such  homage,  although  late,  or  to  spurn  such 
surrender  ?  Will  He  in  haughty  homage  pass  on  when  His  enemies 
shall  lick  the  dust  ?  Even  earthh-  \actors  will  set  free  their 
prisoners  when  the  token  of  submission  is  given,  and  it  seems 
hardty  uniform  with  the  sweetness  of  the  Lamb  of  God  to  regale 
Himself  for  ever  on  a  quenchless  holocaust  of  restless  souls. 

We  dare  not  dogmatise,  and  we  do  not  attempt  to  do  so,  about  the 
prospects  of  a  better  resurrection  for  the  world,  as  others  do  some- 
times about  the  eerie  resurrection  of  eternal  despair.  But  if  Christ 
shall  come  again,  and  there  is  a  dissolution  of  nature,  if  hills  and  sk}' 
and  plains  and  valleys  shall  be  folded  up  like  a  scroll  whose  \\Titing 
is  effaced  for  ever,  there  may  be  surel}-  born  out  of  the  throes  of  such 
a  travail  hope  for  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth  which  shall 
succeed  upon  it  all.  If  the  stage  is  to  be  destro3'ed,  the  evil  part  of 
its  past  drama  may  well  be  torn  up  and  cancelled.  As  for  the  actors 
in  that  drama,  they  may  haply  be  cast  in  nobler  parts  in  the  rehearsal 
which  shall  come. 

Yet  it  is  perilous,  it  is  very  perilous,  to  wait.  We  may  fondle  these 
hopes,  but  we  cannot  prove  them.  It  is  very  perilous  to  wait,  and  it 
is  almost  idle  to  conjecture.  We  know  nothing  of  the  future,  but 
the  present  is  our  o\\ni.  The  challenge  to  that  present  is  to  touch  the 
hem  of  a  gracious  and  a  present  Saviour's  robe  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
passeth  by.  It  is  our  Captain  Who  shall  triumph,  and  it  is  our 
King  Who  is  to  reign.  There  is  no  crown  which  shall  be  for 
Him  which  His  meanest  follower  shall  not  be  permitted  to  share. 
There  is  not  a  hallelujah  greeting  Christ's  approach  in  which  His 
humblest  disciple  does  not  join.  There  is  a  place  in  the  shining 
ranks  for  you  and  for  me,  whatever  be  the  crimson  of  our  past.  Let 
us  then  take  our  place  in  the  great  procession  ;  let  us  walk  side  b}' 
side.  We  have  been  side  by  side  in  sin,  let  us  be  side  by  side  in 
penitence  and  in  the  rapture  of  the  shrift  which  the  Great  High 
Priest  is  waiting  to  pronounce.  For  lo,  He  cometh  with  clouds  and 
every  eye  shall  see  Him.     Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus. 

Prosaic  flatness  turns  upon  us  as  we  paint  all  this.     Says  the  cal- 


The  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language.  39 1 

culating  instinct,  the  voice  of  the  age,  "  Do  you  call  all  these  the 
words  of  truth  and  soberness?  Do  you' mean  really  and  coolly  on 
a  Monda}',  and  a  Tuesday,  and  a  Wednesday,  as  well  as  on  a  Sunday, 
to  tell  plain,  common-sense  men  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  you 
anticipate  an}'  such  convulsions,  and  any  such  apocalypse  as  you 
have  painted  ?  "  No,  we  do  not  anticipate  any  such  apocalypse  as  we 
have  painted,  for  our  pigment  is  too  colourless,  and  our  art  too  poor 
to  portray  it.  But  here,  right  in  the  midst  of  us  in  this  plain  chapel, 
we  have  a  rough  and  a  naked  thing,  which  faith's  dim  eye  may  see 
amongst  its  films,  and  love's  vision  may  behold  amongst  its  tears. 
That  naked  thing  is  the  Cross,  the  Cross  on  which  the  Saviour  died. 
Oh,  but  to  bring  my  sin  to  touch  these  wounds,  to  bring  my  broken 
heart  within  the  meaning  of  that  prayer  !  My  fainting  strength 
accepts  it,  and  Someone  comes  to  me.  He  makes  me  strong  in  all 
my  faintness,  and  declares  God  is  love ;  and  blackest  night  nor  dullest 
hell  can  keep  the  Lover  of  my  soul  away,  for  even  now  I  feel  the 
kisses  of  His  lips,  and  His  love  is  better  than  wine.  Even  so,  come, 
Lord  Jesus. 


THE  FIGURATIVE  ELEMENT  IN  BIBLE  LANGUAGE.* 

By  the  Ven.  Frederic  W.  Farrar,  D.D.,  F.R.S., 
Archdeacon  of  Westminster. 

There  is  a  saying  of  the  rabbis,  which,  if  its  full  significance  be 
understood  and  wisely  applied,  is  worth  wholeTolios  of  their  formal 
exegesis.  It  is  that  "The  Law  speaks  in  the  tongue  of  the  sons  of  men." 
It  might  seem  at  first  sight  to  be  the  most  obvious  of  all  truisms; 
but  many  truths,  as  Coleridge  said,  are  so  true  that  they  are  left  to 
lie  in  the  lumber-room  of  the  mind  side  by  side  with  the  most 
exploded  errors.  Indeed,  if  the  rabbis  had  taken  to  heart  this 
saying  of  their  own  famous  Rabbi  Ishmael,  the  greater  part  of  their 
exegctic  system  would  at  once  have  been  shown  to  be  nugatory.  For 
that  system,  as  it  gained  vogue  in  spite  of  some  strong  protests,  is 
founded  on  the  principle  that  Scripture  language  is  so  mysterious,  so 
unearthly,  so  little  accordant  with  the  ordinary  tongue  of  men,  that  it 
may  be  distorted  into  the  most  monstrous  meanings,  and  pressed  into 
the  most  exorbitant  inferences.  The  Halacha,  or  ceremonial  rule  of 
the  Talmudists,  treated  the  plainest  words  of  Scripture  as  though 
they  had  been  ten  times  more  enigmatical  than  the  riddle  of  the 
sphinx.  Akiba,  the  greatest  of  the  post-Christian  rabbis,  laid  it  down 
as  an  axiom  that  not  only  in  every  letter,  but  in  every  horn  and 
crown  of  every  letter,  there  was  a  mystic  meaning,  "just  as  in  every 
fibre  of  an  ant's  foot  or  a  gnat's  wing."  He  taught  that,  "  as  a 
hammer  divides  fire  into  many  sparks,  so  every  verse  of  Scripture 

*  From  the  American  Sunday  School  Times. 


392  77!^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

has  many  explanations."  He  pressed  the  minutest  accidents  of  the 
written  text  into  interminable  mysteries  ;  and  by  combining  possible 
inferences,  and  drawing  fresh  inferences  from  those  thus  deduced,  he 
built  up  a  system  of  casuistry  which  has  not  been  surpassed  by  the 
worst  specimens  of  mediaeval  scholasticism. 

It  has  been  a  terrible  disaster  to  the  Christian  Church  that  she 
accepted  without  challenge  these  vicious  principles  of  Talmudic  in- 
terpretation. The  books  of  Scripture  were  written,  as  all  books 
have  always  been  written  since  the  world  began,  with  the  object 
of  being  understood ;  and  the  starting-point  of  all  real  expo- 
sition must  always  be  the  sense  which  the  words  would  have  borne 
among  those  to  whom  they  were  primarily  addressed. 

Out  of  many  dangers  which  have  resulted  from  the  error  of 
literalism,  let  me  choose  two. 

There  is  in  geometry  a  line  known  as  the  asymptote,  which  con- 
tinually approaches  to  a  curve,  but,  even  when  produced  to  infinity, 
does  not  intersect  it,  though  the  distance  between  the  asymptote  and 
the  curve  becomes,  in  the  course  of  this  approach,  less  than  any 
assignable  quantity.  Now,  language,  in  relation  to  thought,  is  never 
more  than  an  asymptote.  Language  and  thought  can  no  more  exactly 
coincide  than  two  particles  of  matter  can  absolutely  touch  each  other. 
Language  can  never  more  than  partially  reveal  the  features  of  that 
Isis  on  whose  statue  was  carved,  "  I  am  all  which  has  been,  which  is, 
and  shall  be,  and  no  mortal  hath  ever  lifted  my  veil."  A  curtain  of 
shadow  must  always  hang  between 

"  That  hidden  life,  and  what  we  see  and  hear." 
No  single  virtue,  no  single  faculty,  no  single  spiritual  truth,  no  single 
metaphysical  conception,  can  be  expressed  without  the  aid  of  analogy 
and  metaphor.     As  Tamblichus   truly  says,  "  Things  more  excellent 
than' every  image  are  expressed  through  images." 

L  Now,  if  this  be  true  in  general,  how  much  more  true  is  it  of 
any  language  in  which  we  speak  of  God.  We  know  that  God  is  a 
Spirit ;  that  (in  the  words  of  the  first  English  Article)  He  is  "  with- 
out body,  parts,  or  passions."  Except  by  analogy  and  metaphor,  it 
would  have  been  wholly  impossible  to  speak  of  God  at  all  in  the 
earlier  ages  of  the  world.  The  only  way  to  reveal  any  truth  respect- 
ing Him  was  to  do  so  under  figures  derived  from  the  nature  of  man. 
The  untrained  imagination  of  the  world's  childhood  could  not  con- 
ceive of  a  bodiless  and  omnipresent  Spirit.  It  was  necessar}'^,  there- 
fore, for  the  sacred  writers  to  speak  of  God  as  if  He  had  a  human 
body  ;  and  this  is  what  is  called  anthropomorphism. 

The  most  ignorant  reader  is  aware  of  the  extent  to  which  anthro- 
pomorphism is  adopted  in  the  Old  Testament.  Let  a  few  instances 
suffice : 

"  And  they  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God  walking  in  the 
garden  in  the  cool  of  the  day  "  (Gen.  iii.  8). 

"And  the  Lord  smelled  the  sweet  savour;  and  the  Lord  said  in 
His  heart  "  (Gen.  viii.  2i). 


The  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language,  393 

"And  the  Lord  came  down  to  see  the  city  and  the  tower,  which 
the  children  of  men  builded  "  (Gen.  xi.  5). 

"  And  the  Lord  said,  ...  I  will  go  down  now  and  see  whether 
they  have  done  altogether  according  to  the  cry  of  it "  (Gen.  xviii. 
20,  21). 

"And  the  Lord  said,  ....  I  will  put  thee  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock, 
and  will  cover  thee  with  My  hand  until  I  have  passed  by  :  and  I  will 
take  away  Mine  hand,  and  thou  shalt  see  My  back :  but  My  face  shall 
not  be  seen"  (Exod.  xxxiii.  22,  23). 

The  world  has  outlived  the  danger  of  the  false  inferences  which 
were  once  deduced  from  such  passages,  and  those  which  speak  of  the 
eyes,  the  ears,  the  face,  the  hands,  the  fingers,  of  God.  But  they 
constituted  a  real  danger  to  the  Talmudists,  who,  among  many  other 
absurdities,  went  so  far  as  to  argue  the  question  whether  or  not  God 
wore  phylacteries !  Nor  was  it  otherwise  in  the  early  Church. 
Tertullian  almost  scoffs  at  the  notion  of  a  bodiless  deity.  It  is  to  him 
an  impossible  and  unthinkable  conception.  "Nihil  est  incorporale^^ 
he  says,  "  nisi  quod  non  est^  A  large  body  of  the  Egyptian  monks 
were  such  complete  anthropomorphites  that,  when  the  truer  and  more 
spiritual  views  of  Origen  were  explained  to  them,  one  old  hermit  burst 
into  tears,  and  wailed,  "  They  have  taken  my  God  away  from  me,  and 
I  know  not  where  I  shall  find  Him."  Even  so  hardy  a  criminal  as 
Theophilus,  patriarch  of  Alexandria,  quailed  before  the  fury  of  these 
ignorant  anthropomorphite  monks.  His  cowardice  and  alarm  drove 
him  into  his  bitter  rage  against  the  tenets  of  Origen,  which  ended  in 
the  ruin  of  St.  Chrysostom,  and  occupies  one  of  the  darkest  pages  in 
the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  fourth  century. 

n.  But  if  harm  was  done  by  the  crude  errors  of  the  heresy  which 
insisted  on  exact  literalism,  and  declared  that  the  Trinity  wore  a 
human  form,  perhaps  even  deadlier  evil  arose  from  the  imperfection  of 
language  which  is  technically  called  anthropopathy  ;  namely,  the  attri- 
bution to  God  of  human  passions. 

Thus  we  read  in  Scripture  : 

"  It  repented  the  Lord  that  He  had  made  man"  (Gen.  vi.  6). 

"I  the  Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God"  (Exod.  xx.  5). 

"  I  trod  them  in  Mine  anger,  and  trampled  them  in  My  fury  "  (Isa. 
Ixiii.  3). 

"  Look  down  from  heaven.  .  .  .  Where  in  the  sounding  of  Thy 
bowels.  .  .  .  toward  me?"  (Isa.  Ixiii.  15). 

And  these  are  only  specimens  of  a  large  number  of  similar 
passages. 

Unquestionably  we  make  a  great  mistake  when  we  press  too  far 
these  dim  analogies,  or  regard  them  as  more  than  a  translation  into 
human  analogies  of  facts  really  indescribable.  When  we  speak  of 
God's  wrath,  and  fury,  and  fierce  jealousy,  and  implacable  rage,  and 
describe  His  awful  majesty,  "  Tartarean  drench"  of  many  modern 
sermons,  or  in  the  tempestuously  incongruous  language  of  many  modern 
hymns,  we  ought  to   beware  lest   w^e  are   talking  with  too  gross  a 


394  .         The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

familiarity  of  Him  "  whose  tender  mercies  are  over  all  His  works." 
When  in  our  loose,  one-sided,  inaccurate  metaphors  we  press  the 
many  passages  of  Scripture  in  which  we  are  told  that  God  "  re- 
pented," or  "changed  His  mind,"  or  " regretted "  something  which 
He  had  previously  done,  we  must  be  careful  lest  we  wholly  desecrate 
the  conceptions  of  Him  who  is  immutable,  who  says,  "  I  am  the 
Lord ;  I  change  not ;  "  of  whom  we  are  expressly  told,  "  The  Strength 
of  Israel  will  not  lie  nor  repent ;  for  He  is  not  a  man  that  He  should 
repent." 

"  Theology  and  poetry,"  says  Boccacio,  in  his  Life  of  Dante,  "  may 
be  said  to  be  almost  one  when  their  subject  is  the  same ;  nay,  more, 
I  say  that  theology  is  nothing  but  God's  poetry.  For  what  is  it  but  a 
kind  of  poetic  invention,  when,  in  the  Scripture,  Christ  is  spoken  of 
at  one  time  as  a  lion,  at  another  as  a  lamb ;  sometimes  as  a  worm,  at 
other  times  as  a  dragon,  at  others  as  a  rock,  and  in  many  other  ways, 
to  recite  all  of  which  would  be  tedious  ?  What  else  are  the  words  of 
Scripture  in  the  Gospel  but  a  discourse  of  what  is  beyond  the  senses, 
which  manner  of  speaking  we,  in  more  ordinary  language,  call 
allegory  ?  " 

It  is,  then,  most  necessary  to  carry  with  us  into  the  study  of  Scrip- 
ture the  perpetual  sense  of  the  shadows,  the  imperfections,  the  uncer- 
tainties, of  human  language.  There  are  hundreds  of  passages  of  the 
Bible  which  have  been  misunderstood  by  millions,  misunderstood  for 
ages,  misunderstood,  at  times,  by  perhaps  nearly  every  living  repre- 
sentative of  the  Church  of  God.  And  most  of  these  errors  have 
risen  from  pressing  the  meaning  of  words  too  far;  or  from  mistaking 
the  accidents  of  a  metaphor  for  its  central  significance  ;  or  from 
assuming  that  the  same  metaphor  must  always  connote  the  same 
truths.  Men  ought  to  be  very  careful  lest  they  become  the 
mere  helpless  victims  of  many-sided  phrases — such,  for  instance, 
as  "  inspiration,"  "justification,"  "  election  " — which  different  men  use 
in  very  different  senses.  There  is  "  a  besotting  intoxication  in  this 
verbal  magic  ;  "  "a  certain  bewitchery  and  fascination  in  words  which 
make  them  operate  with  a  force  beyond  what  we  can  naturally  give 
account  of  Words  are  able  to  persuade  men  out  of  what  they  find 
and  feel,  and  to  reverse  the  very  impressions  of  sense,  and  to  arouse 
men  with  fancies  and  paradoxes  even  in  spite  of  nature  and  experi- 
ence."* 

Richter  described  evciy  language  as  "  a  dictionary  of  faded  meta- 
phors," and  he  was  right.  Language,  like  writing,  began  practically 
with  hieroglyphics.  It  was  an  original  necessity  of  speech  to  put 
everything  before  the  eye,  to  paint  pictures,  to  awaken  vivid  impres- 
sions in  the  imagination.  "  Language  is  the  flesh-garment  of  thought, 
and  imagination  weaves  this  flesh-garment.  Metaphors  are  her  stuffs. 
Examine  language.  What,  if  you  accept  some  few  primitive  elements 
(of  natural  sound),  what  is  it  all  but  metaphors  recognised  as  such,  or 

*  South. 


TJic  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language.  395 

no  longer  recognised ;  still  fluid  or  florid,  or  now  solid  grown  and 
colourless  ?  If  those  same  primitive  elements  are  the  osseous  fixtures 
in  the  flesh-garment  language,  then  are  metaphors  its  muscles  and 
tissues  and  living  integuments.  An  unmetaphorical  style  you  shall  in 
vain  seek  for ;  is  not  your  very  attention  a  strctching-to  ?"* 

Now,  if  this  be  true  of  language  in  general,  it  is  specially  true  of  the 
Semitic  languages,  and  of  Hebrew  as  their  chief  representative.  A 
large  part  of  Scripture  consists  of  expanded  metaphors,  and  it  is 
throughout  highl}'  picturesque.  Spontaneous  imager}^  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  all  impassioned  thought. 

Take,  for  instance,  such  words  as  "anger,"  "despair,"  "mercy," 
"  fear,"  "  pride,"  "  obstinacy,"  "  favour."  In  Hebrew,  anger  and  "  the 
nose  "  are  identical ;  despair  is  "  a  melting  of  the  heart ;  "  fear,  "  a 
loosening  of  the  reins ; "  desire  is  "  pallor,"  or  "  thirst,"  or 
"the  caperberry;"  pride,  "a  high  carriage  of  the  head;" 
obstinacy,  "  a  stiffening  of  the  neck ; "  favour,  "  a  turning  of 
the  face;"  expectation,  "a  stretching  out  of  the  neck." 
Every  word  is  ultimately  an  onomatopoeia  or  a  picture.  Glassius,  in 
his  Philologia  Sacra,  has  collected  endless  Hebrew  metaphors  from 
the  sun  and  moon  and  stars ;  from  day  and  night,  from  air,  fire,  and 
water ;  from  the  human  body ;  from  trees  and  animals  ;  from  almost 
every  observable  fact  of  nature  and  of  life.  And  this  richness  of 
metaphor  is  rendered  even  more  necessary  by  the  extreme  paucity  of 
roots,  which  gives  us,  for  instance,  the  same  word  for  a  turtle-dove, 
an  ox,  a  manner,  and  a  string  of  pearls;  and  the  same  root  for  "  to 
hire,"  "  to  exchange,"  "  to  disappear,"  "  to  be  sweet,"  "  a  fly,"  "  a 
beetle,"  "an  Arabian,"  "  a  stranger,"  "  an  enemy,"  "a  willow,"  "  a 
raven,"  "  a  weft  of  cloth."t 

How  complete,  again,  are  the  pictures  which  bring  vividly  home  to 
us  the  single  conception  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins !  Our  sins  are  as 
scarlet,  and  they  shall  be  made  white  as  snow;  they  are  as 
crimson,  and  shall  be  as  wool.  Look  how  far  the  east  is  from  the 
west !  so  far  shall  God  remove  our  transgressions  from  us.  They 
are  as  a  handwriting  in  a  book ;  they  shall  be  cancelled  ;  they  shall 
be  obliterated ;  they  shall  be  torn  in  two  ;  they  shall  be  nailed  to 
Christ's  cross.  Does  the  Hebrew  poet  wish  to  express  that  God  will 
remember  them  no  more  ?  He  represents  Jehovah  as  putting  them 
into  a  sack,  sealing  up  the  mouth  of  it,  and  then  flinging  it  behind 
His  back. 

It  is  the  natural  result  of  this  figurative  cast  of  Scripture  language 
that  metaphors,  which  must  have  been  plain  to  those  for  whom  they 
were  originally  intended,  have. to  us  become  obscure.  We  are  no 
longer  able,  in  every  instance,  to  disintegrate  what  is  metaphorical 
and  what  is  historic.  Look,  for  instance,  at  such  a  chapter  as 
Ecclesiastes  xii.  ^6.     Is  it  a  literal  description  of  an  approaching 

*  Carlyle,  Sartor  Resartus,  Chap.  x. 

t  See  Renan,  Les  Langues  Semitiqites,  p.  23. 


396  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

storm  ?  or  is  it  an  allegorical  description  of  old  age  ?  or  is  it,  as  many 
fathers  and  mediaeval  expositors  thought,  a  forthshadowing  of  the  day 
of  the  Lord  ?  "  And  the  grasshopper  shall  be  a  burden  " — what  does 
that  mean  ?  Is  it  that  even  a  locust  will  be  a  burden  too  heavy  for 
the  old  man  to  carry  ?  or  that  common  food  will  become  unpalatable  ? 
or  that  the  man  will  become  bony  as  the  structure  of  the  locust  ?  Or 
take  the  entire  Book  of  Joel.  To  this  day  commentators  are 
as  much  divided  as  they  ever  were  on  the  question  whether  the 
"  locusts "  there  are  a  mere  figure  for  enemies,  or  whether  they 
are  meant  to  represent  an  actual  plague  of  locusts,  or  whether  they 
are  at  once  real  and  symbolical.  Or,  once  again,  turn  to  the  Book 
of  Revelation.  Why  have  men  scornfully  spoken  as  though  the 
study  of  it  either  found  men  mad  or  left  them  so  ?  Is  it  because  the 
book  is  a  cryptograph  expressed  in  metaphors  ?  Was  it  then  meant 
to  be  a  mystery  which  St.  John  locked  up,  and  flung  the  key  into  the 
Maeander  ?     Far  from  it. 

Study  first  the  general  character  of  the  Jewish  apocalyptic  literature 
as  it  begins  to  appear  in  Daniel  and  the  post-exile  prophets,  and 
produces  a  multitude  of  works  both  Jewish  and  Christian  down  to 
such  books  as  the  "  Shepherd  of  Hermas  " ;  then  read  the  book  as 
it  would  have  been  understood  by  Jewish  Christians  in  the  days  of 
the  Neronian  persecution,  and  was  interpreted  by  contemporaneous 
history,  and  I  venture  to  say  that,  except  in  a  few  minor  details,  the 
cryptograph  acquires  a  meaning,  a  splendour,  and  a  vividness  which 
will  put  to  flight  the  complex  and  contradictory  masses  of  pre- 
posterous conjecture  which  have  in  age  after  age  been  offered  as 
its  interpretation.  It  will  be  heard  as  the  thundering  reverberation 
awakened  in  a  Christian  soul  struck  by  the  fierce  plectrum  of  the 
Neronian  persecution. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  in  a  brief  paper  to  do  more  than  touch 
upon  one  or  two  salient  points  connected  with  the  subject.  We  have 
seen  that  all  language  is  ultimately  pictorial ;  that  it  has  to  depend 
upon  analogies — often  upon  dim  and  remote  analogies — to  express 
all  moral  and  spiritual  ideas  ;  that  it  is,  in  consequence,  full  of  shadows 
and  im.perfections ;  that  the  Hebrew  language  and  the  style  of 
Hebrew  writers  is  permeated  by  metaphors;  that  metaphors  have 
often  been  pressed  too  far  J  and  that  on  our  way  of  treating  them 
depends  our  power  of  understanding  large  portions  of  Holy  Writ. 
All  that  we  can  now  further  do  is  to  gather  up  the  significance  of 
these  considerations  in  a  few  general  rules. 

I.  There  is  no  basis  whatever  for  the  allegorical  S3'stem  of  inter- 
pretation, in  plain  passages  or  ordinary  narratives.  To  admit  such 
a  style  of  exegesis  is  to  forget  the  very  meaning  and  purpose  of 
ordinary  language. 

From  the  days  of  Philo  down  to  the  Reformation,  and  even  later, 
the  fact  that  there  are  many  metaphors  in  Scripture  has  been  pressed 
to  the  absurd  conclusion  that  the  Hteral  sense  of  Scripture  is  either 
entirely  useless,  or,  at  any  rate,  a  matter  of  quite  secondary  con- 


The  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language.  397 

sideration.  This  is  so  absolutely  false  that  from  it  has  sprung  a 
perfect  wilderness  of  deadly  errors.  We  need  not  dwell  on  it,  because 
the  phantom,  which  reigned  triumphant  through  many  ponderous 
tomes  of  Fathers  and  School-men,  has  at  length  been  exorcised,  and 
only  wanders  in  obscure  places.  There  are  difficulties  in  parts  of 
Scripture  ;  but,  as  St.  Chrysostom  truly  said,  llai/ra  -ra  uuarjKui'a  cijXu, 
— "  Whatever  in  Scripture  is  essential  is  clearly  revealed."  Reve- 
lation would  be  no  revelation  if  it  left  lany  fundamental  truth  at 
the  mercy  of  exegetical  vagaries.  Even  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  freely 
admits  that  no  argument  can  ever  be  founded  on  the  so-called  "mystic 
sense."  If  in  any  passage  there  be  a  spiritual  sense  which  is  not 
the  obvious  sense,  no  one  is  at  all  bound  to  accept  it,  unless  the  same 
truth  be  elsewhere  clearly,  manifestly,  and  literally  stated.  Emser 
went  so  far  as  to  say  that,  "  if  the  Bible  were  interpreted  literally,  it 
were  better  to  read  a  legend  of  Virgil's ;  "  to  which  Luther  replied  (in 
language  which  must,  of  course,  be  taken  with  large  modifications, 
but  which  has  a  general  truth),  "  The  Holy  Ghost  is  the  all-simplest 
writer  and  speaker  that  is  in  heaven  or  on  earth  .  .  .  His  words 
can  have  no  more  than  one  simplest  sense,  which  we  call  the 
scriptural  or  literal  meaning."* 

2.  Even  where  we  have  to  deal  with  professed  metaphor,  or  with 
allegories  and  parables,  theological  conclusions  may  never  be  based  on 
isolated  expressions  or  collateral  inferences.  The  old  wise  rule,  which 
has  been  so  often  neglected,  was  Theologia  parabolica  non  est  denion- 
strativa. 

Let  us  take  a  word,  a  passage,  and  a  metaphor,  as  beacon-lights 
to  warn  us  of  the  dangers  which  we  should  avoid  in  interpreting 
the  figurative  language  of  Scripture. 

(i.)  Take,  for  instance,  the  word  "hell."  To  millions  of  readers 
"the  Bible"  means  no  more  than  the  Authorised  Version,  with  its 
many  errors  and  inaccuracies.  They  are  quite  unaware  that  the 
word  "  hell "  in  that  version  represents  no  less  than  four  words — 
sheol  in  Hebrew  ;  and  in  Greek  hades,  gehenna,  and  tartanis.  Until 
recently  they  were  quite  unaware  that  sheol  and  hades  are  names  for 
the  place  of  all  the  dead  alike,  between  death  and  the  resurrection, 
The  participle,  "flinging  them  into  tartarus"  (japTapwaas),  occurs 
only  in  2  Peter  ii.  4,  No  human  being  has  ever  argued  that  the 
writer's  use  of  the  word  tartarus  is  anything  but  a  general  metaphor 
for  a  place  of  punishment,  and  does  not  for  a  moment  involve  a 
belief  in  any  of  the  Greek  conceptions  of  the  word.  How  different 
would  have  been  the  doctrines  inferred  from  the  word  "  gehenna,"  if 
it  had  been  borne  in  mind  that  it  too  is  a  metaphor,  purely  Jewish, 
derived  from  the  polluted  valley  where  at  one  time  men  cast  the 
corpses  of  the  dead  !  No  one  has  ventured  to  push  the  metaphor 
"  Abraham's  bosom  "  into  a  tenth  part  of  the  extremes  into  which 
thousands  have  pushed  the  equally  metaphorical  word  ".gehenna." 

•  Werke  (Erlanger  ed  xxvii.  259).     See  Beard's  Martin  Luther,  p.  76. 


398  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

(2.)  Now  let  us  take  a  verse  :  "  If  a  tree  fall  toward  the  south,  or 
toward  the  north,  in  the  place  where  the  tree  falleth,  there  it  shall 
be"  (Eccl.  xi.  3).  The  most  momentous  conclusions  have  been 
deduced  from  this  verse.  It  has  been  quoted  again  and  again,  as 
though  it  were  a  decisive  proof  that  after  the  moment  of  death  there 
can  be  no  hope,  and  no  change  in  the  future  condition  of  any  human 
soul.  The  doctrinal  influence,  therefore,  has  been  of  the  most  over- 
whelming importance.  And  yet  this  application  of  the  text  has  not 
even  the  remotest  connection  with  its  proper  meaning,  or  with  the 
context  in  which  it  occurs.  The  question  of  man's  future  is  not  in 
the  smallest  degree  upon  the  mental  horizon  of  the  writer.  He  is 
only  illustrating  our  ignorance  of  what  shall  happen  to  us  in  life, 
and  teaching  us  not  to  be 

"Over-exquisite 
To  cast  the  fashion  of  uncertain  evils." 

"In  regard  to  those  evils,  the  sweeping  calamities  that  lie  beyond 
man's  control,  he  is  as  powerless  as  he  is  when  the  black  clouds 
gather  and  the  winds  rush  wildly."* 

(3.)  And  to  illustrate  the  peril  which  may  lie  in  a  metaphor,  let  us 
take  the  word  "  ransom." 

A  metaphor  ma}'-  be  compared  to  a  globe  on  a  plane  of  glass.  It 
throws  shadows  on  the  glass,  but  it  only  really  touches  the  glass  at 
one  point.  To  press  the  metaphor  to  all  its  possible  conclusions 
would  be  to  act  as  though  the  one  point  of  contact  were  equivalent 
to  a  beating  out  of  the  globe  to  a  flat  surface  which  covered  the 
whole  glass.  It  is  most  needful  to  bear  this  in  mind  when  we  speak 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement,  lest  we  be  led  into  false  and  pro- 
fane speculations.  For  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement  is  only 
revealed  to  us  in  metaphors ;  and  these  metaphors  are  not  identical, 
and  they  are  only  meant  to  teach  the  doctrine  in  its  bearing  on  the 
life  and  destiny  of  man.  Dangerous  forms  of  error,  which  would 
sometimes  be  actual  heresy  if  they  were  not  the  issue  of  innocent 
ignorance,  have  sprung  up  from  the  attempt  to  explain  what  the 
Lord  of  the  apostles  never  explained,  namely,  the  transcendental 
side  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ — its  bearing  on  the  mind  of 
God.  And  these  errors,  so  far  from  being  harmless,  have  had 
the  twofold  evil  result  of  alienating  multitudes  from  the  God  whom 
theologians  misrepresented,  and  of  giving  to  Christians  very  false 
opinions  concerning  Him.  This  was  the  case  with  the  other  meta- 
phors also,  but  we  may  illustrate  it  in  the  special  instance  of  the 
word  "ransom"  {iiviiXvipov).  The  word  was  meant  to  teach  us 
that  the  effect  of  the  death  of  Christ  as  regards  man  was  the  same  as 
the  deliverance  of  a  captive  by  the  payment  of  a  ransom.  When 
men  pushed  the  metaphor  into  other  regions,  when,  as  it  were,  they 
wished  to  attach  importance  to  its  accidental  shadows,  they  began  to 
inquire  to  whom  the  ransom  was  paid.      Irenseus  suggested,t  and 

*  Dean  Plumptre.  f  Iren.,  Hacr.,  V.  i. 


The  Figurative  Element  in  Bible  Language.  399 

Origen,  whose  mind  was  naturally  speculative,  answered,  that  it  was 
paid  to  the  devil.*  The  answer  awoke  a  few  isolated  protests  here 
and  there,  of  which  one  came  from  Athanasius  ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it 
was  the  current  view  of  theologians  for  many  centuries.  And  yet 
how  entirely  false  it  was,  and  how  dangerously  unwarrantable  !  And 
how  worse  than  unscriptural  were  the  subsequent  refinements  upon 
it  that  the  devil  had  been  deceived  by  the  icarnation  into  accepting 
this  ransom  !  t 

Yet  such  was  the  teaching  of  not  a  few  great  theologians,  and, 
amongst  others,  of  Peter  Lombard,  whose  "Sentences"  was  one  of 
the  chief  theological  handbooks  of  the  Middle  Ages.i  St.  Anselm, 
however,  in  his  Citr  Dens  Homo,  was  the  first  who  deliberately  and 
distinctly  repudiated  this  false  theory,  on  the  ground  that  "it  con- 
tradicts the  omnipotence  or  goodness  of  the  Creator  to  suppose  that 
He  can  recognise  any  right  of  evil  or  injustice  in  that  universe  which 
is  His  own ; "  and  that  "  an  unjust  victory  (like  that  of  Satan)  could 
confer  no  claims,  nor  could  wrong,  because  it  was  successful,  become 
the  ground  of  an  immoral  right."§ 

I  began  with  a  wise  rule  of  the  rabbis ;  I  will  end  with  a  no  less 
wise  Christian  principle.  It  is  equally  obvious  with  the  other,  yet  no 
less  necessary  and  no  less  neglected.  It  is  the  rule  of  St.  Augustine 
— Scriptura  est  sensiis  Scripturce.  If  any  one  will  examine  the  "  proof- 
texts  "  adduced  for  endless  "  private  interpretations "  of  what 
Christianity  is  and  means,  he  will,  I  think,  be  fairly  astonished  at  the 
total  irrelevance  of  many  of  them.  But  whether  a  text  be  adduced  in 
a  literal  sense  when  it  is  clear  that  its  literal  sense  was  never  meant 
to  be  pressed,  or  in  a  mystical  sense  when  there  is  not  the  least  trace 
of  allegory  or  a  hidden  spiritual  sense,  it  will  have  no  value,  no 
cogency,  unless  we  can  prove  that  the  words,  whether  plain  or 
metaphorical,  really  did  convey,  and  were  meant  to  convey,  the 
meaning  assigned  to  them.  "  By  giving  Scripture  a  wrong  sense," 
says  Bishop  Wordsworth,  "  men  make  God's  Word  become  their  own 
non-word,  or  even  the  Tempter's  word,  and  then  Scripture  is  used 
for  our  destruction,  instead  of  making  us  wise  unto  salvation." 


*  Orig.,  In  Matthew,  lom.  XIII.  9. 
t  Orig.,  loc.  cit. 

\  Peter  Lombard  {Sent.  II.  19) :  "The  cross,"  such  is  his  unworthy  metaphor, 
was  a  mouse-trap  baited  with  Christ's  blood." 
§  See  Oversham,  "The  Catholic  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement,"  pp.  139,  167. 


400  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

LESSON. 
Lesson  Jor  October  26th.    Luke  xxii.  39-53.     Golden  Text,  Isaiah  liii.  3. 

Jesus  in  Gethsemane. 
There  are  three  wonderful  gardens  spoken  of  in  Holy  Scripture — 
Eden,  Gethsemane,  and  Paradise.  The  first  garden  has  a  history  of 
sin  and  sorrow  on  our  part ;  the  second  garden  has  a'  history  of 
sorrow  without  sin  on  Christ's  part ;  the  last  has  neither  sin  nor 
sorrow.  Lost  in  Eden,  we  were  redeemed  in  Gethsemane,  and  those 
who  are  thus  redeemed  shall  be  glorified  in  Paradise. 

Let  us  think  then  of  this  garden  of  Gethsemane  of  which  we  read 
in  our  lesson.  Perhaps  some  of  our  friends,  on  returning  from 
Eastern  travels,  may  have  brought  to  us  some  memorials  of  this 
garden — a  memento  carved  from  its  olive  wood,  or  some  pressed 
flowers,  or  a  fragment  of  its  limestone.  And  perhaps  you  may  wish 
very  much  to  set  your  foot  on  this  spot  of  earth  where  Jesus  our 
Lord  drank  to  the  dregs  the  cup  of  agony.  But  travellers  tell  us 
that  there  are  two  rival  Gethsemanes.  One  place,  called  the  True 
Gethsemane,  is  an  enclosure  walled  round  by  the  Latins ;  the  other  is 
a  little  distant,  and  is  walled  round  by  the  Greeks.  Both  of  these 
are  under  lock  and  key,  and  rival  guides  besiege  visitors  and  dare  to 
make  money  out  of  the  Saviour's  agony.  The  New  Testament  lends 
no  help  to  the  keeping  sacred  of  holy  gardens  or  holy  graves — it 
knows  nothing  of  holy  land  or  holy  water.  The  spot  is  nothing — 
what  took  place  there  is  everything.  All  was  outward  peace  in  this 
moonlit  garden  of  olives,  but  a  great  inward  fight  was  fought  and 
won  in  its  calm.  The  olive  was  the  emblem  of  peace,  and  Jesus  is 
our  Olive,  our  Peace. 

Next  think  of  our  Lord's  mysterious  sorrow.  This  is  a  subject  of 
deep  solemnity  and  mystery,  and  we  must  always  feel  how  utterly 
unable  we  are  to  understand  it  fully.  The  sorrow  was  very  intense. 
Before  it  was  over  "  His  sweat  was  as  great  drops  of  blood."  This 
agony  wrung  from  our  Saviour  a  great  cry — "  O,  my  Father,  if  it  be 
possible  let  this  cup  pass  from  Me ;  nevertheless  not  as  I  will,  but  as 
Thou  wilt."  He  calls  this  a  cttp  of  suffering,  resting  on  the  image  of 
some  potion,  which,  however  bitter,  must  be  drained,  since  such  is 
His  will  who  has  put  it  into  the  hands.  And  what  made  this  cup  so 
bitter  ?  The  true  explanation  of  the  sorrow  in  the  garden  and  the  agony 
on  the  Cross  is  that  Christ  was  bearing  in  some  way  the  sins  of  a  lost 
world.  "  The  Lord  laid  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  Not  for  one 
moment  did  He  say,  "  This  cup  is  not  Mine  :  let  the  sinner  drink  his 
own  cup."  "  That  bitter  cup  love  drank  it  up."  The  contest  is  over 
and  the  conquest  is  won,  and  an  angel  from  heaven  came  and 
ministered  to  Him. 

It  has  been  well  said,  "There  will  be  no  Christian  but  will  have  a 
Gethsemane,  and  every  praying  Christian  will  find  that  there  is  no 
Gethsemane  without  its  angel." 


The  British  IVeekly  P^ilpit 

No.  130,  Vol.  III.  OCTOBER  30,  1890.  One  Penny. 


NEW  LIGHT  ON  CHRISTIANITY. 

A  Sertnon  by 

The    Rev.   W.  Sanday,    M.A.,  Exeter   College,   Dean    Ireland's 

Professor  of  the  Exegesis  of  Holy  Scripture,  Oxford. 

"  Open  Thou  mine  eyes,  that  I  may  behold  wondrous  things  out  of  Thy  law." — 
Ps.  cxix.  18. 

In  Christianity  as  a  formulated  system  there  are  three  main  elements  : 
(i)  the  common  foundation  of  Hebrew  religion  as  contained  in  the 
Old  and  New  Testaments,  but  primarily  in  the  Old ;  (2)  a  specially 
Christian  element  which  is  due  to  the  life  and  work  of  Christ ;  (3) 
certain  peculiar  forms  of  expression,  gradually  determined  upon  after 
six  centuries  of  keen  controversy,  which  are  to  a  large  extent  of 
Greek  origin.  Compared  with  these,  the  part  really  contributed  by 
modern  times  is  very  small  indeed.  I  do  not  say  that  modern 
thought  is  not  very  largely  affecting  our  conception  of  Christianity ; 
but  so  far  it  has  done  so  only  in  a  vague  and  indefinite  way.  The 
influence  derived  from  this  source  has  not  succeeded  in  impressing 
itself  upon  Creeds  and  Articles.  The  really  formative  elements  in 
these  will,  I  think,  be  found  to  be  those  which  I  have  just 
enumerated. 

At  the  present  moment  attention  is  being  turned  in  full  stream 
upon  the  first.  It  is  likely  also,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  to  be  directed 
shortly  to  the  third.  The  question  of  the  Old  Testament  comes 
home  to  so  many  that  it  may  be  described  as  a  popular  question. 
The  question  of  Greek  thought  can  hardly  reach  these  dimensions, 
but  it  cannot  fail  to  attract  to  itself  the  careful  study  of  thinking  and 
far-seeing  men.  It  is  fraught  with  issues  of  considerable  im- 
portance, which  will  perhaps  occasion  some  anxiety  at  first,  but 
which,  I  believe,  will  be  found  to  bode  good  and  not  harm  in  the  end. 

I  am  led  to  make  these  remarks  by  the  approaching  publication  of 
Dr.  Hatch's  Hibbert  Lectures,  in  which,  with  the  boldness  and 
originality  characteristic  of  him,  he  grappled  with  this  problem,  so 
far  as  my  knowledge  extends,  for  the  first  time  on  English  ground. 
I  do  not  doubt  that  these  Lectures  will  be  found  greatly  stimulating 
to  thought,  though  another  series  of  inquiries  may  be  necessary  in 
order  to  complete  them.  What  Dr.  Hatch  has  done  has  been  to  trace 
broadly  the  transition  or  transplantation  of  certain  ideas  and  usages 
from  the  sphere  of  Hellenism  to  that  of  Christianity.  What  remains 
to  be  done  is  to  apply  a  close  analysis,  one  by  one,  to  the  works  of 


402  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

the  early  Christian  writers,  so  as  to  ascertain  in  what  proportions  the 
difterent  elements  of  which  we  have  spoken,  and  particularly  the 
Greek  element,  were  present  in  them. 

A  beginning  has  been  made  already  in  this  direction  in  Germany, 
but  not,  I  think,  at  all  in  England.  It  may  perhaps  be  instructive  to 
take  a  brief  survey  of  the  history  of  the  subject  and  of  the  place  at 
which  the  problem  now  stands.  To  Dr.  Hatch  I  rather  think  the 
problem  presented  itself  mainly  as  an  abstract  one.  He  had  studied 
Philo  and  the  Neo-platonists ;  he  had  studied  the  Stoics ;  and  he 
observed  in  the  Christian  writers  and  in  Christian  controversies  the 
recurrence  of  terms  and  conceptions  which  he  had  met  with  outside 
Christianity.  To  the  Germans  the  problem  came  as  in  the  first  instance 
historical.  It  goes  back,  I  suppose,  to  Baur.  He  definitely  asked  himself 
the  question,  How  are  we  to  account  for  that  conception  of  Christianity 
which  we  find  in  possession  of  the  field  at  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
and  increasingly  so  as  time  went  on  ?  Any  one  who  looks  at  once 
with  candour  and  with  penetration  at  the  Christianity  of  Irenseus  at 
one  end  of  the  Christian  world,  and  of  Clement  of  Alexandria  at  the 
other,  will  see  that  there  is  a  considerable  interval  between  it  and  the 
Christianity  of  Christ  and  the  Apostles.  How  was  this  interval  to  be 
accounted  for  ?  What  shifting  of  elements  had  taken  place  ?  What 
was  there  in  the  one  which  there  was  not  in  the  other  ?  Baur,  with 
his  keen  insight  into  the  turning-points  of  history,  took  hold  of  this 
question  and  set  himself  to  solve  it.  The  solution  which  he  proposed 
is  well-known.  It  proceeded  on  the  lines  of  a  Hegelian  antinomy  : 
and  it  was  to  the  effect  that  in  the  Apostolic  age  there  were  two  great 
opposing  forces,  Jewish  Christianity  or  Ebionism  on  the  one  hand, 
and  Pauline  or  Gentile  Christianity  on  the  other  ;  by  degrees  these 
two  opposites  became  reconciled  by  dropping  their  distinctive  features, 
and  Catholicism,  or  the  average  creed  of  the  Christian  world  at  the 
year  200,  was  the  result.  Since  the  time  of  Baur,  a  number  of  attempts 
have  been  made  to  improve  upon  his  view.  In  the  most  successful  of 
these  attempts  two  negative  factors  were  recognised  and  one  positive. 
The  negative  factors  were  that  the  writers  who  immediately  succeeded 
the  Apostles  failed  really  to  grasp  the  deeper  side  of  the  teaching  of 
St.  Paul,  and  that  they  also  failed  to  understand  the  Old  Testament. 
The  positive  factor  was  that  they  imported  into  Christian  speculation 
the  principles  which  they  had  learned  in  the  schools  of  Greek 
philosophy.  The  insight  into  the  weakened  apprehension  of  St.  Paul's 
teaching  has  been  rather  widely  shared.  It  is  found  in  writers  like 
Neander,  who  made  the  great  mistake  of  supposing  that  this  defective 
apprehension  was  caused  by  a  return  to  Judaism.  It  was  not  a 
peculiarity  of  the  Judaizing  side  of  the  Church,  but  was  common  in 
greater  or  less  degree  to  all  parties.  The  bringing  out  of  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  Old  Testament  was  due  to  the  strongest  of  all  the  disciples 
of  Baur,  who  went  back  upon  and  corrected  the  conclusions  of  his 
master,  in  a  work  which  has  done  more  than  any  other  with  which  I 
am  acquainted  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  really  sound  conception  ol" 


New  Light  on  Christianity.  403 

the  course  of  events  in  the  second  century — Albrecht  Ritschl.  Since 
Ritschl  published  the  second  improved  and  developed  edition  of  his 
work  on  the  Origin  of  the  Old  Catholic  Church  in  1857,  ^"^  excellent 
monograph,  constructed  upon  his  lines,  came  out  in  1878  on  the 
Christianity  of  Justin  Martyr  by  Dr.  Martin  von  Engelhardt.  Von 
Engelhardt  was  Professor  at  Dorpat,  where  I  beheve  that  he  had  for 
pupil  Adolph  Harnack,  and  I  suspect  that  that  fertile  and  able  writer 
owes  not  a  few  of  his  best  and  soundest  ideas  to  his  old  teacher. 
Quite  recently  a  similar  monograph  by  Werner  on  the  Paulinism  of 
Irenaeus  has  appeared  under  his  auspices,  which  is,  however,  not  per- 
haps free  from  exaggeration.  By  all  these  writers  alike  the  element 
which  took  the  place  of  the  missing  constituents  of  Apostolic  Chris- 
tianity is  sought  in  the  current  Greek  philosophies,  either  apprehended 
immediately  or  filtering  downwards  into  popular  thought.  We  might 
sum  up  their  construction'of  the  history  of  doctrine  very  briefly  thus. 
Through  defective  understanding  first  of  St.  Paul  and  then  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  through  the  influence  of  Greek  ideas,  there  arose  the 
older  Catholicism  of  the  early  Christian  centuries  which  has  had  a 
continuous  development  down  to  modern  times.  St.  Augustine 
(partially)  and  the  Reformers  (again  partially)  rediscovered  St.  Paul ; 
and  I  will  make  bold  to  add  that  the  full  rediscovering  and  full  appropri- 
ating of  the  Old  Testament  are  the  special  problems  of  our  own  day. 
Many  will  think  no  doublt  that  this  is  an  arrogant  claim.  I  hope 
it  is  not  made  in  any  spirit  of  arrogance,  but  simply  in  deference  to 
what  seem  to  be  the  actual  facts.  I  am  anxious  not  to  go  a  step 
beyond  these.  Of  course  it  is  true  that  a  large  and  substantial  part  of 
the  spirit  of  Christianity  was  perpetuated  by  Irenaeus  and  his  contem- 
poraries. In  particular  one  primary  doctrine,  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos, 
which  fell  in  with  the  prevalent  tendencies  of  thought,  was  seized  hold 
of  by  them  with  great  tenacity,  and  developed  in  great  wealth  and  ful- 
ness of  detail.  But  when  we  turn  to  another  side  of  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures — to  St.  Paul's  deep  and  inward  conception  of  faith,  to  the 
mingled  attraction  and  awe  with  which  he  looked  on  the  "  scandal  of 
the  Cross,"  to  that  long  series  of  oppositions  between  works  and  grace, 
law  and  promise,  law  and  Gospel— in  place  of  which  we  find  Chris- 
tianity regarded  as  itself  merely  a  second  revised  system  of  law — we 
feel  how  much  has  been  lost  in  the  process  of  transmission.  Even  if 
-we  take  a  great  fundamental  idea  like  that  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
which  dominates  alike  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New,  we  have  to 
wait  until  we  come  to  St.  Augustine  before  it  is  worked  out 
at  all  on  an  adequate  scale ;  and  even  then  it  is  not  worked 
out  exactly  on  the'  lines  of  the  original  conception.  When  we  think 
of  these  things  and  of  many  more — the  growth  of  the  Messianic 
Idea,  sublime  personifications  like  the  Servant  of  Jehovah,  the 
use  which  Jeremiah  makes  of  his  doctrine  of  the  twofold  Covenant, 
all  those  wonderfully  tender  personal  relations  between  God  and  His 
people  implied  in  the  Psalms  and  the  Prophets  which  shrink  into  the 
cold  oVrais  ov  of  the  philosophers — when  we    think  of  all  this,  we 


404  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

cannot  help  being  conscious  that  we  do  indeed  see  them  more  in  their 
true  proportions  than  the  early  Fathers  did. 

And  yet  let  us  be  just  to  these  founders  of  the  Church  and  of 
Christian  theology  to  whom  we  really  owe  so  much.  Let  us  try  to 
put  in  its  right  light  the  relation  in  which  we  stand  to  them.  We 
think  that  we  understand  the  Bible  better  than  they  did.  There  can 
be  little  doubt  that  we  do  understand  it  better.  But  that  is  not  because 
we  are  great  men  and  they  are  small,  but  because  the  Bible  is  great, 
and  it  has  taken  many  centuries  hitherto  and  will  take  a  considerable 
time  longer  still  before  we  understand  it  thoroughly.  If  the  Jews  so 
misinterpreted  their  own  Bible,  as  they  certainly  did  in  the  time  of  our 
Lord,  can  we  wonder  if  those  who  were  not  Jews  by  birth,  but  brought 
up  under  very  different  conditions,  failed  to  understand  it  ?  I  will  not 
deny  absolutely  the  truth  that  there  is  in  allegory  ;  but  few  of  us  would 
be  willing  to  apply  it  as  the  universal  key  to  the  unlocking  of  the  Old 
Testament,  as  some  of  the  best  and  greatest  minds  of  antiquity  were 
ready  to  apply  it.  The  fashioning  of  the  methods  by  which  the  secret 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  to  be  approached  and  elicited  has  taken  many 
centuries.  We  are  not  yet  agreed  about  it ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  it 
is  being  too  sanguine  to  feel  that  we  are  drawing  nearer  to  it.  We 
are  beginning  to  feel  the  warmth  and  the  life  and  the  reality 
comes  back  to  those  pale  and  shadowy  figures.  Isaiah  and  Hosea 
and  Jeremiah  no  longer  walk  in  a  limbiis  Patriuu,  but  we  see  them 
as  they  were  among  the  forces  by  which  they  were  actually  sur- 
rounded. We  see  what  they  were  as  men ;  we  see  what  they 
were  as  exponents  of  a  message  from  God ;  we  see  the  grand  and 
glorious  ideas  which  stirred  within  them  in  all  their  richness  and 
fulness,  conditioned,  yet  not  wholly  conditioned,  by  the  world  of 
thought  and  action  in  which  they  moved.  We  see  these  ideas  linking 
themselves  together,  stretching  hands  as  it  were  across  the  ages, 
the"  root-principles  of  the  Old  Testament  running  on  into  the  New, 
and  there  attaining  developments  which  may  have  been  present  to 
the  Divine  mind — though  they  cannot  have  been  present  to  the 
human  instruments  whose  words  went  and  came  at  its  prompting. 
The  famous  saying  of  St.  Augustine  had  a  deeper  sense  than  even 
he  imagined  for  it.  The  New  Testament  was  latent  in  the  Old,  not 
merely  in  the  sense  in  which  the  type  might  be  said  to  embrace  the 
thing  typified  ;  the  Old  Testament  is  patent  in  the  New,  not  merely 
in  the  sense  in  which  one  series  of  events  may  be  said  to  reflect 
another,  but  by  a  more  vital  and  organic  connection.  The  further 
enquiry  goes,  the  more  impressively  does  it  appear  how  much  the 
leading  ideas  of  the  New  Testament  had  their  way  prepared  for 
them,  and  by  what  strict  continuity  of  growth  they  spring  out  of  the 
leading  ideas  of  the  Old.  There  is  a  field  here  which  I  cannot  help 
thinking  will  be  ploughed  and  worked  in  the  near  future  more  effec- 
tively than  it  has  been.  But  this  idea  of  the  organic  connection  of 
thought  with  thought  is  comparatively  a  recent  one ;  and  to  expect 
it  to  determine  the  work  of  the  older  commentators  as  it  ought  to 


Nciv  Light  on  Christianity.  405 

determine  ours  would  be  as  absurd  as  to  expect  that  primeval  man 
should  be  equipped  with  the  encyclopaedia  of  science. 

But  if  there  is  such  a  valid  excuse  for  the  great  men  of  old  as 
Excgetcs,  they  hardly  need  an  excuse  at  all  in  their  other  capacity 
as  Lfogniatists.  If  the}-^  are  only  judged  fairly  as  they  ought  to  be 
judged,  that  is  with  reference  to  their  own  time  and  circum- 
stances, we  shall  be  so  far  from  scoffing  at  them  that  we  shall  be 
rather  lost  in  wonder  at  the  edifice  which  they  reared.  Certainly 
as  much  brain  power  went  to  the  building  up  of  this  as  to  any 
of  the  best  of  our  modern  systems.  Note  the  closeness  and 
precision  of  thought ;  note  the  accuracy  with  which  one  detail  is 
fitted  into  another;  note  the  multitude  of  speculations,  sometimes, 
it  is  true,  resting  upon  mistaken  premisses,  but  often  really  pro- 
found and  striking,  by  which  they  are  surrounded ;  note  the  symmetry 
and  harmony  of  the  total  result  as  it  is  summed  up  for  instance  in 
the  Athanasian  Creed-^and  anyone  who  is  capable  of  appreciating  an 
intellectual  construction,  and  can  divest  himself  of  his  modern  notions 
will,  I  think,  be  most  powerfully  affected  by  it.  One  would  like  as 
an  experiment  to  set  down  some  well-trained  modern  scholar,  with  no 
appliances  but  his  own  unaided  thinking,  before  the  problems  with 
which  the  ancients  wrestled,  and  then  to  compare  the  result,  say  with 
a  page  of  St.  Cyril  of  Alexandria,  and  I  do  not  think  that  we  should 
find  the  comparison  very  flattering  to  our  vanity.  To  say  that  the 
ancients  worked  with  the  tools  which  lay  to  their  hands,  that 
they  operated  with  ideas  which  were  the  staple  of  the  schools  and 
lecture-rooms  about  them,  is  so  much  a  matter  of  course  that  but  for 
the  extent  to  which  it  has  been  forgotten,  it  would  hardly  need  to  be 
insisted  on.  With  our  modern  machinery  we  can  produce  circles  and 
angles  more  exact  than  many  an  old-world  craftsman  without  posses- 
sing a  tenth  part  of  his  skill  of  hand  and  eye. 

And  yet,  on  the  other  hand,  I  should  be  quite  prepared  to 
lay  stress  upon  the  fact  that  the  formularies  which  were  the 
product  of  all  'this  intellectual  subtlety  and  vigour  have  a  value 
which  is  primarily  historical  and  relative.  They  stand  in  living 
relation  to  the  past  rather  than  to  the  present.  The  problems  of 
to-day  have  drifted  away  from  them  :  and  if  we  go  to  them  for  a 
solution  of  these  problems  the  answer  we  shall  get  must  needs  be 
imperfect  and  partial.  May  we"  not  say  that  the  simile  which  would 
best  describe  them  would  be  that  of  the  stations  along  our  old  coach- 
roads  from  which  the  traffic  has  been  turned  into  other  channels  ? 
They  stand  as  landmarks  which  are  speaking  witnesses  to  a  bygone 
time,  but  which  no  longer  serve  for  the  practical  uses  of  the  present, 
or  which  serve  them  so  far  only  as  the  present  is  a  direct  outcome  of 
the  past.  A  great  mass  of  wisdom  is  embodied  in  them — the  wisdom 
not  of  an  individual  working  in  his  study  or  his  cell,  but  the  wisdom 
of  a  Church  or  family  of  Churches  all  bringing  their  contributions 
to  the  common  stock,  and  testing  each  clause  by  the  fire  of  an  active 
and  searching  criticism.     Given  the  premisses,  and  I   think  we  may 


406  The  British  Weekly  Piilpit. 

say  still  that  a  better  result  could  not  have  been  obtained ;  and  that 
result  has  been  verified  by  the  assumption  and  practice  of  ages.  To 
this  day  I  doubt  if  any  different  conclusion  could  justify  itself, 
approached  along  the  same  lines.  So  far  as  our  problems  are  identi- 
cal I  doubt  if  we  shall  have  any  need,  or,  if  we  had  the  need,  I  doubt 
if  we  should  have  the  power,  to  reopen  the  decisions  of  united 
Christendom.  But  the  problems  which  pre?s  upon  us  most  urgently 
are  not  identical :  the  premisses  which  we  have  to  assume  in  dealing 
with  them  are  a  different  set  of  premisses,  and  it  seems  to  me  wrong 
to  invoke  laws  to  decide  cases  which  when  they  were  framed  were 
never  or  but  imperfectly  contemplated. 

The  practical  moral  which  I  would  venture  to  draw  from  the  whole 
situation  is  this,  that  we  should  not  spend  our  time  in  the  cheap  and 
easy  but  demoralising  employment  of  undervaluing  the  wisdom  of  our 
forefathers,  and  congratulating  ourselves  upon  our  own,  but  that  we 
should  rather  face  and  grapple  with  the  positive  tasks  which  lie 
before  us.  We  say  that  .the  ancients  had  a  defective  understanding 
of  the  Old  Testament  and  a  defective  understanding  of  St.  Paul. 
There  are  doubtless  some  who  will  need  to  have  this  proved  to  them  ; 
for  them  let  us  prove  it.  And,  having  proved  it,  let  us  go  on  to  the 
next  step  and  see  that  we  get  an  understanding  of  both  these  prime 
constituents  of  Christianity  which  is  not  defective.  Supposing  it  to 
be  made  out  that  there  has  been  in  the  formulating  of  Christian 
doctrine  a  certain  encroachment  of  Ilellenism,  the  true  way  to 
redress  the  balance  is — not  to  disparage  Hellenism,  which  surely  had 
a  work  to  do  in  the  providence  of  God  as  well  as  Hebraism,  but  to 
go  back  to  the  old  Hebraic  foundations  of  our  religion  and  lay 
them  again  more  deeply  and  more  firmly — or  rather  see  how 
they  "have  been  laid  by  an  Architect  wiser  and  mightier  than  we.  To 
do  this  as  it  ought  to  be  done  would  alone  be  the  work  of  any 
ordinary  generation.  How  from  all  sides  does  the  call  come  to  us  to 
be  up  and  doing !  To  us  indolent  dwellers  in  Zion  who  have  taken 
our  ease  by  our  rivers  that  flow  softly,  thinking  to  enjoy  our  cakes 
o^  fine  meal  and  our  wine,  though  we  have  left  it  to  others  to  cut  the 
corn  and  to  gather  in  the  vintage  and  to  bear  all  the  burden  and  heat 
of  the  day.  I  speak  not  to  those  whose  study  is  theology  alone.  The 
wiiversitas  literarum  includes  all  the  sciences  :  they  form  a  single  body  ; 
and  if  one  member  suffers  all  the  others  suffer  with  it.  Let  us  march 
altogether ;  let  us  take  our  exercise  altogether  in  the  same  palaestra — 
not  in  dilettante  fashion  like  half-hearted  competitors,  but  like  men 
who  arc  determined  to  run  for  the  prize  and  who  are  prepared  to 
undergo  the  requisite  training  before  they  enter  for  it.  Then  let  the 
scholar  help  the  theologian  and  the  theologian  the  scholar ;  and  let 
the  historian  lend  a  hand  to  and  receive  a  hand  from  both.  Some- 
times it  is  said  that  the  subjects  of  study  are  being  exhausted.  And 
perhaps  it  may  be  so  with  some  subjects ;  but  the  date  when  anything 
of  the  kind  will  be  true  is  far  distant  in  ours.  I  have  said  enough  to 
show  what  fruitful  openings  lie  close  to  us.     And  the  special   beauty 


My  Father's  House.  407 


of  theological  study  is  that  knowledge  does  not  lie  wide  apart  from 
practice,  but  that  in  proportion  as  we  acquire  the  one  we  ought  to  be 
building  up  a  body  of  principles  to  apply  to  the  other.  When  we  go 
for  these  to  the  Bible  we  are  in  no  danger  of  being  disappointed. 
And  we  shall  find,  or  I  am  much  mistaken,  that  each  fresh  discovery 
gilds  with  some  new  light  or  invests  with  some  new  reality,  truths 
which  had  seemed  to  be  trite  and  hackneyed.  I  do  not  say  that  every 
discovery  will  be  what  is  called,  on  a  superficial  view,  a  "con- 
firmation." It  may  be  of  that  sort  which  sends  us  back  and  back 
again  for  further  enquiry.  But  the  ultimate  result  must  be  to 
strengthen  the  stakes  and  lengthen  the  co'ds,  to  deepen  our  apprehension 
and  to  extend  its  application.  It  is  no  less  true  now  than  ever  it  has 
been  that  the  surest  means  of  religious  advance  is  to  be  sought  in 
renewed  stud}'  of  the  Bible.  What  we  need  especially  at  this  moment 
is  freshness,  a  real  getting  at  the  heart  of  the  matter  instead  of  dallying 
with  the  outside.  And  I  question  if  we  shall  get  this  in  any  better 
way  than  by  approaching  our  task  under  the  guidance  of  Criticism 
and  History — of  Criticism  and  History  not,  as  too  often,  dissevered 
from,  but  united  with  Religion. 


MY    FATHER'S   HOUSE. 

By  James  M.  King,  D.D.,  New  York. 

"My  Father's  house.' — John  xiv.  2. 

You  are  familiar  with  the  context  in  which  these  words  appear.  The 
Saviour  says,  "Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  Ye  believe  in  God; 
believe  also  in  Me.  In  My  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  If 
it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  will  come  again  and 
receive  you  unto  Myself,  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also.  And 
whither  I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know." 

Some  scholars  declare  that  "  the  Father's  house "  refers  to  the 
universe  of  His  creation — all  His  dominion — considering  that  the 
many  mansions  constitute  the  various  regions  in  which  His  unfallen 
and  intelligent  creatures  dwell.  But  the  Lord  Christ  spoke  of  the 
Temple  as  the  Father's  house.  In  it  were  many  mansions  or  apart- 
ments :  one  for  the  leper,  who  was  healed,  to  purify  himself;  another 
for  the  Nazarite,  the  term  of  whose  vow  had  expired,  to  be  shaven 
and  cleansed;  another  for  the  treasures  and  musical  instruments  of 
the  Levites.  And  it  is  in  this,  I  think,  you  will  find  the  type  which 
our  Lord  employs  in  the  expression,  "  In  my  Father's  house  are  many 
mansions." 

The  Temple  was  the  home  of  the  nation.  Every  one  had  an 
interest  in  it.  But  the  various  classes  had  their  separate  and  peculiar 
apartments  in  this  one  common  home.  And  the  Lord  hints  that  we 
shall  not  visit  the  presence  of  God  as  Gentiles  did  the  Temple,  but  as 
Jews.     We  shall  dwell  in  the  courts  of  His  liouse.     The  idea  of  the 


408  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

text  is  intensely  that  of  home.  We  all  belong  to  the  Father's  family. 
It  matters  not  whether  we  ignore  the  family  relationship  or  not.  It 
matters  not  even  though  we  may  have  taken  our  portion  of  the  sub- 
stance and  gone  and  expended  it  upon  riotous  living.  We  neverthe- 
less belong  to  the  Father's  family.  Sinfulness  and  disobedience  do 
not  destroy  the  fact  of  the  parentage  of  the  human  race  any  more  than 
they  destroy  the  fact  of  the  human  parentage — the  relationship  we 
sustain  to  our  earthly  parents. 

I  want  to  meditate  a  little  while  to-night  with  you  upon  what  the 
Father's  house,-  or  heavenly  home,  is  by  what  human' homes  are. 

Home,  in  the  first  place,  is  the  place  of  unfettered  joy.  The  boy 
at  school  must  be  restrained,  and  must  be  disciplined  if  he  is  ever  to 
amount  to  anything  in  this  world.  But  home,  to  him,  means  freedom 
from  tasks  and  routine.  The  man  becomes  a  boy  again  when  he  is 
at  home.  One  of  the  most  beautiful  pictures  drawn  by  the  hand  of 
that  artist,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  given  us  in  "The  Autocrat  of 
the  Breakfast  Table,"  represents  a  man  who  is  somewhat  along  in 
years— in  middle  age,  perhaps — in  the  midst  of  home  joys,  and, 
looking  upon  the  innocence  of  the  childhood  about  him  and  the  youth 
near  him,  he  cries  out : 

"  O  for  one  year  of  j'outhful  joy ! 
Give  back  my  twentieth  spring ! 
I'd  rather  laugh,  a  bright-haired  boy, 
Than  reign  a  grey-haired  king." 

But  the  angel  says  to  him,  "  How  about  that  wife,  that  in  your 
youth  you  wedded,  and  to  whom,  by  ties  of  affection  3^ou  were 
joined  ?  "     "  Oh,  I  wouldn't  lose  my  wife." 

"  The  angel  took  a  sapphire  pen, 
And  wrote,  in  rainbow  dew, 
'  The  man  would  be  a  boy  again. 
And  be  a  husband,  too ! ' " 

"  But,"  says  the  inquiring  angel  to  him,  "how  about  the  children 
that  are  about  you  ?  "     "  Oh,  I  can't  lose  the  children." 

"  The  angel  took  a  sapphire  pen, 

And  wrote,  in  rainbow  dew, 
'  The  man  would  be  a  boy  again, 
And  be  a  father,  too  !  '  " 

Home  makes  every  man  who  is  worthy  the  name  of  man  conscious 
of  a  return  to  boyhood  again.  Home  is  the  place  of  pleasurable 
rroi'k.  There  is  v/ork  in  this  world  that  is  not  very  pleasurable. 
The  man  who  leaves  the  workshop  or  the  counting-house  jaded  and 
worn-out,  thinking  that  he  would  like  to  rest,  comes  home  to  go  on 
with  his  toil,  but  in  the  midst  of  surroundings  that  make  toil  a  rest  to 
him. 

Home  is  the  place  o{  unridiculcd  tenderness ;  and  that  means  a  great 
deal.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  punishment  that  comes  to  man  in  this 
world  by  ridicule ;  but  never  any  of  it,  certainly,  ought  to  be  in  the 


My  Fathei's  House.  409 


home.  It  is  a  place  of  unridiculed  tenderness.  The  endearments  of 
home  are  enjoyed  without  fear  of  the  cynical  sneer  or  the  bantering 
laugh.  It  is  the  place  where  a  man,  who  has  worn  for  self-defence,  and 
honestly,  too,  a  mask  during  the  daytime,  lest  others  might  pierce  his 
heart,  can  throw  off  his  mask  and  be  himself  again.  Don't  you  trust 
a  man  who  is  never  tender  in  his  home.  Such  a  man  has  in  him  the 
essential  elements  of  dishonesty.  I  want  to  find,  before  I  will  trust  a 
man,  even  in  large  human  relationships,  that  he  is  capable  of  making 
bare  his  heart  somewhere. 

Home  is  the  place  of  free  intercourse.  Now  letter-writing  is  no 
small  boon  in  this  world ;  but  after  all,  they  are  but  the  bare  thoughts 
that  are  there  uttered.  It  needs  the  countenance  of  the  speaker,  the 
expression  of  the  eye  ;  it  needs  the  presence  of  the  speaker,  in  order 
that  free,  effective  communication  may  take  place.  Jesus  Christ  has 
written  a  good  many  letters  to  you  and  me.  I  hope  that  the  time  will 
come  when  you  and  I  will  be  able  to  interpret  them  by  the  expression 
of  His  face.  You  take  that  letter  that  comes  to  you  from  mother  or 
loved  one,  when  you  are  away  from  home,  or  when  they  are  away, 
and  you  read  and  interpret  it  in  the  light  of  the  face  that  you  know 
looked  on  it  when  the  letter  was  written.  Oh,  for  the  time  to  come, 
when  3^ou  and  I  shall  be  able  to  interpret  these  wondrous  letters  of 
the  Man  of  Nazareth,  the  brother  of  our  humanity,  in  the  light  of  His 
eyes  upon  us  ! 

Home  is  the  dwelling-place  of  loved  ones.  There  my  best  friends, 
my  kindred  dwell.  Let  us  learn  what  the  Father's  house,  or  heaven, 
is  from  what  homes  ought  to  be.  There  ought  to  be  uninterrupted 
peace  in  the  home  ;  no  jealousies,  no  bitterness.  The  worst  thing  in 
this  world  is  a  family  quarrel ;  the  next  worst  thing  is  a  Church 
quarrel ;  because,  in  connection  with  both,  the  tenderest  ties  and  the 
highest  possibilities  of  happiness  are  sundered  and  rudely  torn  apart. 
Oh,  who  can  conceive,  in  connection  with  an  ideal  home,  jealousies 
between  children  and  jealousies  between  parents,  and  between  children 
and  parents  ?  Who  can  conceive  of  any  pure  blessing  entering  into 
a  home  where  jealousy  has  entered  ?  Certainly  that  kind  of  a  home 
is  not  a  type  of  heaven. 

But  home  ought  to  be  a  place  of  implicit  obedience.  The  Scriptures 
say,  "  His  servants  shall  serve  him,  also  his  children."  I  do  not  mean 
by  that,  severity,  although  very  frequently  the  the  sternest  severity  is 
the  tenderest  mercy.  There  can  be  no  happiness  where  there  is  no 
harmony.  There  can  be  no  harmony  where  there  is  no  law.  There 
can  be  no  law,  producing  harmony,  where  there  is  no  obedience.  But 
love  is  to  be  the  constraining  motive  of  every  action  in  the  home. 
"  Duty  "  is  a  word  for  earth  :  "  Privilege  "  is  its  synonym  in  home 
and  heaven.  It  is  better  for  a  man  to  obey  from  a  sense  of  duty  what 
he  knows  to  be  obligation  in  this  world,  than  not  to  obey  at  all.  It 
is  better  for  a  man  who  is  carnally  disposed  or  wickedly  disposed  to  be 
absolutely  restrained  by  the  strong  hand  of  justice  in  law ;  but  there 
is  not  much  liberty  where  there  is  such  obedience,  and  where  there  is 


41  o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

such  a  motive  in  that  obedience  as  that.  I  conceive  that  in  heaven 
and  in  perfect  homes— approaching,  at  least,  perfection— which-are 
the  types  of  the  Father's  house,  the  home  in  heaven,  there  is  no  such 
word  as  "duty"  ever  used,  but  "privilege,"  Paul,  you  remember, 
said  that  the  soul  that  had  in  it  the  catalogue  of  virtues  to  which  he 
made  reference,  righteousness,  peace,  temperance,  charity,  long- 
suffering,  was  above  law,  simply  because  it  obeys  the  law.  '"  Privi- 
lege" is  the  synonym  for  "  duty  "  in  the  home  that  is  the  type  of 
heaven. 

But,  another  characteristic  of  what  home  ought  to  be  is  chanty ; 
the  actions  of  a  brother,  or  of  a  member  of  the  same  family  circle,' 
never  misjudged.  If  there  is  a  place  in  the  world  where  a  man  ought 
to  be  estimated  absolutely  by  what  he  is  worth,  without  misjudgment, 
it  is  in  the  home  circle.  Gentleness  and  kindness  ought  to  characterise 
the  home  circle  that  is  to  be  the  type  of  heaven.  One  of  the  most 
beautiful  passages  in  all  the  inspired  Word  is  that  which  says,  "  Thy 
gentleness  hath  made  me  great."  Why,  it  is  a  passage  that  you  may 
meditate  upon  and  revolve  in  your  mind,  and  you  will  never  strike 
the  deepest  depths  of  it.  The  gentleness  of  God  making  man  great ! 
Such  power  has  in  it  omnipotence. 

When  that  great  modern  apostle  of  temperance,  perhaps  the  great- 
est now  living,  who  has,  perhaps,  led  more  men  than  any  other  man 
who  ever  lived,  from  inebriety  to  Christian  safety,  excepting  only  John 
B.  Gough,  Francis  Murphy,  when  he  lay  a  criminal,  in  the  cell  up  in 
Maine,  with  the  law  not  yet  enforced  in  its  sentence  upon  him  ;  de- 
graded by  the  power  of  drink  ;  when  missionary  after  missionary  and 
minister  after  minister  went  to  his  side  to  plead  with  him  and  see  if 
they  could  not  get  at  something  that  was  good  in  him— no,  it  was  all 
covered  over  with  the  power  and  the  habit  of  sin,  which  had  come  to 
be  deep  guilt  upon  his  nature.  But  one  day  a  kindly  man  took  a  child 
of  Francis  Murphy  into  the  cell  of  the  prison  where  he  was,  and  she 
stooped  over,  with  the  tears  dropping  his  breast,  and  said  to  him, 
"  Papa,  we  are  homesick  at  our  house  without  you,"  and  what  there 
was  left  of  manhood  and  hope  and  divinity  underneath  all  this  over- 
covering  debris  was  reached,  and  Francis  Murphy,  not  long  after  his 
liberation  and  restoration,  telling  the  incident,  said,  "  Man  is  lost  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  redemption,  if  the  divinity  of  his  nature  does  not 
listen  when  some  child  says,  '  Home  '  in  his  ear."  The  gentleness  of 
the  child  life,  that  had  never  come  to  be  hard,  was  the  messenger  of 
God  to  get  at  the  soul  that  had  been  thus  covered  up. 

Another  element  of  home,  as  it  ought  to  be,  is  security.  As  little 
children  who  believe  in  the  omnipotence  of  a  father's  arm 
and  in  the  equal  omnipotence  of  a  mother's  love,  shall  we  rest 
happy,  happy  for  ever.  A  beautiful  simile  is  used  by  one  whose 
name  I  cannot  give,  giving  a  picture  of  the  home  without  the 
mother  s  power  in  it :  "  Go  into  a  home— pictures  on  the  walls,  ele- 
gant and  expensive  furniture  ;  but  there  is  no  carpet  on  the  floor  and 
no  fire  on  the  hearth.     That  is  home  without  a  mother's  warm  love. 


My  Father's  House.  411 


But  when  the  mother  enters,  the  floor  is  covered,  and  the  tender  and 
elastic  return  at  the  touch  of  the  foot  makes  conscious  of  tenderness, 
and  the  glowing  warmth  of  the  hearth  fire  makes  us  feel  that  this  is 
a  type  of  the  Father's  home." 

Have  you  ever  been  home-sick  ?  Do  you  know  what  it  means  to 
be  home-sick  ?  I  do.  No  person  can  describe  it  to  you  if  you  have 
not  been  home-sick,  and  if  you  have  been  no  one  needs  to  describe 
it  to  you — an  experience  that  has  in  it,  perhaps,  more  of  the  elements 
of  torture  than  any  other  individual  experience.  You  know  that  the 
Swiss  soldiers  are  great  mercenaries.  They  lend  themselves  for  hire  to 
fight  for  other  nationalities,  more  than  any  other  people  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  And  yet  accurate  statistics  say  that  in  certain  cam- 
paigns in  which  these  Swiss  soldiers  had  been  fighting  as  mercen- 
aries, more  of  them  died  actually  from  home-sickness  than  from  the 
shock  of  battle.  It  is  recorded  that  if  the  band,  in  the  midst  of  the 
festivities  of  the  camp,  strikes  up  the  national  air  of  the  Swiss,  the 
mercenar}',  away  from  home,  falls  into  a  fit  of  despondency  for  which 
there  is  no  cure  except  a  discharge  from  the  army  and  telling  him  to 
go  home. 

It  is  to  me  simply  appalling  to  reflect  that  the  sinner,  dying  im- 
penitent, must  be  homeless  for  ever.  It  is  not  my  purpose,  and  it  is 
seldom  my  practice,  to  attempt  to  picture  what  are  the  penalties  of 
final  impenitence  in  this  world.  But  it  is  enough  for  me  to  know,  to 
make  me  seek  to  avoid  it,  and  to  escape  from  it,  that  the  soul  that  has 
not  come  to  the  Father's  house  and  been  adopted  into  the  Father's 
family  through  mercy  and  merit  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  simply  to  be 
homeless  for  ever,  stripped'of  every  comfort,  deprived  of  every  ray  of 
affection.  Heirship  in  Christ  can  alone  prepare  for  the  eternal  home. 
He  is  the  Door  of  the  Father's  house.  "  I  am  the  way,"  He  declares, 
"  and  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  Me."  It  is  recorded  in 
the  twenty-eighth  verse  of  the  twentieth  chapter  of  John,  that  "  then 
the  disciples  went  away  again  to  their  own  home."  The  word 
appears  very  prominently  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures.  It  is  a 
Christian  word,  Dryden  says  that  home  is  the  sacred  refuge  of  our 
life.  The  derivation  of  the  word  is  principally  or  primarily  Saxon, 
and  that  embodies  in  it  a  world  of  instruction.  It  is  that  language 
that  contains  the  thought  most  prevalent  and  most  extended,  con- 
cerning the  redemption  of  the  race  by  Christ  Jesus.  It  is  the 
Saxon  civilisation,  that  is  the  Christian  civilisation,  and  in  its  very 
essence  it  has  words  communicating  thoughts  that  are  not  found  in' 
other  languages.  To  be  at  home  on  any  subject  is  to  be  conversant 
or  familiar  with  it. 

We  have  been  using  home  as  a  type  of  heaven.  Do  you  know 
that  homes  are  not  known  in  countries  where  Christ  is  not  known  ? 
Do  you  know  that  in  Mohanmicdanism  the  very  heart  and  life  that 
constitutes  the  central  thought,  the  fire-place,  the  heart  aflcction 
of  every  home-circle,  womanhood,  maternity,  is  yet  the  plaything  and 
the  gratifier  of  passion  ?     So  that  it  has  come  to  be  true  that  the 


412  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

measure  of  the  civilisation  of  any  people  finds  its  exact  measurement 
in  the  character  of  the  homes  of  the  people.  When  Napoleon  I.  was 
asked  what  were  the  two  greatest  needs  of  modern  France,  his 
first  response  in  order  was,  "  Mothers."     That  simply  meant  homes. 

Dr.  Johnson  says  that  to  be  at  home  is  the  ultimate  result  of  all 
ambition,  the  end  to  which  every  enterprise  and  labour  tends,  and  of 
which  every  desire  prompts  the  prosecution.  It  is  indeed  at  home 
that  every  man  must  be  known  by  those  who  would  make  a  just  esti- 
mate of  his  virtue  or  his  falsity  :  for  smiles  and  embroidery  are  alike 
occasional,  and  the  mind  is  often  dressed  for  show,  in  dainty  honour 
and  in  fictitious  benevolence  ;  but  there  is  no  sham,  no  deception,  no 
possible  cheating  concerning  a  personal  character  in  the  Father's 
home.  So,  when  these  things  are  found  in  the  homes  of  earth,  as 
a  type  they  are  banished. 

Christ  said,  "  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you,  that  where  I  am, 
there  ye  may  be  also."  How  clearly  that  states  the  simple  fact  that 
heaven,  the  home  of  the  follower  of  Christ,  is  where  Christ's  per- 
sonal presence  is.  It  is  the  presence  of  the  Master  that  makes  the 
heaven  of  which  He  is  the  centre.  "  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you, 
that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also."  Is  not  that  true  of  the  homes 
of  earth  ?  Was  that  little  child  far  from  right,  who  came  from  a 
very  common  and  very  neglected  home,  so  far  as  the  external  evi- 
dences of  care  were  concerned,  and,  when  asked  by  a  teacher, 
"  Where  is  your  home,  my  child  ?  "  responded,  "  Where  mother  is." 
So  shall  heaven  be  where  Christ  is. 

Pardon  the  personal  reference.  I  am  myself  a  son  of  an  itinerant 
minister,  as  well  as  an  itinerant  minister  personally.  The  mother  of 
the  home,  with  us,  moved  the  family  twenty  times  during  the  minis- 
terial career  of  my  father.  It  was  literally  true  that  home,  with  us, 
was  where  mother  was.  And  it  is  literally  true  to-day  that  it  matters 
not  how  long  may  have  been  the  time  of  abode  in  any  locality,  it  is 
the  character  of  the  home  that  makes  it  the  type  of  the  skies. 

A  husband,  the  record  says,  had  lived  sixty  years  with  a  faithful 
wife.  He  was  a  man  of  exceeding  wealth,  and  he  erected  a  magnifi- 
cent mausoleum  in  which  to  deposit  the  mortal  remains  of  the  wife 
that  left  him  after  three  score  years  of  united  home  life  ;  and  after 
much  deliberation  for  determining  what  should  be  the  brief  epitaph 
that  should  tell  the  whole  story  upon  that  virtuous,  noble  woman's 
tomb,  that  had  cost  its  scores  upon  scores  of  thousands  of  dollars,  he 
simply  wrote  her  name  finall}',  and  the  sculptor  graved  this  on  th 
tomb,  "  She  always  made  home  happy  " ;  and  that  was  enough.  Th>e 
heart  and  life  that  could  do  that  needed  not  that  they  should  say^ 
"  Blessed  arc  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord."  It  needed  not  that  th  t 
burial  service  should  be  read  over  such  mortality,  out  of  which  suclo 
a  spirit  had  gone.     One  sentence  told  the  whole  story.  a 

Have  you  ever  yearned  to  return  home  when  you  have  been  away.\ 
"  I  long  to  see  home,"  the  sailor  says,  tossed  upon  the  storm-agitated     '] 
deep.     "  I  am  going  home,"  says  the  weary  workman,  oppressed  with     ' 


llie  Three   Marys.  413 


the  toil  and  worn  by  its  friction.  "  I  must  hurry  home,"  says  the 
mother,  thinking  of  the  child  in  the  cradle  that  awaits  her  coming. 
"  Oh,  how  I  long  to  get  home,"  says  the  schoolboy,  who  is  fretted  and 
worried  with  his  tasks.  "  Don't  stop  me  ;  I  am  going  home,"  says  the 
bright  and  beautiful  girl,  who  is  going  away  from  the  things  that 
constituted  the  grace  of  childhood.  "  Almost  home,"  says  the  dying 
Christian  ;  and  in  connection  with  it  comes  the  utterance  from  the 
skies,  "In  My  Father's  house  are  many  mansions.  If  it  were  not  so 
I  would  have  told  you."  Oh,  how  that  makes  me  think,  sometimes, 
that  Christ,  seeing  the  narrow  scope  of  our  vision,  thought  that 
humanity  would  sometimes  say,  "Why,  there  have  been  millions  and 
millions  of  people  that  have  lived  in  this  world.  Is  there  room  for 
them  all  ?  "  "  In  My  Father's  house  are  many  mansions."  If  there 
were  only  a  few  mansions  I  would  have  told  you.  But  there  are  many. 
"  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you,  that  where  I  am,  there  may  ye 
be  also." 

God  grant  that  the  personal  presence  of  Him  who  uttered  this  hope 
of  our  race  may  be  in  the  midst  of  every  family  circle  represented 
here  to-night.  Yea,  more  than  that ;  make  His  home  in  every  heart. 
And  by-and-bye,  all  this  debate  as  to  the  occupations,  as  to  the 
character,  as  to  the  locality  of  the  heaven  which  is  the  Father's  home, 
shall  be  dissipated  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  when,  being  where  He 
is,  we  look  upon  His  face  and  interpret  His  promises  in  the  light  of 
His  smile. 


THE   THREE   MARYS. 
By  Rev.  George  A.  Gordon,  Boston. 

"Now,  there  stood  by  the  cross  of  Jesus  His  mother,  and  His  mother's  sister, 
Mary  the  wife  of  Cleophas,  and  Mary  Magdalene." — John  xix.  25. 

In  the  cathedral  at  Antwerp  hangs  Reuben's  masterpiece,  "The 
Descent  from  the  Cross."  Joseph  of  Arimathea  and  the  mother  of 
Jesus  assist.  Her  face  wears  a  pallor  as  deep  as  that  of  her  Son. 
There  is  something  in  her  soul  deeper  and  diviner  than  mere  sym- 
pathy. There  is  an  identity  of  experience,  and  she  seems  to  feel 
*-'^ony  for  agony,  death  for  death.  The  sister  may,  in  her  expression, 
c^present  sympathy,  but  the  Magdalene,  sorrow-stricken,  yet  full  of 
o  e  sense  of  forgiven  sin,  is  the  impersonation  of  gratitude.  We  may 
o  us  find  in  these   three   Marys  types  of  permanent  human   charac- 

ristics. 
t'  I.  Kinship.     The  relationship  of  Mary  with   the  Crucified  gave 
^epth  and  poignancy  to  her  grief.     He  was  her  Son.     We  arc  God's 
offspring,  sons  and   daughters   of  the   Most   High,  partakers   of  the 
Divine  nature.     We  are  made  to  enter jnto  God's  thought  and  feeling 


414  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

by  virtue  of  this  natural  kinship,  something  as  a  mother  and  child 
have  mutual  experiences  by  reason  of  their  relationship.  Sin,  indeed, 
has  darkened  and  deadened  our  spiritual  powers,  yet  we  have  the 
capacity  which,  renewed  by  grace,  enables  us  to  have  fellowship  with 
Godand  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Think  of  the  possibilities  which  this  idea 
of  identity  of  interests  suggests.  Take  the  realm  of  nature  and  see  how 
we  make  vivid  and  enjoyable  those  objects  which  we  invest  with  living 
attributes.  We  speak  of  a  lofty  mountain  as  a  monarch  and  clothe  its 
glories  and  its  glooms  with  regal  pomp.  It  is  an  emblem  of  power, 
perpetuity,  beneficence.  We  turn  to  the  humble  little  daisy.  It 
seems  to  our  fancy  to  picture  the  exposed,  unsheltered,  imperilled  life 
of  man.  We  look  at  the  river,  flowing  on  century  after  century,  while 
men  may  come  and  men  may  go,  and  the  contrast  is  instructive  so  as 
we  clothe  it  with  a  seeming  life  of  its  own.  Shelley  makes  the  sky- 
lark a  worshipper.  The  domestic  animals,  particularly  the  dog  and 
horse,  are  humanised  into  companions,  and  so  are  more  real  to  our 
feeling  than  inanimate  nature.  But  God  has,  Hke  us,  will,  conscience, 
sensibilities.  He  desires,  loves,  and  hates,  and  so  is  most  closely 
identified  with  us.  To  know  Him  in  all  His  sweeping  activities  and 
adorable  perfections,  to  be  in  holy  fellowship  and  kinship  is  eternal 
life  !  Think  of  Mary  at  the  cross,  and  of  the  possibilities  beyond  to 
her  and  to  all  of  us  as  an  ever-deepening  appreciation  of  Christ  is 
gained.  She  found  in  Christ's  life  an  open  door  and  so  may  we. 
The  thought  is  sublime,  glorious  !  What  an  epoch  when  this  dis- 
covery is  made,  and  what  a  continual  inspiration  it  is  to  realize 
Christ's  continuous  alliance  and  help  in  the  hour  of  our  temptation  and 
travail. 

The  soldier  of  Christ  with  this  impulse  gives  up  indecision,  vain 
regards,  personal  ambition,  and  goes  into  the  conflict  feeling  that  he 
can  do  what  he  is  called  to  do — yea,  "  all  things  through  Him  who 
strengtheneth  him."  All  lower  motives  are  subordinated  to  the  one 
supreme  purpose  of  obedience.  Such  an  experience  steadies  the 
soul,  unites  its  forces,  as  Sumpter's  gun  raised  the  patriotism  of  the 
country  to  a  higher  level  by  the  vivid  light  into  which  it  brought 
truths  and  relationships  before  obscui'ed. 

II.  Sympathy.  There  was  Mary,  the  sister  of  the  mother  of  Jesus 
by  the  cross.  A  sister's  love  is  reverently  and  tenderly  shown. 
Mary,  the  mother,  draws  Mary,  the  sister,  and  the  eyes  of  both  are 
fixed  on  the  dying  and  the  dead  Christ.  Philip  found  Nathanael  and 
said,  "  Come  and  see."  Because  Nathanael  loved  Philip,  he  came 
and  believed.  A  wild  youth,  caring  nothing  for  religion,  in  itself  con- 
sidered, reveres  his  mother's  memory,  checks  the  sneer,  and  often 
finally  yields  to  his  mother's  God,  led  by  her  influence.  "  Come 
with  me  and  I  will  do  you  good,"  one  friend  says  to  another. 
Domestic  piety  hallows  a  home,  and  when  Christ  is  made  to  be 
essential  to  that  home,  the  children  will  never  cease  to  feel  the  power 
of  parental  life.  How  tenderly  Burns  describes  this  in  his  "  Cotter's 
Saturday  Night,"  where  he  says, 


Sermonetie  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.      415 

"  The  sire  turns  o'er  with  patriarchal  grace, 
The  big  ha'  Bible,  once  his  father's  pride, 
He  wales  a  portion  with  judicious  care. 
And  'let  us  worship  God,'  he  says,  with  solemn  air." 

Sympathy  is  a  power  in  the  heart  of  the  man  who  g^oes  forth  into 
the  world  with  generous  spirit  and  observant  eyes.  He  beholds  the 
hard  lot  of  many  who  feel  that  life  is  scarcely  worth  living.  He  sees 
the  poverty,  disease,  sin,  and  death  about  him.  Realising  that  God 
is  our  Father,  we  also  feel  the  fact  of  our  kinship  with  our  suffering 
brother.  Close  to  sympathy  are  the  conscience  and  the  imagination. 
But  there  is  one  more  element. 

III.  Gratitude.  Mary  the  Magdalene  was  bound  to  Jesus  by  the 
bond  of  grateful  affection.  She  will,  to  all  time,  stand  as  the  symbol 
of  forgiven  sinners,  restored  and  ennobled  humanity.  God  first 
awakens  the  heart  to  a  sense  of  sin.  "  My  sin  is  ever  before  me," 
"  My  punishment  is  harder  than  I  can  bear,"  are  the  expressions  of 
the  burdened  soul.  The  humble  publican  abhors  himself  and  feels 
that  he  is  of  nearer  kin  to  the  devil  than  to  God,  yet  cries,  "  Have 
mercy  upon  me,  the  sinner."  So  the  thief  on  the  cross  cries,  "  Lord, 
remember  me."  Do  not  all  these  represent  us.  Have  we,  like  these, 
the  joyous  assurance  of  forgiveness  ?  "  This  day  thou  shalt  be  with 
Me  in  Paradise."  Who  can  sound  the  depth  of  joy  with  which  these 
forgiven  ones  ascribe  the  glory,  honour,  might,  thanksgiving,  and 
praise  to  Him  who  loved  and  forgave  them  ? 

Finally  we  see  our  three-fold  relationship  to  God,  of  kinship,  sym- 
pathy, and  gratitude,  and  the  duty  of  cultivating  a  closer. and  more 
humane  feeling  towards  our  fellow-man,  for  Christ's  sake.  Let  us 
stand  by  each  sufferer  in  his  pain  and  see  in  imagination  Christ 
suffering  in  His  members.  Remembering  our  own  waywardness, 
that  we  all  have  erred  like  lost  sheep,  let  us  have  truer  and  more 
intelligent  sympathy  for  others  in  their  toils,  their  hopes,  fears,  and 
sorrows,  with  more,  also,  of  the  heartfelt  gratitude  of  the  Magdalene 
who  stood  sorrowful  beside  the  cross,  yet  radiant  and  beautiful  even 
in  her  tears.  We  have  sinned,  sinned  deeply,  but  have  we  not  been 
forgiven  ? 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

LESSON.* 
Lesson  for  November  2nd.  Luke  xxii.  54-71.  Golden  Text,  Isaiah  liii.  5. 
Jesus  Accused. 
Our  lesson  to-day  tells  us  of  the  trial  of  our  Lord  before  the 
ecclesiastical  court,  the  great  council  of  the  seventy,  with  the  chief 
priest  as  president.  There  are  three  parts  in  this  trial.  Before  Annas 
first,  then   before  Caiaphas,  and  then  before   the   "  morning  "  sitting 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


4l6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

of  the  whole  council  held  for  the  purpose  of  passing  formal 
sentence. 

Peter's  denial  took  place  at  the  first  of  the  three.  Mrs.  E.  Barrett 
Browning  says  that  there  are  two  sayings  of  Holy  Scripture  which  beat 
like  pulses  in  the  Church's  brow  and  breast.  The  first  is  "Jesus 
wept,"  the  other  is  where  Christ,  denied  and  scorned,  "  looked  upon 
Peter." 

"That  look  of  sovran  love  and  sovran  pain 

Which  He,  who  could  not  sin  yet  suffered,  turned 

On  him  who  could  reject  but  not  sustain." 

Sins,  like  hounds,  hunt  in  packs ;  one  sin  brings  others  in  its  train 
and  we  find  Peter  thrice  denying  his  Lord. 

Peter's  denial  wounded  the  Lord  more  deeply  than  the  soldier's 
spear.     This  was  one  of  the  bitter  drops  in  His  cup  of  suffering. 

Did  you  ever  think  how  many  things  Jesus  suffered  ?  We  repeat 
glibly  enough  in  the  Creed,  "  Suffered  under  Pontius  Pilate,"  but  the 
depth  and  humiliation  of  these  suff'erings  are  untold.  His  disciples 
could  not  keep  awake  to  watch  with  Him  in  His  sore  distress,  and  when 
the  soldiers  came  they  all  forsook  Him  and  fled.  The  soldiers 
mocked  Him  and  spit  on  Him,  and  buffeted  Him  with  their  hands. 
There  are  some  acts  of  love  done  to  the  Son  of  God  recorded  in  the 
Scriptures.  We  count  her  blessed  who  washed  His  feet  with  tears ; 
and  Joseph  and  Nicodemus,  who  wrapped  His  body  in  fine  linen,  and 
some  others  who  acquired  honour  by  acts  of  kindness  done  to  Jesus. 
But  there  are  some  deeds  of  malice  recorded  in  Scripture  to  the 
everlasting  shame  of  those  who  did  them.  Such  were  the  deeds  of 
the  n  en  who  struck  with  the  palm  of  their  hand  the  Lord  of  glory. 
These  men  who  insulted  Him  were  the  men  whom  He  loved  and  still 
loved. 

Why  did  He  so  suffer  ?  He  could  have  escaped  from  them  as 
easily  as  an  eagle  from  a  flock  of  sparrows.  Did  He  not  say  this  as 
they  bound  Him  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  ?  But  we  must 
remember  that  He  was  God's  Lamb,  bound  for  this  sacrifice  by  a  three- 
fold cord — the  will  of  the  Father,  His  own  consent,  our  guilt.  Had 
He  broken  away  from  this  threefold  cord.  He  could  not  have  ransomed 
us  from  hell.  But  He  was  quiet  under  it  as  a  lamb.  The  Spotless 
Lamb  has  been  treated  as  if  He  was  the  blackest  of  the  black  for  us. 
"  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions.  He  was  bruised  for  our 
iniquities."  Then  shall  we  not  fervently  thank  Him  and  closely 
cling  to  this  precious  Saviour  who  was  brought  as  a  lamb  to  the 
slaughter  for  us  ?  He  says  to  us,  "Is  this  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that 
pass  by  ?  " 


The  British  IVeeldly  Pulpit 

No.  131,  Vol.  III.  NOVEMBER  6,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  MODERN  SERMON:  INQUIRIES  AND  SUGGESTIONS. 
An  Address 

Delivered  from  the  Chair  of  the  Lojidott  Congregational  Union,  on 
November  Afth^  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Joseph   Parker,  D.D. 

People  who  are  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  public  worship  and 
the  dissemination  of  Christian  truth  can  never  be  indifferent  to  the 
position,  the  scope,  and  the  quaHty  of  sermons  in  relation  to  the 
whole  work  which  the  Christian  Church  has  in  view.  I  do  not 
propose  to  look  at  the  sermon  in  the  light  of  exceptional  instances — 
instances  associated  with  the  most  brilliant  names  in  the  history  of 
the  pulpit — but  in  the  light  of  the  ministry  as  a  whole. 

Whilst  carefully  reserving  space  for  all  that  is  unique  and  excep- 
tional in  preaching,  am  I  too  bold  in  hazarding  the  suggestion  that 
by  this  time  there  ought  to  be  thousands  of  people  in  our  congrega- 
tions who  have  heard  preaching  enough  ?  They  have  been  listening 
to  preaching  for  half-a-century ;  is  it  not  time  they  ceased  to  listen  ? 
Has  preaching  had  its  day  ?  Has  the  pulpit  talked  all  its  beliefs 
into  pithless  commonplace  ?  Is  it,  or  is  it  not,  too  much  to  expect 
any  one  man  to  be  finding  ingenious  rearrangements  of  sentences 
twice  or  thrice  every  week  in  the  year,  and  calling  these  rearrange- 
ments new  discourses  ?  Is  it  not  too  much  to  expect  any  congregation 
to  follow  with  spiritual  profit  the  minister's  cunning  redistributions 
of  exhausted  thought  and  phrase  ?  Is  it  not  to  all  parties  a  weariness 
to  the  flesh  and  a  trial  to  the  spirit  ?  These  inquiries,  and  others  of 
the  same  kind,  will  show  the  course  along  which  my  thought  and 
interest  will  run.  I  think  there  is  some  appropriateness  in  my 
selecting  this  theme,  because  no  one  who  knows  me  will  suspect  me 
of  wishing  to  depreciate  the  sacred  power  and  usefulness  of  the 
Christian  pulpit.  As  a  preacher,  I  have  endeavoured  to  magnify  the 
preacher's  office.  My  most  urgent  prayers  have,  for  a  lifetime,  gone 
forth  in  quest  of  larger  power  both  of  exposition  and  appeal.  With 
my  whole  heart  I  believe  that  Christian  preaching  constitutes  an 
unrivalled  instrument  for  getting  immediately  and  successfully  at  the 
attention,  the  interest,  and  the  confidence  of  mankind.  My  inquiry 
is  not  whether  preaching  should  be  discontinued,  but  whether  the 


41 8  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

sermon,  as  we  now  know  it,  may  or  may  not  be  modified,  readapted, 
occasionally  omitted,  and,  in  many  cases,  be  made  more  by  first  being 
made  less.  It  is  evident  to  my  mind  that  the  sermon  may — for  a 
time  at  least — have  to  undergo  some  process  of  modification.  The 
perspective  of  its  position  must  at  least  be  altered.  Allow  me  to 
discuss  the  question  as  a  preacher,  and  for  the  moment  I  will  ask 
you  to  judge  the  case  as  hearers. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that,  taken  as  a  whole,  sermons  have  not 
acquired  for  themselves  a  very  desirable  reputation.  The  word 
"  Sermon  "  is  not  a  general  favourite  with  young  people.  As  a  word 
it  does  not  immediately  and  of  gracious  necessity  suggest  brightness, 
music,  summer,  and  great  gladness  of  heart.  Account  for  it  as  we 
may,  the  word  sermon  has  become  in  many  minds  associated  with 
dulness,  prosiness,  depression,  and  a  general  sense  of  burdensome- 
ness  and  monotony.  We  must  not  confine  this  view  to  the  young 
and  frivolous.  Preachers  are  apt  to  think  that  when  their  sermons 
are  depreciated  it  is  almost  invariably  by  young  and  giddy  persons, 
or  by  worldly-minded  men  who  have  no  taste  for  deeply  spiritual 
exercises.  The  humbling  idea  that  a  sermon  is  equivalent  to  dulness 
is  a  favourite  one  with  the  most  staid,  the  most  churchgoing,  and 
the  most   prosperous  publishers.  .  .  . 

Even  great  preachers  may  delude  themselves  into  the  idea  that 
congregations  are  fond  of  elaborate  and  exhaustive  preaching.  They 
are  not.  They  can  do  without  it.  A  man  here  and  there  in  the 
audience  may  like  it ;  but  as  a  rule  it  is  far  from  being  either  popular 
or  profitable.  Put  the  matter  to  the  vote,  if  you  please,  and  I  will 
abide  by  the  result.  The  advocates  of  what  is  called  elaborate  and 
exhaustive  preaching  make  two  mistakes: — (i)  They  forget  that  a 
mixed  audience  is  not  as  prepared  to  hear  as  they  themselves  are  pre- 
pared to  preach ;  in  fact,  hearers  as  a  rule  do  not  make  the  slightest 
preparation  in  view  of  listening  to  discourses ;  and  (2)  that  people 
unaccustomed  to  prolonged  and  critical  listening  soon  drop  out  of 
course,  and  find  it  impossible  to  take  up  the  running.  From  an 
academical  point  of  view  the  theory  of  elaborateness  and  exhaustive- 
ness  may  be  right ;  academicians  are  bound  to  take  their  own  stand- 
point, and  from  its  elevation  to  deliver  "counsels  of  perfection " 
alike  as  to  preaching  and  hearing ;  from  a  popular  point  of  view, 
however,  which  is  the  view  of  immediate  spiritual  usefulness,  the 
theory  of  elaborate  and  exhaustive  preaching  often  ends  in  disastrous 
failure.  Perhaps  the  greatest  preachers  (except  on  wholly  special 
occasions)  would  do  well  to  remember  that  after  about  thirty  minutes 
of  sermon-hearing  "  deep  sleep  falleth  upon  man."  I  regret  that  it 
should  be  so ;  it  is  an  evidence  of  degeneracy ;  it  is  a  fearful  lapse 
from  the  patience  of  ancient  days.  We  admit  all  that;  but  having 
admitted  it,  we  must  see  what  use  we  can  make  of  it  as  an  un- 
deniable fact. 

There  are  some  sermons  that  ought  to  be  got  rid  of,  and  the  sooner 
we  get  rid  of  them  the  better.     For  example,  there  are  the  sermons 


The  Modem  Sermon.  419 


which  might  be  published  under  the  title  of  "  The  Gospel  made 
Difficult."  They  are  wonderful  displays  of  intellectual  energy ;  in 
fact,  they  are  much  too  wonderful.  The  preacher  becomes  a 
gladiator,  in  which  character  he  goes  through  an  incredible  process  of 
fencing,  thrusting,  wrestling,  perspiring,  and  dramatic  suffering.  It 
all  ends  in  nothing.  The  public  cannot  follow  the  rushing  panorama, 
— a  marvellous  procession  of  sights  and  sounds ;  here  a  profile  of 
Darwin ;  there  an  outline  of  Huxley  ;  yonder  a  blow  at  Tyndall ;  and 
beyond  all  this  references  to  books  with  Latin  titles ;  as  the  scene 
rushes  on,  sounds  like  the  following  are  heard, — Basis — hypothesis — 
incognoscible — rationale — morale — esoteric — ethic —  moral  science — 
with  a  fearful  rush  at  the  Categorical  Imperative.  Ordinary  minds 
give  up  the  effort  of  following  all  this  display ;  little  children  turn 
away  from  it ;  broken  hearts  sink  in  dismay ;  troubled  lives  are 
plunged  into  deeper  bewilderment.  These  sermons  must  be  got  rid 
of,  except  on  very  special  occasions, — really  occasions  that  are  very 
special.  There  is  also  the  sermon  of  totally  opposite  characteristics 
and  qualities  :  the  sermon  in  which  a  young  lady  in  the  pulpit  talks 
childishly  to  another  young  lady  in  the  pew ;  the  simpering,  mincing, 
chattering  sermon ;  a  record  of  spiritual  indigestions,  uneasinesses, 
and  conceits  that  enjoy  themselves  in  the  very  act  of  self-condemna- 
tion— a  recital  of  affected  tribulations  and  complaints  without  which 
it  is  perfectly  clear  the  reciter's  own  life  would  not  be  worth  living. 
This  sermon  also  must  be  got  rid  of.  Then  there  is  the  portmanteau 
sermon,  into  which  the  giddy  young  preacher  stuffs  everything  which 
he  can  lay  hands  upon.  All  pretty  couplets,  all  current  proverbs,  all 
glittering  apothegms,  all  "  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  rich  man's 
table," — the  scrapbook  sermon,  the  ragbag  sermon,  the  pulpit  album, 
— the  Berlin-wool-and-fancy-repository  sermon.  This  sermon,  too, 
must  be  shown  the  way  out  of  the  pulpit,  whose  purpose  it  dis- 
honours. The  kind  of  sermons  that  will  remain  will  be  of  a  quality 
that  must  eventually  tell  for  good.  Their  intellectual  excellence  will 
be  at  once  chastened  and  enriched  by  their  spiritual  intensity,  rever- 
ence, and  pathos.  They  will  be  felt  to  be  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
full  religious  culture  of  the  soul,  —not  intellectual  entertainments,  but 
part  of  the  very  bread  of  life.  To  be  this  they  must  first  of  all  be  Biblical. 
TJien  they  must  be  experimental.  Then  they  must  constrain  men  to 
the  service  which  completes  itself  in  sacrifice.  Sermons  that  do  not 
draw  thought  into  conduct  are  always  worthless.  Judge  the  good 
results  of  a  sermon  by  the  service  which  it  necessitates  and  sustains. 
The  ideal  sermon  takes,  by  every  right,  the  supreme  place  in 
the  whole  range  of  hum.an  eloquence.  I  say  the  ideal  sermon  : 
the  sermon  towards  which  we  must  continually  work ;  not  the 
sermon  which  any  one  man  can  compose  three  times  every  week 
in  the  year.  We  must  remember  that  the  sermon  is  now  power- 
fully sustained  or  contrasted  by  such  music  and  devotion  as  mu.st 
enter  more  and  more  largely  into  public  worship,  and  that  the  music 
and  the  prayer  will  either  help  the  sermon  to  a  higher  level  or  they 


430  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

will  certainly  cover  it  with  deeper  humiliation.  Once  the  sermon 
was  the  glittering  point  in  the  public  service.  All  that  led  up  to  it 
was  regarded  as  being  of  the  nature  of  "  preliminaries."  These 
preliminaries  were  always  spoken  of  with  a  kind  of  impatience,  as 
who  should  sa}',  "The  briefer  they  arc,  the  better;  only  let  us  come 
as  promptly  as  possible  to  the  intellectual  display— that  is  to  say,  to 
the  great  sermon  of  the  great  preacher."  Now  the  sermon  has  in 
many  cases  to  fight  for  its  own  existence.  The  sermon  can  no 
longer  take  things  easily.  Where  the  music  is  spiritually  grand  and 
the  worship  is  such  as  lifts  up  the  soul  into  the  very  presence  of  God, 
the  sermon  must  respond  to  the  sublime  environment,  or  it  will 
fall  into  discredit  and  finally  into  contempt.  The  true  preacher 
makes  every  occasion  great.  He  feels  that  it  may  be  the  last.  He 
burns  to  do  good. 

Is  there  a  finer  ideal  spectacle  than  that  of  man  pleading  with 
man  in  the  name  of  God  ?  For  the  moment  the  preacher  seems 
to  be  released  from  the  bondage  and  stigma  of  human  infirmity,  and 
yet  to  be  made  stronger  by  the  chastening  of  its  remembered  ex- 
perience :  the  preacher  seems  to  be  standing  within  the  glory  of 
an  opening  heaven  and  to  be  putting  into  our  mother  tongue  the 
yearning,  the  love,  the  passion  of  God ;  on  the  preacher  is  the 
shadov/  of  the  Cross ;  within  him  is  the  joy  of  conscious  forgive- 
ness; before  him  is  the  infinite  mystery  of  unknown  duration — 
Eternity,  Eternity,  the  pavilion  of  God — the  sphere  of  immortality — 
standing  there,  more  in  heaven  than  on  earth— speaking  in  words  his 
own,  yet  not  his  own,  the  messages  of  the  Cross — now  thundering 
the  law,  now  whispering  the  love  of  God — commanding,  expounding, 
beseeching ;  eloquent  in  words,  more  eloquent  still  in  tears ; — sa}'- 
if  any  spectacle  can  compare  with  this  in  the  pomp  of  its  divine 
authority  or  in  the  tenderness  of  its  human  purpose. 

All  this  will  be  admitted  ideally,  yet  the  question  will  be  asked, 
Are  such  sermons  possible  ?  I  answer  Yes  and  No.  They  are  not 
possible  to  any  one  preacher,  yet  they  ma}^  be  possible  if  a  right  use 
is  made  of  the  riches  of  the  catholic  Christian  pulpit.  When  we  do 
with  sermons  as  we  do  with  h3'mns,  we  shall  place  the  function  of 
preaching  upon  a  much  higher  level.  In  the  service  of  praise  we 
have  many  helpers  ;  in  the  service  of  preaching  we  are  thrown  almost 
absolutely  upon  the  ability  and  the  health  of  one  man.  There  is  no 
need  f»r  this.  We  do  not  dislike  a  hymn  because  the  precentor  did 
not  write  it;  we  do  not  object  to  a  tune  because  the  organist  did 
not  compose  it;  why  should  we  object  to  a  sermon  because  the 
preacher  is  not  the  author  of  it  ?  On  this  matter  we  must  establish 
a  larger  and  clearer  understanding  between  the  pulpit  and  the  pew. 
Plagiari-5m  is,  of  course,  the  trick  of  a  bad  man.  Plagiarism  is  the 
word  THEFT  turned  into  four  syllables.  The  plagiarist  can  have  no  true 
SDJritual  force.  He  speaks  in  continual  fear  of  detection;  and  he 
sx-aks  with  the  disability  of  self-contempt.  You  will  see,  therefore, 
that  nothing  can  be  further  from  my  thought  than  to  countenance  the 


The  Modern  Sermon.  42 1 


unacknowledged  use  of  other  men's  ideas  and  other  men's  eloquence. 
But  are  the  great  sermons  of  great  preachers  to  stand  silently  on  the 
bookshelves  of  public  and  private  libraries  ?  Are  men  of  average 
ability  to  be  straining  themselves  week  by  v/eek  to  produce  third-rate 
discourses,  composed  with  reluctance  and  delivered  with  restraint, 
when  sermons  by  Chalmers  and  Guthrie,  Beecher  and  Spurgeon, 
Watson  and  Bunting,  Farrar  and  Maclaren,  are  available  ?  Why 
should  not  great — great  because  useful — sermons  be  reproduced  undtr 
proper  and  well-understood  conditions  ?  Why  should  not  the  poorest 
members  of  our  congregations  have  the  advantage  of  occasionally 
hearing  the  utterances  of  the  greatest  preachers  of  all  ages  ?  Are  the 
sermons  too  long?  then  summarise  them.  Are  they  too  close  and 
elaborate  in  their  reasoning  ?  then  take  out  their  most  striking  and 
practical  passages  for  public  use.  Give  the  author's  name.  Occa- 
sionally give  a  little  sketch  of  the  author's  life  and  ministry.  This  I 
would  call  an  honest  and  useful  appropriation  of  the  riches  of  the 
Christian  pulpit.  In  this  way  I  would  endeavour  to  make  the  great 
preachers  of  all  ages  speakers  to  the  passing  time.  In  this  way  many 
distinct  advantages  will  be  realised  : 

(1)  Preachers  will  be  relieved  when  overdriven  by  other  work; 

(2)  The  congregations  will  have  the  advantage  of  well-selected 

and  profitable  variety ; 

(3)  Ministers  will   have  more  time   for  producing  really  useful 

sermons  of  their  ov/n  ;  and  above  all, 

(4)  Ministers  will  be  enabled  to  attend  more  fully  and  zealously 
to  many  departments  of  pastoral  work. 

It  is  in  the  development  of  such  work  that  many  of  our  rising  minis- 
ters will  find  their  most  productive  sphere  of  helpful  service.  There 
is  literally  no  limit  to  usefulness  in  the  pastoral  sphere.  Get  to  know 
3'our  people,  your  schools,  your  families,  your  neighbours.  Be  e3'es 
to  the  blind  and  feet  to  the  lame.  Show  a  genuine  interest  in  the 
daily  life  of  your  congregation,  especially  in  the  time  of  sorrow  and 
fear,  and  all  this  will  invest  the  pulpit  itself  with  a  blessed  influence 
beyond  the  reach  of  merely  intellectual  energy  and  splendour.  Some 
of  the  most  successful  ministries  I  have  ever  known  have  not  been 
associated  with  brilliant  power,  but  with  pastoral  capability,  zeal, 
"sympathy,  and  tender  faithfulness.  Throughout  a  long  ministerial 
course  I  have  ventured  to  suggest  that,  during  their  college  career, 
students  should  be  taught  to  preach  in  the  most  careful  manner.  The 
sermon  should  not  be  something  thrown  in  at  the  end  of  other  studies 
— a  kind  of  supercargo  or  makeweight,  something  that  must  be 
casually  attended  to,  as  it  were,  for  mere  decency's  sake.  Six  days 
in  the  week  should  students  think  about  the  most  public  part  of  their 
work.  The  college  was  built  for  the  pulpit  taking  the  pulpit  in  this 
connection  as  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the  whole  ministerial 
idea.  Do  not  let  it  be  supposed  that  any  teacher,  however  cruelly 
cursed  with  fluency,  can  run  into  a  college  occasionally  and  discharge 


422  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


r^clZT^  °^  P"^P^'  training,  trying  to  do  in  an  hour  what  would 
require  at  least  a  week  for  its  proper  treatment.  The  Preachino- 
Mind  should  be  the  leading  mind  in  every  ministerial  coIleVe  I  do 
not  say  that  the  head  of  every  college  should  himself  be  a  great 
preacher;  but  I  do  distinctly  say  that  he  ought  to  have  great  ideas 
and  conceptions  as  to  the  possibilities  of  pulpit  power  and  influence 
In  this  direction  he  should  excite  the  holiest  ambition  and  enthusiasm 
of  his  students.  He  should  make  them  feel  that  they  are  char-ed 
with  a  mission  to  their  age,  and  that  their  right  to  be  heard  is  Ihe 
divme  and  eternal  right  of  truth,  personally  and  experimentally  tested 
Students  must  not  worship  the  prim  idol  of  puerile  neatness.  Nor 
must  they  be  praised  for  clever  outlines  and  cunning  perversions  of 
inspired  meanings.  Nor  must  they  receive  prizes  for  essays  which 
in  one  act  are  heard  and  forgotten.  The  true  sermon  is  a  structure 
It  has  foundations,  proportions,  colours,  pinnacles  that  are  seen  afar 
ILw  "^^^"P  ''°"^i''^^""""^''^^  consonant  and  vowel,  emphasis 
^t  T:^..^  ^f  language,  spirit  and  purpose,  and   so  built   up 

.nH  .f  t  I'  ""^'^^^  mechanical  ceases  to  be  matter  of  consciousness, 
and  the  whole  issue  startles  and  delights  by  its  very  simplicity.  Here 
I  would  parenthetically  observe  that  students  must  be  trained  in  the 
direction  of  large  intelligence,   sympathy  with   suffering  life,  profound 

toir^'thf  n  '^'  ^  r ',;  '"'  r '^"^^  identification  wifh  th^  need  and 
toil  of  the  people.  Colleges  should  train  students  towards  the  people 
and  not  away  from  them.  Colleges  should  go  to  the  East-end  of 
London,  not  to  escape  the  hearing  of  bad  words,  but  to  turn  a  pure 

hould^be°-''.'  P'T^"  .if  ^^^  ""'''  '^  ^t-ngest'christian  h.fluence 
should   be    intensest.     All    honour  to    the    men    who  have  gone    to 

SriTll  ^.r^'^^'''^'   ^''^'^'^  devotion  is  not  a  hindrance  to 

Chnst-like  sympathy      I  would  tell  many  pulpit  aspirants  that  thev 

Tv  Zr'  "^  k'"'  1°  \  Vr^ich^rs.     I  would  judge  my  students  n Jt 

have  fi?.  ;r  K:r^i"'  ^^  '^'^^  ^"""'^-  ^°  "^^  ^^^  "^^  that  you 
have  fifty    doubtful    men    m    the    college;    tell    me     rather    that 

o?  heaven  T  ''"^'^l  ^'"'^  "^  ^°^  to  reveal  the  kingdom 
It  anv  1^'"-  J^"'  "^"^  /'"^^"'  ^^  ^^^^th  all  the  money 
hat  any  college  has  cost  for  building  and  maintenance. 
1  am  aware  that  in  thus  urging  continual  and  increasing 
at  ention  to  the  matter  of  the  sermon,   I  shall  be  charged  with  en? 

rrd^''?hon^''T'V^''^\^°''^^'  ^^^^  ^"'^^^'3^  designated  by  the 
ZZf-  ?f  •  u   ^^f '^'^ys  object  to  the  use  of  this  mean  word  in  con- 

nection with  the  Christian  ministry.  If  sermon-making  were  a  mere 
But  whT  f"''"\'''"u  ^'^"°^^  "^^^P"  "^ight  be  ap^plicable  to    t 

beiL  fn  th  .P'.'''^![  ^"'  '"  ^^^'^  ""^  "^^^^  ^"^  ^^'^^^  h---  whole 
being  in  the  .study  and  communication  of  divine   truth,  it  is  false  in 

':^::^^.^-^l-'--f^--l^o..c.s.^^^o  the  narrow 

is  Tho  nn  ""'m  ^l  '^".^'^^^  "  ^^°P •"     ^^^  preacher's  "  shop  " 

ilSinn  ^^''^'".f.°"tend  that  all  things  belong  to  the  preacher  for 
illustration,  exposition,  application,  and  appeal.     I  will  not  have  the 


77!^  Modern  Sermon.  423 


preacher  put  upon  a  level  with  any  other  thinker  or  student.     Every 
other  range  is  limited ;  the  range  of  the  preacher  is  infinite. 

Were  I  engaged  in  the  training  of  ministers,  I  should  be  very  severe 
on  the  misuse  of  texts.  My  opinion  is  that  texts — pieces  torn  from 
their  setting  and  treated  as  authoritative  maxims— have  done  infinte 
harm  to  the  true  influence  of  the  pulpit.  Paul  would  be  astounded, 
grieved,  and  ashamed,  if  he  could  know  how  some  of  his  writings 
have  been  treated.  What  is  true  of  Paul  is  true  in  equal  degree  of 
every  other  Biblical  writer.  I  have  often  tried  to  imagine  how  the 
Biblical  writers  themselves  would  regard  our  use  of  their  writings. 
The  revised  translations  of  the  Scriptures  has  shown  many  a  preacher 
the  falseness  of  mere  textual  interpretations  ;  many  a  gem  has  been 
taken  away — many  a  travelling  sermon  has  been  stopped  short  in  its 
mid-career.  From  the  Bible  itself  I  will  take  no  instance  of  my  mean- 
ing, lest  I  should  be  accused  of  irreverence  ;  but  I  will  illustrate  it  in 
a  way  which  my  brethren  in  the  ministry  will  recognise  as  no  stretch 
of  mere  fanc}^,  thus  : — 

My  text,  this  morning,  dear  friends,  will  be  found  in  the  Epistles  of  Lord 
Beaconsfield,  number  10,  line  7tb,  in  these  most  beautiful  words— "  How  are  you 
all  to-day  ?  "  This  pathetic  inquiry,  which  cannot  be  even  read  without  profound 
emotion,  brings  before  our  minds,  dear  brethren,  truths  of  transcendent  import, 
yet  truths  which  mingle  easily  and  tenderly  with  the  sanctities  of  domestic  expe- 
rience. My  brethren,  let  us  for  a  few  moments  dwell  upon  those  precious  truths, 
and  endeavour  to  s^t  them  in  profitable  order : — 

First  :  See  how  humanity  is  united  by  the  exercise  of  the  spirit  of  solicitude. 
The  illustrious  author  of  this  pungently  affectionate  inquiry  cannot  rest  (though 
rest  is  so  characteristic  of  his  life  and  so  dear  to  his  soul)  until  he  knows  exactly 
how  his  friends  are.  This  is  the  spirit  of  solicitude.  This  is  the  spirit  that  cannot 
be  content  with  its  own  lucubrations,  but  mu>t  g )  out  in  earnest  quest  concerniDg 
the  welfare  of  others.     (Here  cite  an  anecdote,  or  make  one.) 

Second  :  See,  dear  brethren,  from  this  inquiry,  how  large  minds  originate  large 
in'errogations.  The  immortal  statesman  does  rot  ask.  How  is  one  of  you?  How 
is  the  senior?  How  is  the  junior?  but  with  characteristic  and  splendid  magnani- 
mity he  asks,  in  one  bold  and  thrilling  inquiry,  "  How  are  you  all .''  " 

Third  :  Observe  how  possible  it  is  to  be  at  once  comprehensive  and  precise. 
The  statesman,  whose  genius  has  dazzled  the  senates  of  the  universe,  asks, 
"  How  are  you  all  to-day  }  "  Mark  the  point  of  time.  Mark  the  definiteness  ot 
the  greatest  minds.  The  writer  is  not  content  with  asking.  How  were  you  aU 
yesterday?  or,  How  have  you  bten  during  the  last  seven  years?  but  with  that 
definiteness  which  is  characteristic  of  earnestness,  he  asks,  How  are  you  all  to- 
day, this  day,  this  very  day,  and  no  other  day? — thus  drawing  down  the  mind  to 
a  precise  point  of  attention  and  interest. 

'  Application  :  Take  care  of  yourselve?,  because  at  any  moment  an  inquiry  may 
come  from  the  very  highest  circles,  d  recting  itself  to  )our  immediate  condition  ; 
therefore  be  ready — be  always  ready — be  all  read)'. 

I  take  ministers  to  witness  that  this  is  a  Icgitirriatc  travest}'. 
Hundreds  of  sermons  on  these  lines  are  being  constantly  preached, 
and,  what  is  most  discouraging,  are  being  constantly  praised  as  being 
faithful  to  the  text.  Hearers  will  say.  How  wonderfully  the  minister  kept 
to  his  subject!  I  now  publicly  and  solemnl}'  denounce  such  so-called 
sermons  as  gross  misrepresentations  of  the  mind  and  the  spirit  of  God. 
""Vhat  is  it  that  is  forgotten  in  many  sermons?  It  is  the  context — 
tje  atmosphere — the  subtle  or  palpable  air  that  creates  the  genius  and 


424  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 


the  meaning  of  the  whole  occasion.  Always  examine  the  text  in  the 
light  of  the  context— the  part  in  the  light  of  the  whole.  Revelation 
is  not  to  be  broken  up  into  texts.  Revelation  is  more  than  a  series 
of  words.  Revelation  is  a  spirit,  a  thought  beyond  words,  yet  needing 
their  aid  ;  a  joy  higher  than  man's  music,  a  sky  which  no  ladder  of 
earth  can  scale.  I  would  not  represent  Revelation  as  a  mountain,  a 
landscape,  or  even  a  light  streaming  from  an  unseen  centre  ;  I  prefer 
to  think  of  it  as  the  HORIZON  receding  before  the  boldest  approach, 
the  guardian  of  every  hill,  the  womb  of  morning,  the  undefined  defini- 
tion of  the  star-spaces,  at  once  the  visible  magnitude  and  the  un- 
measured immensity— the  radiant  boundary  of  mind  and  destiny. 
Who  would,  if  he  could,  cut  off  part  of  the  horizon  and  treat  it  as 
texts  are  treated  ?  Who  would  have  any  idea  of  the  Atlantic  if  he 
saw  but  a  spoonful  of  the  infinite  flood  ?  Yet  thus  is  the  eternal  Reve- 
lation of  God  often  treated  by  merely  verbal  or  textual  preaching.  A 
preacher  may  either  parse  a  text  as  an  exercise  in  grammar,  or  he 
may  expound  it  as  a  part  of  Revelation.  Parsing  is  but  a  smaller 
department  of  exposition.  Texts  should  be  interpreted  in  the  light  of 
general  revelation— that  is  to  say,  first  discover  what  God's  purpose 
is,  and  let  all  texts  be  subordinated  to  its  meaning.  For  example, 
God  is  love;  then  even  His  wrath  must  be  an  aspect  of  His  affection. 
Or  again,  Jesus  Christ  came  to  save  the  world/  then  even  unbeHef 
shall  not  cause  Him  to  fail  of  victory.  To  quote  isolated  texts  against 
such  central  doctrine  is  like  pointing  to  mountains  to  disprove  the 
rotundity  of  the  earth.  Geographically,  the  Matterhorn  is  an  objection 
to  the  theory  of  a  sphere;  but,  astronomically,  even  the  Matterhorn  is 
humbly  smoothed  to  the  level  of  the  sea.  There  is  a  geographical 
verbalism.     There  is  also  an  astronomical  exposition. 

For  the  creation  of  the  right  kind  of  preaching,  I  am  not  certain 
that  we  should  look  to  any  one  man  or  any  one  college.  There  ought 
to  be,  in  addition  to  college  training,  a  National  Pulpit  Institute,  open 
to  preachers  of  all  communions.  It  should  have  its  centres  in  London, 
Oxford,  and  Manchester,  or  elsewhere,  as  necessity  might  suggest.  I 
do  not  care  for  a  merely  denominational  style  or  stamp  of  preaching 
— as  Congregational,  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  and  the  like.  At  pre- 
sent, it  is  quite  easy  for  men  who  have  had  considerable  experience 
to  indicate  the  denomination  to  which  any  preacher  belongs.  There 
is  no  mistaking  the  Methodist  preacher,  nor  is  it  easy  to  mistake  a 
Presbyterian.  The  Episcopalian  preacher  is  marked  by  a  well- 
known  stamp,  and  the  Congregationalist  is  easily  traceable.  In  this 
sacred  work  of  studying  the  art  and  practice  of  communicating 
Christian  instruction,  I  would  bring  together  students  of  all  Churches. 
The  Institute  should  be  open  three  months  in  the  year.  Chalmers 
should  be  there,  and  Beccher  and  Spurgeon.  Gladstone  should 
lecture  there,  and  Wilberforce  q{  Oxford,  and  Magee  of  Peterborough. 
In  that  Institute  should  be  focalised,  as  circumstances  might  vary  or 
opportunity  permit,  the  finest  and  ti-uest  speaking  power  of  the  an 
1  he  lecturers  may  or  may  not  speak  about  sermons  distinctively ;  I 


The  Modern  Sermon.  425 


they  will  show  what  an  instrument  of  good  may  be  found  in  public 
speech;  they  will  teach  men  to  open  their  mouths  and  speak  dis- 
tinctly ;  they  will  show  what  the  English  language  is  when  spoken 
in  its  purity ;  and  they  will  redeem  rhetoric  from  the  contempt 
brought  upon  it  by  those  who  have  made  it  little  better  than  sounding 
brass  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  I  will  not  believe  that  the  age  of  public 
speaking  is  past.  It  may  have  to  change  its  form,  but  it  will  never 
lose  its  highest  power.  The  eloquence  of  to-day  is  conversational 
in  its  base,  and  from  that  sensible  medium  it  rises  to  do  all  the 
work  required  of  it  by  controlled  yet  flaming  passion.  The  supremacy 
of  pulpit  eloquence,  as  already  hinted,  lies  in  its  inclusiveness  of 
range.  The  whole  artillery  of  rhetoric,  when  used  with  serious  pur- 
pose, is  in  place  in  the  Christian  pulpit.  Even  the  dangerous  climax 
may  be  turned  to  pulpit  use.  It  may  cease  to  be  the  climax  of  mere 
words,  it  may  no  longer  be  the  symptom  of  artificial  apoplexy— but  it 
will  abide  and  work  wonders  in  its  effective  use  of  cumulative  argu- 
ment and  well-sustained  appeal.  I  know  of  no  high  art  that  has 
been  more  abused  than  the  art  of  public  speaking.  It  needs  redemp- 
tion from  the  contempt  into  which  it  has  been  brought  by  gabbling 
and  chattering  fluency.  We  should  now  demand  the  eloquence  of 
instruction  ;  the  eloquence — defiant  and  militant — of  deep  conviction  ; 
the  eloquence  of  truth  and  love.  The  eloquence  of  mere  sentences 
is  dead — except  amongst  the  very  young  and  the  extremely  feeble. 
The  eloquence  which  meanders  with  the  rills,  floats  with  butterflies, 
languishes  in  pale  moonlight,  plashes  in  crested  foam  on  golden  sands, 
bathes  itself  in  crimson  sunshine,  and  generally  makes  a  fool  of  itself, 
has  vanished  into  the  nothingness  out  of  which  it  came,  Marsyas 
has  been  flayed  alive  by  Apollo. 

Preachers  are  often  taunted  because  the  sermons  of  one  preacher 
do  not  always  agree  in  matter  and  form  with  the  sermons  of  another. 
Taunting  should  be  indulged  with  great  caution.  Men  who  are 
sitting  on  gunpowder  should  be  careful  what  matches  they  use  ;  under 
such  circumstances  it  may  be  well  not  to  carry  matches.  Who  are 
they  who  taunt  preachers  upon  this  ground  ?  Journalists  may  have 
the  right  to  do  so,  because  journalists  always  agree,  and  have  always 
chimed  with  sacred  harmony  since  the  halcyon  days  of  the  Ealaiisivill 
Gazelle  and  the  Ealansivill  Indcpendenl.  Doctors  may  have  the  right 
of  taunting  preachers,  because  the  allopath  would  die  for  the  homoeo- 
path, and  the  hydropath  would  gladly  put  them  both  under  water. 
Doctors  love  one  another  with  a  pure  heart  ferventl3\  There  are  no 
two  opinions  about  the  best  ways  of  curing  men.  Lawyers  may  have 
the  right  of  taunting  preachers,  because  lawyers  live  a  life  as  brotherly 
as  that  of  Cain  and  Abel.  They  always  take  the  same  view,  and 
they  always  announce  it  and  uphold  it  on  a  purely  philanthropic 
basis.  Who  are  the  men  who  taunt  preachers  on  any  ground  what- 
soever? It  has  in  some  way  come  to  pass  that  preachers  have  drawn 
upon  themselves  the  sneers  of  ignorance — not  preachers  of  one 
denomination,  but  of  all  communions.     A  layman  dining  with  Sydney 


426  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Smith  said,  ''  If  I  had  a  son  of  weak  mind  I  would  train  him  for  the 
Church."  Sydney  instantly  answered,  "  Your  father  was  not  of  that 
opinion."  Really,  preachers  are  not  all  as  weak  as  ignorance  would 
make  them  out  to  be.  Some  preachers  are  nearly  as  mentally  strong 
as  some  solicitors.  Other  preachers  may  be  almost  as  capable  as 
some  men  of  business.  I  do  not  wish  to  go  beyond  the  strict  line  of 
fact,  yet  I  venture  respectfully  to  submit  that  some  of  the  more 
favoured  and  highly-educated  preachers  might  have  taken  a  fairly 
successful  place  as  merchants.  Liddon  might  have  had  mind  enough 
to  do  well  with  sewing-machines.  Farrar  might  have  made  a  com- 
fortable living  in  the  dry  goods  line — a  line  which  he  always  carefully 
avoids.  We  do  not  wish  to  make  too  much  of  our  humble  powers  as 
ministers,  yet  we  do  not  feel  inclined  to  undervalue  our  election  of 
God.  We  are  not  to  be  sneered  out  of  the  ministry.  We  are  not 
ministers  by  the  will  of  man,  nor  by  the  call  of  man,  nor  by  the 
favour  of  man,  but  by  the  power  of  God.  We  do  not  ask -for  the 
approbation  of  a  hostile  world,  but  we  do  hunger  and  thirst  for  the 
love  and  confidence  of  our  own  people.  To  you  we  look  for  human 
comfort — "  for  we  preach  not  for  ourselves,  but  Christ  Jesus  the 
Lord,  and  ourselves  your  servants  for  Jesus'  sake.  .  .  .  For  we 
commend  not  ourselves  again  unto  you,  but  give  you  occasion  to  glory 
on  our  behalf,  that  ye  have  somewhat  to  answer  them "  that  mock 
unjustly  or  sneer  because  of  folly.  We  know  our  deficiencies  and 
infirmities,  but  we  know  that  the  grace  of  God  is  sufficient  for  us. 
Most  gladly,  therefore,  will  we  rather  glory  in  our  infirmities,  that 
the  power  of  Christ  may  rest  upon  us.  When  we  are  weak,  then 
are  we  strong.  "If  I  have  become  a  fool  in  glorying,  ye  have 
compelled  me ;  for  I  ought  to  have  been  commended  of  you  "  (2  Cor. 
xii.  11). 

Many  critics  of  the  Modern  Sermon  clamorously  insist  that  it 
should  take  deeper  interest  in  social  and  political  events.  The  point 
in  which  I  agree  with  them  only  magnifies  the  point  in  which  I  differ 
from  them.  I  believe  that  with  strikes,  elections,  and  competing 
methods  of  government,  as  such,  the  pulpit  has  absolutely  nothing  to 
do.  What  it  has  to  do,  and  to  do  at  all  risks,  is  to  create  an  atmo- 
sphere which  cannot  be  breathed  by  injustice,  and  which  is  fatal  to  all 
tricksters,  tyrants,  gamblers,  and  bad  men,  whether  capitalists  or 
labourers,  whether  classes  or  masses.  In  my  judgment,  that  is  the 
true  function  of  the  pulpit.  But  there  also  is  its  disadvantage  when 
superficially  ciiticised.  By  ignorance  and  impatience,  partisanship  is 
more  valued  than  atmosphere.  It  seems  to  be  more  vital,  more 
urgent,  more  useful,  but  it  is  not.  Atmosphere  is  God's  way ; 
partisanship  is  man's.  The  Christian  sermon  should  be  so  sublime 
in  moral  tone,  so  sympathetic  with  human  need,  so  jealous  for  truth, 
that  injustice  and  ruthlessness,  whether  in  man  or  master,  should  be 
shamed  and  burned  out  of  human  thought.  The  sermon  may  thus 
be  doing  more  than  on  the  surface  it  seems  to  be  doing.  The  quij  ' 
planet  is  doing  more  than  the  noisy  rocket.  '  " 


The  Modern  Sermon.  427 


As  to  the  various  ways  of  composing  and  delivering  sermons,  a 
good  deal  is  to  be  said  for  every  method.  I  have  heard  men  so  read 
sermons  as  to  convince  me  that  reading  was  best,  and  I  have  heard 
men  so  preach  without  manuscript  as  to  demonstrate  that  free  speech 
is  infinitely  better  than  either  reading  or  recitation.  Every  man 
must  be  his  own  judge  in  this  matter.  In  adopting  the  conversational 
tone  let  us  beware  of  slip-shod  fluency ;  in  adopting  the  dignified 
tone  let  us  beware  of  turgidity  and  cold  isolation  from  our  hearers ; 
in  preferring  a  literary  style  let  us  guard  ourselves  against  pedantry ; 
and  in  selecting  a  diffusive  and  earnest  style  let  us  beware  lest  we 
fall  into  rant  and  furious  weakness.  So  much  for  incidental  method, 
which  I  mean  to  lead  up  to  a  consideration  of  a  practice  which  is 
known  as  reading  meanings  into  texts.  The  practice  should  be 
most  carefully  guarded.  We  have  no  right  to  make  inspired  writers 
responsible  for  our  suggestions.  On  the  other  hand,  we  should  be 
quite  as  much  on  our  guard  as  to  narrowness  as  to  broadness.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  the  inspired  writers  themselves  did  not  know  the 
whole  of  their  own  meaning,  or  foresee  all  the  legitimate  applications 
of  their  own  work.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  inspired  writings  that 
they  contain  in  root  or  germ  the  wisdom  needed  for  all  the  changing 
and  advancing  centuries  of  time.  .  The  Bible  is  a  seedhouse  as  well 
as  a  paradise.  Let  it  be  further  noted  by  our  homiletic  critics  that  they 
themselves  are  also  the  subjects  of  a  jealous  and  resolute  criticism. 
For  example,  there  are  critics  who  protest  against  the  practice  of 
reading  Christ  into  the  seventy-second  Psalm.  They  say  it  is 
Solomon,  not  Christ,  who  shall  judge  the  poor  of  the  people  and  save 
the  children  of  the  needy,  who  shall  come  down  like  rain  upon  the 
mown  grass  :  as  showers  that  water  the  earth.  They  protest  against 
Christ  being  read  into  the  words,  "  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,  unto  us  a 
son  is  given."  They  protest  against  reading  Christ  into  the  words, 
"  He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions.  He  was  bruised  for  our 
iniquities,  and  the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  Him."  We 
must,  therefore,  be  on  our  guard  lest  we  unduly  insist  upon  the 
letter,  and  thus  lose  the  upper  and  more  luminous  meanings  of  the 
Spirit.  Who  knows  what  is  in  the  bulb  or  seed  until  summer  has 
read  all  its  meaning  into  or  out  of  the  unpromising  text?  If  we 
could  imagine  a  man  who  has  never  seen  the  summer  listening  to  a 
florist  or  a  poet  discoursing  upon  bulb  or  root,  we  should  have  an 
example  of  a  good  deal  of  the  lifeless  and  unspiritual  criticism  which 
protests  against  reading  meanings  into  texts.  The  florist  is  right 
when  he  takes  the  bulb  or  seed-root  into  his  hand  and  preaches  from 
it  the  revelation  of  colour  and  fragrance  and  loveliness  ;  his  eyes  are 
annointed  with  heaven's  eye-salve  who  sees  in  the  little,  colourless, 
dead-looking  root  the  green  spike,  the  blushing  blossom,  the  minaret  of 
bloom,  the  covenant  of  God.  I  would  rather  the  texts  were  read  upward 
into  light  than  that  they  were  read  downward  into  darkness.  It  ought 
not  to  be  a  long  way  from  any  text  to  Bethlehem,  and  when  we  are  at 
Bethlehem'we  cannot  stop  short  of  Calvary.  I  find  Christ  in  the  very  first 


428  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

verse  of  the  Bible,  for  without  Him  was  not  anything  made  that  was 
made.  I  do  not  consider  this  to  be  reading  anything  into  the  text ;  I 
rather  consider  it  to  be  the  due  implication  and  legitimate  meaning  of  the 
holy  words.  I  find  Christ  in  the  transfixed  and  enraptured  look  of 
Abraham.  I  find  Him  in  the  wilderness,  "  for  the  Rock  that  followed 
them  was  Christ."  I  find  Him  in  the  Prophets  as  they  struggled 
with  a  great  unknown  and  unmeasured  igony.  I  read  Christ  into  all 
history,  all  prophecy,  all  music,  all  penitent  and  holy  sorrow.  The 
Cross  throws  its  shadow  over  the  whole  tragedy  of  sin,  and  through 
all  the  tempest  of  rebellion  it  sends  the  assurance  that,  "  Where  sin 
abounded  grace  did  much  more  abound."  Charge  me,  if  you  so  care, 
with  the  enormity  of  reading  Christ  into  Nehemiah  and  Esther, 
Ezra  and  Ruth,  Ecclesiastes  and  Joel — I  find  Him  there,  building  a 
larger  wall,  conducting  a  grander  deliverance,  reading  a  profounder 
law,  reaping  a  vaster  field,  rebuking  a  deadlier  vanity,  hurling 
through  the  ages  the  thunder  of  a  sadder  doom.  I  preach  Christ  as 
the  Saviour  of  all.  Not  upon  God,  but  upon  man  do  I  throw  the 
blame  of  missing  the  heaven  of  holiness  and  the  heaven  of  rest. 
Whilst  we  thus  preach,  we  shall  prove  by  many  a  sacred  instance 
that  the  sermon  contains  the  only  true  answer  to  the  minds  that  ask, 
"  What  is  truth  ?  "  and  to  the  hearts  that  cry,  "  Who  will  show  us 
any  good  ?  " 

Yet,  in  conclusion,  the  sermon  that  shall  answer  such  inquiries 
must  be  composed  in  full  view  of  the  Cross,  On  this  point  I  wish 
to  bear  my  testimony  in  an  age  of  literary  pretence  and  idolised 
reason.  I  will  never  consent  to  reduce  the  Cross  to  the  level  of  an 
illustration  of  moral  excellence — the  pattern  of  an  obedience  which 
amounted  to  little  more  than  the  tragic  conquest  of  its  own  re- 
luctance. To  me  the  Cross  is  not  the  exhibition  of  human  sub- 
mission to  the  divine  will.  It  is  not  Man  who  is  excelling  all  other 
men  ;  it  is  God  who  is  saving  the  world.  I  have  no  wish  to  be  hard 
upon  my  fellow  preachers ;  they  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  have  not 
been  wanting  in  brotherly  sympathy;  but  no  consideration  shall 
restrain  me  from  saying  that  the  minister  who  preaches  Christ 
merely  as  the  highest  and  sublimest  moral  example  has  no  right  or 
title  to  occupy  an  evangelical  pulpit.  He  is  a  Unitarian  without 
a  Unitarian's  dignity.  From  a  moral  point  of  view,  I  say,  all 
honour  to  the  Unitarian  who  uncomplainingly  pays  the  penalty  of 
his  convictions.  From  a  moral  point  of  view  I  would  go  on 
to  say,  shame  be  to  the  man  who  submits  a  theory  for  a 
revelation,  and  who  thus  drags  down  a  historically  orthodox 
pulpit,  and  turns  it  into  an  instrument  for  the  propagation  of  a  heresy 
which  it  was  erected  to  confute  and  denounce.  No  blessing  can  rest 
on  such  a  ministry.  It  may  he  verbally  brilliant,  but  in  the  soul  of  it 
there  is  a  lie  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Out  of  our  churches  and 
colleges  1  would  eradicate  every  thought  that  turns  awa}'  from  the 
Cross  as  other  than  the  spectacle  of  God  in  Christ  dying  for  the  sins 
of  the  world.     I  do  not  want  clever  young  men  in  our  ministry  ; 


The  Lord  Hath  Taken  Azvay.  429 

I  want  burningly  earnest  young  preachers.  There  was  never 
so  much  need  of  them  as  thei'e  is  to-day.  In  order  to  preach  Christ 
they  must  first  know  Him ;  they  must  have  been  crucified  with 
Him  ;  they  must  have  known  the  fellowship  ot  His  suiTerings 
and  the  power  of  his  resurrection.  My  young  brethren,  I  offer 
you  a  counsel  which  has  been  dearly  bought,  and  I  pray  you  to 
receive  it  at  least  for  consideration.  I  have  seen  life  in  most  of  its 
aspects,  I  have  tasted  the  bitterest  sorrow  ever  drunk  by  human 
lips.  I  have  worked  long  and  hard,  and  have  never  eaten  the,  bread 
of  idleness.  I  have  known  the  mystery,  the  shame,  and  the  anguish 
of  sin,  I  have  hewn  out  to  myself  cisterns — broken  cisterns  that  can 
hold  no  water.  Looking  back  upon  all  the  chequered  way,  I  have  to 
testify  that  the  only  preaching  which  has  done  me  good  is  the 
preaching  of  a  Saviour  who  bore  my  sins  in  His  own  body  on  the 
tree  ;  and  the  only  preaching  by  which  God  has  enabled  me  to  do 
good  to  others  is  the  preaching  in  which  I  have  held  up  my  Saviour 
not  as  a  sublime  example  but  as  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world. 

"  Ere  since  by  faith  I  saw  the  stream 

His  flowing  wounds  supply, 
Redeeming  love  has  been  my  theme, 

And  shall  be  till  I  die." 


THE    LORD    HATH    TAKEN    AWAY. 
By  the  Rev.  S.  A.  Tipple. 

Notes  of  a  Sermon   in  fnefuory  of  the  late  Mr.  Powell,  preached  in  Gospel  Cak 
Congregational  Church,  on  Swiday  vtorning,  lYovember  2nd,  1890. 
"  The  Lord  gave,  and  the  Lord  hath  taken  away  ;  blessed  be  the  naoie  of  the 
Lord." — Job  i.  21. 

These  words  were  not  lightly  uttered.  They  were  said  by  one  who, 
with  mantle  rent  and  head  shaven,  had  fallen  on  the  ground  and 
worshipped. 

After  all,  it  is  not  the  praise  of  jubilant  moments  that  is  the 
truest,  but  that  which  is  murmured  low  in  the  thick  darkness,  mixed 
with  tears.  Praise  from  those  who  have  striven  to  see  the  silver 
lining  of  the  dark  cloud,  the  mitigating  elements  of  the  affliction.  It 
is  all  very  fine  to  sing  with  the  linnets  in  the  sunshine,  but  to  sing 
against  the  weather  is  finer — to  sing  because  of  what  reason  and 
faith  suggest,  as  those  harpers  of  the  Apocalypse  do  who  stand  on  the 
sea  of  glass,  mingled  with  fire,  and  sing  to  God.  I  have  come  to-day 
to  grieve  with  a  bereaved  family,  a  bereaved  minister  and  congrega- 
tion, and  also  to  give  thanks. 

And,  first,  let  me  grieve  with  you.  The  friendship  of  the  man  who 
has  passed  within  the  vale  was  sweet  to  me.  I  cherished  his  warm 
regard,  which  I  returned.     The  consciousness  of  his  accessibility,  his 


430  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

generous,  warm-hearted  sympathy,  were  among  my  most  valued  pos- 
sessions. In  the  autumn  of  hfe  old  friends,  like  November  leaves, 
grow  fewer  and  fewer.  We  can  ill  spare  him  who  has  gone.  The 
death  of  those  we  love  and  honour  is  hard  to  bear.  It  is  absence  for 
evermore.  Nothing  is  much  harder  to  bear,  yet  it  is  not  all  sad. 
The  shield  has  another  side,  and  we  may  say,  "  The  Lord  gave,  and 
the  Lord  hath  taken  away."  We  trust  in  God,  whose  order  runs 
through  all,  and  rules  the  apparent  disorder,  and  He  has  taken  away. 
"  The  Lord  hath  taken  away  "  helps  us  to  say  "  blessed  be  the  name 
of  the  Lord." 

Everything  around  us  looks  mournful  in  the  fall  of  the  leaf — all  is 
fading  and  vanishing,  and  the  odour  of  death  is  in  the  damp  air.  Yet 
Nature  in  her  bright  tints  seems  to  say,  "  Isn't  it  beautiful  ?  "  This 
decay  is  a  happening  fit  and  seasonable.  And  every  fading  and 
vanishing  face  is  a  bright  advent.  It  is  well,  though  it  look  ill  to  us  ; 
and  it  is  always  opportune,  however  bad  it  seems  to  us  who  remain. 
Believing  in  God  and  in  immortality  as  we  do,  it  is  the  quite  best 
thing  for  them.  They  have  died  in  a  full  age,  however  premature. 
The  cruel  displacement  is  a  meet  placing.  Character  gets  its  meet 
environment.  God  in  His  wise  government  brings  punctually  the 
change  of  air  which  his  soul  requires.  This  life  of  ours  is  no  longer 
suited  for  his,  and  he  is  taken  to  a  higher,  with  its  own  delights  and 
exercisings. 

But  what  of  us  who  are  left  ?     We  are  painfully  deprived. 

"  He  put  our  lives  so  far  apart 
We  cannot  hear  each  other  jpeak.'' 

That  is  the  misery.     But  there  are  mitigations. 

I.  Our  true  possession  in  them  remains  untouched.  The  portion 
of  the  heart,  that  is  the  true  possession — not  what  we  see  and  hear. 
This  affection  is  mine  still.  Death  has  but  refined  and  sublimed  it. 
They  are  no  longer  capable  of  service  to  me  ;  but  should  I  value  them 
for  that  ?  No,  no ;  it  was  for  their  affection.  They  are  not  gone 
from  us ;  they  are  given  to  us  as  we  never  had  them  before.  How 
sr.cred  the  loved  dead  have  grown  to  us  !  They  have  risen  and 
ascended  for  us.  Their  failings  are  effaced.  Had  we  ever  discerned 
so  much  beauty  in  them  before  ? 

"  1  combed  and  combed  his  curly  head, 
He  looked  so  grand  when  he  was  dead." 

The  ancient  violin-makers  wrote  of  their  work,  making  the  wood 
speak,  "  Being  dead,  I  sing  more  than  when  I  was  alive."  These 
words  might  be  written  over  our  graves:  "  I  praised  the  dead  which 
are  already  dead  more  than  the  living  which  are  yet  alive."  It  is  a 
common  practice.  Every  good  point  in  their  character  glides  out  to 
view  like  the  constellations  out  of  the  night  sky.  I  know  what  you 
will  say — that  it  is  an  illusive  glamour.  No,  not  so.  May  it  not  be 
that  this  idealising  touch  of  death  reveals  that  which  we  had  missed 
before  ?     We  can  sec  now  the  beauty  that  was  not  able  to  shine  out 


Scrmonelle  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.      431 

in  them  before.  It  is  the  real  man  we  see  now.  We  are  more  just,  on 
the  whole,  to  the  dead  than  to  the  living.  We  did  not  discern  the 
latent  angel  in  them  which,  thank  God,  is  ever  before  our  Father  in 
heaven.  Would  that  we  could,  when  they  were  alive,  judge  in  this 
way,  and  so  be  justcr  to  them.  By  idealising  freely  we  become 
successful  detectives  o'"  hidden  virtues.  Let  us  be  bold  and  loving 
enough  to  imagine  good  when  only  evil  is  apparent. 

II.  The  true-hearted  and  beloved  are  still  with  us  as  regards  their 
influence.  In  this  respect  we  have  lost  nothing,  but  perhaps  gained 
something.  Sometimes  the  pity  is  that  one  cannot  escape  from  the 
influence  of  one's  ancestors,  and  get  clear  of  the  black  drop  in  the 
blood  which  we  inherit.  But  a  brave,  upright,  holy  life  is  more 
quickening  in  its  effect  when  that  life  is  over.  The  thought  of  such 
has  had  a  restoring,  wholesome  moulding  influence.  The  influence 
of  my  lost  friend's  worth  is  not  lost — it  lingers  on.  It  abides  to-day 
in  the  house  when  the  chair  is  empty ;  it  is  felt  in  his  children's 
houses,  and  it  will  abide. 

In  conclusion,  do  not  let  us  doubt  for  a  moment  that  they  them- 
selves live.  They,  not  their  influence  only.  I  never  doubt  that. 
Extinction  at  death  is  altogether  too  poor  and  low  as  the  solution  of 
the  mystery  of  humanity.  To  me  it  is  an  impossibility  to  believe  that 
of  the  soul  developed  in  long  evolution,  to  think  that  tJiat  is  the  end  of 
the  greatest  work  the  great  Creator  ever  made.  To  believe  what  some 
call  Nature,  what  I  call  God,  should  be  so  foolish  and  wasteful  as  to 
throw  away  the  only  great  thing,  evolved  at  such  tremendous  cost — 
to  extinguish  the  conscious  soul,  that  subtle  and  wonderful  essence 
which  took  the  Creator  ages  to  distil,  is  an  impossibility  to  me. 

Death  means  life.  Wherefore  comfort  one  another  with  these 
words. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

LESSON.* 

Lesso7iJor  November  gtJi.  Lti/ce  xx'm.  1-12.  Golden  Text,  verse  4. 

Pilate. 

The  Romans  had  taken  away  from  the  Jews  the  power  of  life  and 
death.  Therefore  a  prisoner  convicted  by  a  Jewish  Ecclesiastical 
Tribunal  of  a  capital  crime  had  to  be  handed  on  to  the  Roman 
Governor,  who  alone  had  the  power  of  putting  a  man  to  death.  No 
punishment  less  than  death  would  satisfy  the  malice  of  these  chief 
priests  and  elders;  so  they  led  Jesus  to  Pilate,  who  happened  at  the 
time  to  be  in  Jerusalem. 

Thus  the  saying  of  Jesus,  signifying  what  kind  of  death  He  should 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


432  The  British  Weekly  PiilpiL 

die,  was  brought  to  pass.  Had  the  Jews  put  Him  to  death,  He 
would  have  been  stoned,  but  it  was  necessar}'  that  He  should  be 
crucified. 

It  was  probably  between  six  and  seven  in  the  morning  when  they 
conducted  Jesus,  bound  with  chains,  to  the  residence  of  the  Governor. 
What  a  spectacle  that  was — the  Jewis'i  nation  leading  their  Messiah 
tD  ask  the  Gentile  to  put  Him  to  death  !  It  was  the  hour  of  the 
nation's  suicide.  Pontius  Pjlate  had  been  governor  of  Judaea  for  six 
years.  He  hated  the  Jews,  and  they  returned  his  hatred.  He  was 
pleasure-loving  and  a  time-server.  The  smile  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius 
was  his  brightest  sunshine,  his  frown  the  blackest  night.  Pilate 
feared  nothing  so  much  as  the  loss  of  his  place  as  governor.  The 
Jews  knew  the  man  they  had  to  manage,  and  saw  the  weak  place  in 
his  breastplate. 

Pilate  seems  to  have  known  something  of  Jesus.  "  He  knew  that 
for  envy  they  had  delivered  Him,"  and  perhaps  Jesus  had  been  the 
subject  of  conversation  in  the  palace  between  Pilate  and  his  wife 
Proculi.  Jesus  witnessed  a  good  confession  before  Pilate,  and  showed 
him  that  His  claims  were  spiritual,  not  political.  He  was  the  King 
of  Truth.  Poor  Pilate!  he  was  impressed  by  his  prisoner,  and  felt 
He  was  innocent.  But  Pilate  lacked  the  moral  courage  to  release  Him. 
How  wretched  is  that  man  who  is  afraid  to  do  the  right ! 

*' Pilate,  a  stranger,  holdeth  off;  but  they, 
Mine  own  dear  people,  cry,  '  Away,  away ! ' 
With  cries  confused,  Irighting  the  dav. 

Was  ever  grief  like  Mine  ?  " 

Pilate  was  reluctant  to  condemn  Christ.  He  sent  Jesus  to  Herod  to 
get  rid  of  a  troublesome  case ;  but  Herod  sent  the  prisoner  back. 
Pilate  tried  to  slip  out  of  his  difficulties.  Have  ive  never  acted  in  a 
similar  manner  ?  When  we  saw  that  it  was  our  duty  to  take  a 
certain  step  have  we  never  thought,  "  I  v^^ill  wait,  in  hopes  that  some 
circumstance  may  arise  to  save  me  from  this  trial."  God  usually 
defeats  these  plans  and  makes  us  take  a  decided  part  either  for  good 
or  evil.  We  feel  compassion  for  wretched  Pilate,  as  he  runs  to  and 
fro,  seeking  some  new  way  of  ridding  himself  from  his  difficulty.  He 
threw  away  the  golden  opportunity  of  defending  the  most  glorious  of 
beings,  placed  for  a  season  beneath  the  shelter  of  his  arm.  There  is 
a  way  of  escape  for  every  tempted  soul,  and  Pilate  might  have  escaped. 
Can  the  events  of  that  day  have  ceased  to  haunt  him  during  the 
remainder  of  his  life  ?  Calamity  soon  overtook  Pilate.  Two  years 
afterwards,  he  lost  the  favour  of  the  Emperor,  and  was  banished  into 
.1  distant  province,  where,  it  is  said,  he  put  an  end  to  his  own  Hfc.  It 
would  have  been  good  for  him  if  he  had  never  worn  a  royal  robe,  nor 
jeen  the  Son  of  God. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 

No.  132,  Vol.  III.  NOVEMBER  13,  1890.  One  Penny. 


"DARKEST   ENGLAND." 

A  Sermon  preached  on  Thursday^  November  ()ih,  1890,  at  Manchester 
Cathedral,  by  the 

Right  Rev.  Walsham  How,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Wakefield. 

"Witli   men   this   is    impossible;   but    with  God   all    things   are  possible."— 
Matt.  xix.  26. 

This  is  said,  as  you  will  remember,  of  the  difficulty  of  attaining 
salvation  by  those  whose  hearts  are  set  upon  riches.  They 
are  the  words  following  the  story  of  that  rich  young  man  who  had 
not  the  courage,  or  self-sacrifice,  to  "  sell  all  that  he  had,  and  give 
to  the  poor."  But  I  want  to  take  the  words  to-day  quite  generally. 
I  want  to  understand  them  as  setting  before  us  a  great  principle 
which  should  guide  us  in  our  thoughts  and  actions  as  regards  the 
work  that  God  calls  us  to  do  in  the  world. 

Now  we  want  to  better  the  world,  we  want  to  banish,  for 
instance,  as  one  of  the  very  simplest  things  and  objects  which  we 
must  set  before  ourselves — we  want  to  banish  the  curses  of  vice, 
drunkenness,  immorality,  cruelty,  injustice.  We  want  to  raise  men 
to  higher  ideas  of  what  life  might  be ;  of  what  they  might  be ;  of 
what  the  world  might  be.  There  is  no  man,  whatever  his  creed,  or 
even  if  he  have  no  creed  if  he  have  any  generous  love  of  his  kind, 
who  does  not  desire,  in  some  way  or  other,  to  better  his  fellow- 
creatures. 

Now,  in  order  to  point  my  lesson  at  the  very  first,  I  will  tell 
you  a  saying  of  a  poor  drunken  soldier,  who  came  to  one  of  the 
h^rd-working  clergy  in  East  London  to  ask  his  help  in  conquering 
the  temptation  to  drink.  The  clergyman  asked  him  whether  he 
had  ever  taken  the  pledge.  "  Yes,"  said  the  soldier,  "  again  and 
again,  and  broken  it."  He  asked  him  about  his  companions,  his 
occupations,  his  amusements,  and  the  like;  till  at  last  the  poor 
man,  growing  somewhat  impatient,  exclaimed,  "  Sir,  if  religion 
will  not  do  it,  nothing  will  do  it ! " 

Now  is  not  that  very  much  the  same  thing  as  my  text  says  ?  Was 
not  there  true  wisdom  in  that  poor  man's  exclamation  ?  Well,  there 
are  some  men,  you  know,  who  tell  you  that  religion  has  had  its  day. 
"  It  has  done  its  work.  It  was  a  very  good  thing  in  the  infancy  of 
mankind ;   indeed,  probably  no  great  amount  of  advancement  and 


434  The  British  Weekly  Ptdpit. 

civilisation  could  have  been  attained  without  some  religion  or  other. 
There  have  been  many  sorts  of  religion,  some  better,  some  worse ; 
but,  on  the  whole,  it  has  been  an  elevating  influence  in  the  history 
of  the  world ;  but  in  these  days — well,  we  have  become  too  en- 
lightened. We  are  not  going  to  be  slaves  any  more  to  that  old 
exploded  superstition."  So  men  speak;  and  they  talk  of  religion 
cramping  men's  minds  ;  they  talk  of  "  emancipation,"'  "  freedom  from 
the  shackles  of  these  old,  worn-out  illusions."  As  if  the  Lord  Jesus 
had  never  said  anything  about  freedom,  emancipation,  and  slavery. 
What  did  He  mean  when  He  talked  of  the  "  truth  which  shall  make 
you  free"  ;  the  truth  that  He  came  to  proclaim,  the  Truth  that  He 
was  ?  I  look  round  in  the  world,  and  I  see  two  men;  one  of  them  a 
slave  to  drink,  like  that  poor  soldier  that  I  spoke  about.  He  tries  now 
and  then  to  break  his  bonds,  and  then  he  binds  them  round  himself 
again ;  and  is  a  faster  bound  slave  than  ever  ;  he  cannot  get  free. 
I  look  at  another.  I  see  a  man  who  has  known  the  slavery  of  sin, 
and  who,  by  the  grace  of  God,  mind  you — by  the  power  of  Jesus 
Christ,  mind  you — by  the  teachings  of  religion,  mind  you,  has  burst 
these  bonds  asunder,  and  is  a  free  man  now ;  who  sins  no  more, 
holding  himself  in  subjection,  and  is  master  over  himself.  And  you 
ask  me  which  of  the  two  is  a  slave,  and  which  a  free  man.  I  do  not 
think  anybody  would  have  much  difficulty  in  answering  that  question. 
Talk  of  slavery  to  that  old  superstition  !  If  Jesus  Christ  cannot  make 
men  free,  I  know  not  what  freedom  is. 

But  then  there  are  some,  you  know,  w^ho  will  not  preach  a  gospel 
of  unbelief,  but  who,  nevertheless,  preach  a  gospel  of  self-indulgence, 
**  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry  "  ;  that  is  the  thing  that  will  help  you  to 
get  rid  of  all  those  cares  and  troubles  and  miseries  of  life.  Poor 
fellows  !  would  to  God  that  they  knew  some  higher  and  better  way. 
I  am  very  sorry  for  them ;  I  cannot  judge  them,  for  I  do  not  know 
what  their  training  and  influences  have  been ;  but  I  never  saw  the 
miseries  of  the  world  washed  away  yet  in  oceans  of  pleasure. 

Well,  but  there  are  other  things  offered  us  as  solutions  of  our  hard 
problems,  as  the  true  ways  in  which  to  better  mankind.  One  of  these 
plans  has  been  set  before  us  quite  lately,  and  is  now,  as  you  all  know, 
exciting  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  those  who  have  any  care  for  these 
things,  the  propounding  by  one  who  has  had  great  experience  in 
organisation.  I  suppose  that  the  plan  that  is  set  before  us  will  be 
felt  by  many  to  be  very  attractive.  I  do  not  know  whether  it  is 
capable  of  realisation,  in  whole  or  in  part,  or  not.  I  think  it  will  be 
very  difficult  of  reaHsation.  But,  surely,  we  have  no  right  at  once  to 
disparage  or  condemn  such  a  plan,  although  it  may  not  be  after  our 
own  hearts,  or  set  before  us  by  those  whom  we  would  entirely  trust. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  one  of  the  remedies  proposed,  and  there  are  plenty 
more.  There  are  political  plans,  social  plans,  philanthropic  plans ; 
perhaps  this  great  plan  that  is  now  occupying  so  much  attention 
partakes  in  part  of  each  of  these,  and  some  believe  in  one  and  some 
in  another. 


Darkest  England.  435 


Now  do  not  think  for  one  moment  that  I  despise  or  scorn  any  plan 
at  all  which  has  for  its  object  the  bettering  of  the  poor  and  suffering 
of  those  classes,  especially  upon  whom  the  circumstances  of  life  press 
most  roughly.  No,  I  honour  all  genuine,  earnest,  honest  endeavour  ; 
and  I  do  not  want  all  the  work  to  be  done  only  in  my  own  way. 
God  knows  the  task  is  so  huge,  so  difficult,  so  complicated,  so  mani- 
fold, that  one  welcomes  anyone  or  anything  that  seems  pushing, 
however  feebly,  the  right  way ;  and  I  think  there  is  much  to  be  done 
politically,  socially,  philanthropically.  We  must  not  sit  down  con- 
tented, my  friends,  without  trying  to  banish  the  social  wrongs,  or 
bitter  distress,  anywhere,  if  we  can  in  any  way  improve  things.  I 
hold  that  the  politician  has  a  noble  field  of  action  before  him  if, 
instead  of  aiming  at  party  triumphs,  he  would  endeavour  to  attain 
the  object  that  there  should  be  no  more  room  for  anything  which 
would  prevent  us  from  grappling  with  the  plainest  principles  of 
improving  the  social  conditions  of  life  for  every  man. 

I  think  the  social  reformer  has  a  great  and  blessed  work  before 
him  if  he  can  only  make  society  purer,  better,  cleaner,  holier  than  it 
is.  And  I  think  the  philanthropist  has  a  better  work  to  do  if  only 
he  will  be  careful,  lest  in  removing  one  evil  he  does  not  bring  in  some 
other  perhaps  worse  than  the  one  removed. 

But  just  think  how  very  much  has  been  done.  Think  of  the 
wonderful  changes  in  this  century,  for  instance.  Take  the  laws  of 
the  land.  The  penal  laws  for  the  punishment  of  criminals  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century  were  simply  a  disgrace  to  a  civilised  nation, 
characterised  by  nothing  but  cruelty  and  injustice.  It  makes  one 
almost  ashamed  of  one's  country  to  read  about  them.  Look  again  at 
the  state  of  our  prisons,  workhouses,  factories,  mines.  Why,  the 
change  is  something  enormous  for  the  better.  Led,  of  course,  as  the 
movements  have  been  by  some  great  self-sacrificing  spirit — by  a 
Howard  or  a  Shaftesbury — what  triumphs  have  been  won  for  the 
workers  of  the  land,  whom  we  ought  to  care  for.  Look  at  educa- 
tion. I  am  not  ashamed  to  speak  of  the  Church  as  leading  in  the 
van,  and  marching  in  the  front  of  the  great  army  of  those  who  have 
gone  forward  in  the  work  of  education,  who  have  had  to  fight  the 
battle  long  ago.  I  speak  of  myself,  as  a  country  clergyman,  for 
twenty-eight  years  fighting  the  battle  for  the  education  of  our 
labourers  against  the  prejudices  and  the  selfishness  and  narrowness 
of  those  who  ought  to  have  helped  us. 

Look,  again,  at  philanthropy.  There  was  never  a  time  when  there 
was  more  real,  true,  personal  interest  taken  in  the  poor  and  the 
suffering  than  at  the  present  time.  We  are  advancing  slowly,  but 
perhaps  none  the  less  surely  for  that.  Now,  my  friends,  do  these 
changes  content  you  ?  Have  you  no  higher  aim  than  this  ?  What 
if  all  that  has  been  dreamed  of  by  the  politician,  the  social  reformer, 
the  philanthropist,  what  if  all  were  attained  ?  What  if  we  had  a 
perfect  system  of  law,  securing  freedom  and  right  to  every  man  ? 
What  if  we  had  society  regulated  in  any  ideal  fashion  which  you  like  ? 


436  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

What  if  money  were  freely  lavished,  or,   perhaps,  somewhat  more 
equally  divided — what    then  ?      Would  it   be    a    paradise    on  earth 
then  ?     Well,  now,  just  use  your  common  sense.     Visit  the  homes  of 
our  land,  rich  or  poor ;  they  are  very  much  the  same  in  this  respect. 
Am  I  right  or  wrong  in  saying  that  you  will  find  in  the  homes  of  our 
land  a  vast  amount  of  suffering — not  pain  or  sickness,   but  much 
worse  things  ?     You  will  find  bitter  disappointment,  the  stabs  of  in- 
gratitude, the  misery  that  comes  from  perfidy  and  wrong-doing.     You 
will  find  many  a  heart  very  sore  with  these  things  that  are  lying  so 
very  heavily  upon  it,  grinding  into  it  day  by  day.     Do  these   things 
come  from   bad  laws,  or  unequal   social   conditions,  or  the  lack   of 
money  ?     Oh,  no  !     You  know  the  causes  ;  you  know  very  well  that 
the  misery  of  the  world,  nine-tenths  of  it,  comes  from  selfishness, 
and  cruelty,  and  ill-temper,  and  vice,  and   frivolity,  and  drink,  and 
gambling.     What  can  we  do  with  all  these  ?     It  breaks  one's  heart, 
when   one  is  working,   planning,   hoping,   to  see   these   ugly  things 
dragging  down  again,  thwarting  all  our  endeavours,  making  all  in 
vain.     We  want  to  see  these  people  happier,  but  with  all  this  moral 
evil  I  do  not  think  there  will  be  much  happiness.      Even  well-meant 
efforts  seem  all  in  vain.     Now,  how  shall  all  this  crushing  load  of 
misery  and  discontent  be  lifted  from  our  people  ?     I  answer  in  the 
words  of  my  text,  "With  men  this  is  impossible,  but  with  God  all 
things  are  possible."     "  If  religion  will  not  do  it,  nothing  will  do  it !  " 
But  while  a  great  many  people  will  not  agree  with  me  in  that,  they 
believe  much  more  in  other  remedies.     Now  do  you  think  the  matter 
out :    are  we    agreed  that  at  least    morality    and  virtue,  kindness, 
unselfishness,  sacrifices,  sweet  temper — to  speak  of  some  of  the  plain 
ones — are  we  satisfied  that  these  are  the  conditions  of  happiness? 
But  these  things,  do  not  come  quite  naturally,  do  they,  to  everybody  I 
They    are  graces    to  be    taught,   cultivated,    and  practised.      Why 
should  men  take  the  trouble  to  cultivate,  and  practise,  and  win  these 
graces — I  mean,  of  course,  on  the  supposition  that  we  have  nothing 
to  do  with  religion  ?  **  Oh  !  "   say  many,   "  we  are  bound  to  seek  the 
greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number."     Very  well ;  now  I  think  that 
all  right.     Schemes  of  improvement  do  really,  in  the  long  run,  "  seek 
the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest  number."     But  think   of  this  as  a 
motive.     I  have  had  great  advantages,  a  good   education,   and   the 
social  position  which  1  hold,  and  the  influences   surrounding  me  for 
good  all  niy  life  long,  for  which  I  thank  God ;  and  therefore  such  an 
appeal  migiit  have  some  force  with  me.     I  do   not  say  it  would  have 
an  overwhelming  force,  but  it  might  have   some   force,  with  educated 
people    who    are    thoughtful  about    these    things,  and    have  learnt, 
instinctively  almost,  from  the  genial  converging  influences  of  all  their 
culture,  to  think  a  little  about  others.     But  take  some  poor  fellow — 
that  poor  drunken  soldier  that  I  spoke  of,  or  any  wretched  man  that 
you  meet  in  the  street,  and  you  see  him  the  worse  for  drink,  perhaps ; 
or  you  know,  at  any  rate,  that  he  is  leading  a  godless,  profligate  life. 
You  say  to  him,  "  My  fiicnd,  this  will  not  do  !    You  are  leading  a 


437 

godless,  profligate,  and  unhealthy  life;  a  life  which  will  do  you  and 
others  much  harm.  You  are  bound  to  seek  the  greatest  good  of  the 
greatest  number."  What  a  farce  !  Does  any  sane  man  think  that  that 
motive  is  going  to  tame  the  passions,  and  banish  the  selfishness,  and  put 
a  check  on  the  self-indulgence  that  is  working  such  havoc  amongst  us 
on  all  sides  ?  Will  the  wisest  legislation  which  the  wit  of  man  can 
devise  do  so  ?  Will  better  social  regulations,  if  we  could  get  them, 
do  so  ?  Will  improved  dwellings  for  the  poor  do  so  ?  I  am  all  for 
these  things,  I  long  to  see  better  dwellings  for  our  poor  classes.  I 
long  to  see  the  laws  of  the  land  made  more  and  more  perfect,  and  1 
long  to  see  many  a  change  in  the  social  relations  of  our  land.  But 
will  these  things  banish  all  the  wretchedness  and  selfishness  and 
misery  of  the  world  ?  Ay,  men  may  plan,  but  if  I  am  asked  what 
is  going  to  better  the  world  I  have  no  answer  but  my  text.  But  it 
is  when  the  grace  of  God  is  in  the  heart,  melting  its  stubbornness, 
moving  the  will,  rooting  out  self,  it  is  when  sin  is  grieved  over,  hated, 
relinquished;  when  God  is  feared  and  obeyed,  when  Jesus  is  known 
and  loved  and  trusted,  it  is  then  that  joy  and  peace  are  known. 
Men  cast  about,  they  tell  us,  for  a  new  basis  of  morality. 
There  is  no  basis  of  morality  that  has  the  faintest  chance  against 
the  selfishness  of  man  except  religion.  Look  at  the  philosophers ; 
see  what  a  great  ideal  they  had,  what  noble  sentiments  are  to 
be  found  in  their  writings.  Now,  I  ask  how  much  good  did 
they  do  ?  They  might  teach  a  few  disciples,  men  of  high 
and  noble  impulses,  but  could  they  touch  the  masses ;  could  they 
elevate  the  tone  of  society  ?  You  say  "  Christianity  has  not  made 
the  world  good  yet."  I  know  it,  but  what  multitudes  it  has  made 
better  and  purer !  What  multitudes  there  are  who,  in  these  days 
even,  lift  up  their  voices  and  echo  the  words  of  the  great  penitent  of 
ancient  times,  who  tells  us,  in  his  visions  of  the  light,  and  joy,  and 
peace  that  came  to  him  with  the  knowledge  of  his  God  and  Saviour : 
"Too  late  have  I  found  Thee,  O  my  neglected  Good  !  "  And  he  tells 
us  how  he  quaffed  every  cup  of  pleasure,  how  he  tasted  every 
philosophy  that  the  wit  of  man  could  devise,  and  yet  there  was  no 
virtue  and  no  happiness.  And  that  prayer  of  his  that  has  come 
down  to  us  is  all  so  true :  "  Thou,  O  Lord,  hast  made  me  for  Thy- 
self, and  my  heart  knoweth  no  rest  until  it  attain  to  Thee." 

'  And  what  are  these  clergy  that  we  are  trying  to  send  out  into  our 
great,  overwhelming,  over-crowded  parishes,  what  are  they  doing  ? 
Why  do  we  send  them  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  these  ?  Why  do 
we  ask  your  alms  to-day  for  multiplying  the  number  of  these  who  go 
forth  to  our  parishes  as  ministers  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of 
God  ?  Is  it  not  simply  to  proclaim  the  truth  that  there  is  no  remedy 
for  the  misery  of  the  world,  for  bettering  our  future,  except  in  the 
faith  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  blessed  Gospel,  which  they  pro- 
claim in  His  name?  Yes,  it  is  so!  There  arc  plenty  of 
other  gospels  preached — gospels  of  culture,  of  education,  of  art, 
of  music,    even    gospels   of  recreation ;    but    I    do    not    know  any 


438  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

gospel  that  is  really  going  to  shed  light  on  the  dark  places  of 
our  land,  and  to  lift  our  people  into  a  brighter,  freer,  more 
beautiful  atmosphere,  except  the  one  old,  old  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
I  have  spoken  about  bettering  this  state  of  our  people  here  below,  I 
have  spoken  about  this  life,  for  godliness,  religion,  "has  the  pro- 
mise of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  of  that  which  is  to  come." 
But  if  in  this  life  only  we  have  hope  in  Christ,  "  then  we  are  of  all 
men  most  miserable."  Oh,  my  friends,  is  this  life  all  that  we  have 
to  speak  about?  No!  These  mysteries  which  so  perplex  us  will 
still  be  mysteries  to  man's  narrow  reason  ;  still  there  will  be  dark 
things  he  cannot  understand ;  but  what  is  there  that  shall  cast  a 
bright  ray  of  light  upon  many  of  these  mysteries,  and  say  where  the 
highest  is  to  be  found  ?  What  is  there  save  religion  ?  Sorrows 
and  sufferings  will  continue ;  we  have  no  pledge  that  they  are  to  be 
banished  from  this  world  so  long  as  it  lasts.  But  what  is  there  that 
can  cast  a  blessed  ray  of  light,  and  hope,  and  peace,  even  of  joy — for 
I  have  seen  it  again  and  again  upon  the  poor,  suffering  soul,  so  that 
the  eye  lights  up  in  the  moment  of  excruciating  pain  when  One 
Name  is  spoken  ?  It  is  religion ;  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  And 
so  we  trust  in  God.  "  I  should  have  utterly  fainted  but  that  I 
believed  verily  to  see  the  goodness  of  the  Lord  in  the  land  of  the 
living.  There  be  many  that  say" — -some  say  it  very  sadly,  some 
mockingly  and  tauntingly,  but  "  there  be  many  that  say.  Who  will 
show  us  any  good  ? "  I  answer,  in  the  grand  old  words  of  the 
Psalm  which  sum  up  that  which  I  have  tried  to  teach  to  you  this 
day  :  "  Lord,  lift  Thou  up  the  light  of  Thy  countenance  upon  me." 


A  TALK  ABOUT  BOOKS. 

By  Professor  Henry  Drummond. 

When  the  Secretary  of  the  University  Union  asked  me  to  come  here 
and  deliver  a  lecture  to  the  Melbourne  students,  I  felt  myself  at  a  loss 
how  to  reply  to  him.  When  I  left  Scotland  I  had  no  intention  of 
delivering  any  lectures,  and  I  made  no  preparation  for  such  an  emer- 
gency. The  fact  is,  I  only  came  to  Australia  with  one  barrel  loaded, 
all  the  shot  for  the  other  being  in  a  box  at  home.  That  is  why  I  am 
not  going  to  give  you  a  lecture.  I  am  only  going  to  "  talk  about 
books." 

And  I  want  particularly  to  talk  to  the  "  duffers."  Most  speakers 
are  in  the  habit  of  addressing  themselves  to  the  brilliant  students.  I 
don't  want  to  do  thiit.  I  wish  to  talk  to  the  duflers,  because  while  I 
v/as  at  college  I  was  a  duffer  myself,  and  I  therefore  sympathise  with 
the  duffers. 

In  a  certain  library  I  know  of  in  Scotland,  the  books  are  divided 
into  two  great  classes,  which  are  in  cases  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
room.     Surmounting  the  shelves  in  which  one  class  is  ranged,  there 


A  Talk  about  Books.  439 


is  a  stuffed  owl ;  while  above  the  other  there  is  a  bird  known  in  Scot- 
land as  the  "  dipper."  These  birds  are  symbolical  of  the  two  kinds 
of  books.  It  is  about  the  second  class,  the  "  dipper  books  " — the 
books  that  may  be  dipped  into — that  I  am  going  to  speak. 

The  owl  class  are  uninviting  in  appearance,  and  require  the  reader 
to  burn  "  the  midnight  oil."  The  main  value  of  these  books  is  not  in 
what  one  gets  out  of  them,  but  the  mental  discipline  which  is  got 
from  them  ;  and  no  man  will  ever  come  to  much  unless  he  occasion- 
ally goes  laboriousl}^  and  conscientiously  through  the  "  owl  "  books. 

In  general  literature,  an  example  of  the  "  owl "  books  would  be 
Gibbon's  "  Decline  and  Fall "  ;  in  poetry,  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book." 
Each  of  these  leaves  behind  a  sense  of  power  and  grasp  possessed 
by  the  wTiter.  And  so  with  all  these  great  books.  In  philosophy 
one  might  class  Butler's  "Analogy"  among  them;  in  theology  such  a 
book  as  Dorner  on  "The  Person  of  Christ,"  or  Miiller  on  "The 
Doctrine  of  Sin."  They  all  leave  upon  the  reader  an  impression  of 
the  size  and  power  of  the  human  mind.  I  don't  think  it  is  necessary 
to  know  many  of  these,  but  every  "  duffer  "  ought  to  read  one  or  two 
of  them  during  his  college  course. 

A  man  is  made  partly  by  his  friends,  partly  by  his  college  books ; 
and  many  a  man  is  entirely  shut  up  to  the  first,  many  a  man  to  the 
second. 

If  you  will  allow  me  to  be  slightly  autobiographical,  and  tell  3'ou  in 
a  very  easy  way  the  books  that  were  useful  to  me,  this  is  what  I  now 
mean  to  do. 

I  think  every  student  should  form  a  library  of  his  own.  It  doesn't 
matter  how  small.  During  my  college  course  I  gathered  such  a 
library.  It  occupied  the  mantelshelf,  yet  I  owe  more  to  these  books 
than  to  all  the  professors.  I  would  especially  urge  this  upon  medical 
students.  Medical  men  are  probably  the  most  illiberal  class  in  the 
world.  They  know  all  about  bones,  and  not  one  in  a  hundred  knows 
about  the  literature  of  his  time. 

I  remember  the  very  first  book  which  I  ever  bought,  \vhich  I  shall 
call  No.  I.  It  was  a  volume  of  Ruskin — only  a  book  of  selections — 
which  cost  4s.  6d.  When  I  look  back  upon  it  now  I  can  name  with 
perfect  clearness  what  I  got  out  of  that  book.  Ruskin  taught  me  to 
sec.  Men  are  born  blind,  as  blind  as  bats  or  kittens,  and  many  men 
may  go  through  their  whole  career  without  ever  opening  their  eyes. 
I  should  have  done  so,  too,  if  I  had  not  encountered  Ruskin.  It  only 
requires  the  idea  to  be  put  into  a  man's  mind. 

It  is  astonishing  to  see  how  few  men  see  the  world  in  which  they 
live.  I  begin  my  class  every  year  by  an  examination,  not  to  prove 
knowledge,  but  to  prove  ignorance.  I  give  an  examination  paper, 
consisting  of  about  a  dozen  questions  on  the  most  elementary  things 
that  everybody  ought  to  know.  There  are  a  number  of  questions 
which  involve  the  use  of  the  eyes.  For  instance,  one  question  at  my 
last  examination  was,  "  What  colour  are  the  stars  ?  "  Some  would 
say  white,  others  red  ;  but  stars  are  all  colours. 


44  o  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Ruskin  will  help  a  man  to  the  use  of  his  eyes.  Anybody  can  be 
put  up  to  this  in  a  few  minutes.  Go  out  into  the.  country  on  Satur- 
day, and  stop  at  the  first  ploughed  field.  At  first  you  will  see  nothing 
but  an  ugly  ploughed  mass.  When  you  look  again,  it  is  a  rich  amber 
colour,  with  probably  two  feet  of  coloured  air  moving  over  it.  The 
ploughed  field  is  really  a  glowing  mass  of  beautiful  colour.  When  I 
was  a  little  boy,  I  wondered  why  God  made  the  world  so  dingy.  I 
saw  in  Ruskin  that  the  colours  as  they  are  in  nature  are  most 
perfectly  beautiful,  and  that  by  no  possibility  can  they  be  changed  to 
advantage. 

Then  look  at  the  boulders,  with  their  forests  of  lichens  and  mosses. 
Try  to  think  what  like  naked  rock  is.  There  are  few  places  on  the 
world's  surface  where  the  earth's  bones  stick  out,  and  there  is  nothing 
more  appalling  in  the  world.  Ruskin  calls  mosses  and  lichens  "  God's 
first  mercy  to  the  world."  Don't  look  at  the  general  effect,  but  look 
at  the  individual.  Look  how  exquisitely  coloured  they  are;  look  at 
the  imitation  of  crystallization ;  look  at  the  finish  upon  their  most 
minute  parts ;  and  look  at  the  stability  of  these  things.  They  are 
as  delicate  as  a  little  cigar-ash.  The  sun  shines  and  scorches  them  ; 
the  wind  blows  and  moves  them ;  the  frost  bites  and  chills  them ;  the 
rain  falls  on  them,  but  never  washes  them  away. 

I  should  have  gone  through  the  world  and  never  seen  them  at  all 
had  Ruskin  never  taught  me  to  look.  He  taught  me  to  look  at  the 
trees  when  the  leaves  were  off",  and  to  see  as  much  in  them  then  as 
when  the  leaves  were  on. 

One  of  the  advantages  this  gives  a  man  is  the  possession  of  a  great 
many  new  adjectives,  and  it  is  a  man's  adjectives  to  a  large  extent 
that  bear  witness  to  his  intellectual  power.  A  lot  of  men  go  to  hear 
a  sermon  or  a  lecture.  Some  say,  "  It  was  very  nice ;  "  but  the 
thoughtful  man  will  sa}',  "  It  was  a  discerning  sermon,"  or  "a  well 
thought-out  sermon,"  or  "  a  weak  sermon."  Now  there  is  nothing 
that  will  supply  a  man  with  adjectives  so  much  as  nature.  What 
should  we  know  of  the  word  "  awful,"  if  it  were  not  for  thunder  ? 
Ruskin  says,  "  No  one  knows  what  tenderness  is  until  he  has  seen  a 
sunrise."  The  best  idea  that  one  gets  of  tenderness  is  the  delicate 
light  of  an  autumn  sunrise. 

Let  me  simply  say  that  if  any  one  of  us  has  not  discovered  the 
world  in  which  he  lives,  he  ought  to  get  some  book  that  will  help  him 
to  do  this. 

The  second  book  that  I  bought  was  Emerson,  and  I  used  always  to 
take  credit  to  myself  that  I  had  discovered  Emerson.  My  fellow- 
students  wouldn't  read  him.  They  always  read  Carlyle.  But  I 
couldn't  read  Carlyle  then.  If  I  did  read  Carlyle,  I  felt  as  if  I  had 
been  whipped ;  while,  after  I  read  Emerson,  I  felt  that  I  had  been 
stroked  down. 

I  think  a  man  should  read  the  books  that  help  him,  it  doesn't  matter 
what  reputation  they  have  got.  I  think  a  man  should  discard  the 
books  that  bore  him.    I  think  what  Emerson,  does  for  you  is  to  teach 


A  Talk  about  Books.  441 


you  to  see  with  the  mind.  Emerson  never  proves  anything.  He 
never  works  out  logic.  He  just  looks  at  truth,  and  says  what  he  sees, 
and  you  see  that  what  he  says  is  right.  Emerson  was  one  of  the 
purest  and  most  unworldly  men  who  ever  lived.  He  lived  the  ripe 
scholar  all  the  time.  He  never  came  down  and  mingled  with  the 
world  and  took  off  his  gown.  And  there  is  a  scholarly  purity  and 
unworldliness  about  his  work. 

He  teaches,  for  instance,  the  great  truth  that  a  man  ought  to  rely 
upon  himself;  that  God  has  given  him  a  certain  number  of  talents,  and 
that  is  his  equipment  to  go  through  life  on.  He  has  to  stand  upon 
his  own  instincts,  and  to  be  perfectly  contented  to  be  what  God  has 
made  him  to  be,  and  not  anxious  to  be  anybody  else ;  and  this  makes 
a  man  perfectly  satisfied  to  be  even  a  "  duffer." 

The  next  set  of  books  on  my  library  shelf  were  one  or  two  novels, 
the  novels  of  George  Eliot,  which  were  much  in  vogue  during  my 
college  course. 

I  owe  a  great  deal  to  George  Eliot.  She  opened  my  eyes  to  the 
meaning  of  life.  I  don't  think  there  is  any  better  reading  in  the 
world  than  a  good  novel.  In  reading  a  good  novel,  you  are  living 
with  good,  interesting  people  who  do  you  good.  I  was  kept  going 
the  whole  winter  because  I  fell  in  love  with  one  of  George  Eliot's 
young  ladies.  Well,  I  should  say  to  a  student  that  second  or  third 
on  his  list  of  books  should  be  a  few  really  first-rate  novels. 

George  Eliot  had  a  great  message  to  the  world,  and  she  deliberately 
chose  the  novel  form  as  the  form  in  which  she  could  teach  the  world. 
I  used  to  like  Besant  and  Rice  in  those  days ;  since  then,  of  course, 
I  have  tried  to  read  more  carefully. 

I  suppose  the  greatest  novelist  at  the  present  time  is  George 
Meredith.  I  suppose  George  Meredith  belongs  to  the  same  class  of 
novelist  as  Victor  Hugo,  where  you  get  George  Meredith  and  more 
besides.  "  Les  Miserables  "  is  perhaps  the  greatest  of  novels.  You 
have  a  great  novel  of  this  country  which  is  like  it — "His  Natural 
Life." 

Next  to  my  novels  I  had  one  or  two  books  of  humour,  which  I 
think  is  a  good  addition.  My  favourite  then  and  now  is  Mark  Twain. 
I  don't  know  any  books  in  our  language  which  quite  touch  the 
American  humour  in  its  dash  and  piquancy. 

-  Some  of  you  may  remember  the  story  of  the  two  Chicago  safe- 
agents  who  were  travelling  in  the  train  together.  Each  man  took  to 
praising  his  own  safe.  One  of  them  told  how  in  a  great  fire  in  New 
York  a  large  building  had  been  burned  down,  and  when  they 
examined  the  place  afterwards  they  found  one  of  his  firm's  safes  in  it. 
When  they  opened  the  safe  all  the  documents  in  it  were  unharmed, 
not  even  scorched.  They  also  found  in  it  a  kitten,  which  had  been 
accidentally  locked  in.  The  kitten  was  alive  and  hearty,  and  not  a 
single  hair  on  that  kitten  was  even  scorched.  The  other  agent  merely 
smiled  contemptuously.  His  safe,  he  said,  had  been  subjected  to  as 
severe  a  test  as  that.     His  firm   had  taken  one  of  their  safes,  and 


442  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

locked  a  bantam  rooster  in  it.  Then  they  piled  a  huge  quantity  of 
dry  resinous  wood  around  and  over  it.  Upon  the  mass  they  had 
poured  several  gallons  of  petroleum  and  then  set  fire  to  the  whole. 
The  fire  was  kept  going  for  two  days,  and  was  then  allowed  to  die 
out.  They  opened  the  safe,  and  they  found  that  the  poor  Httle  bantam 
was  dead.  "Yes,  sir,  the  rooster  was  dead.  But,  by  gosh,  sir,  when 
they  picked  him  up  they  found  why.  That  chicken  had  been  frozen 
to  death !  "     The  first  agent  took  up  his  carpet  bag  and  left  the  train. 

I  think  the  very  best  book  of  humour  that  has  ever  been  given  to 
the  world  is  Mark  Twain's  Selections  of  American  Humour.  That 
book  contains  "The  Blue  Jay."     I  wish  I  had  it  here  to  read  to  you. 

Mark  Twain  is  not  the  Bohemian  that  people  are  apt  to  imagine. 
In  his  w^ork  he  tries  to  be  useful.  He  is  a  most  respectable  and 
esteemed  citizen  of  Hartford  in  Connecticut.  He  lives  in  one  of  the 
finest  houses  I  ever  saw.  In  America  he  is  universally  esteemed  for 
his  kindness  to  the  poor  and  to  people  that  are  down. 

Some  men  are  absolutely  without  humour,  and  as  I  mention  this 
I  am  reminded  of  a  story  of  Dr.  Marcus  Dods,  who  is  one  of  my  most 
esteemed  and  familiar  friends.  He  is  one  of  the  most  solemn  and 
stolid  of  professors.  He  never  moves  a  muscle  when  he  is  preaching, 
but  stands  squarely  in  the  pulpit,,  with  his  hands  by  his  side,  from 
beginning  to  end,  and  betrays  no  emotion  or  passion.  One  of  his 
friends  said  one  day,  "  I  think,  Dods,  you  would  preach  a  great  deal 
better  if  you  would  try  some  gesture.  Get  your  hand  out,  and  show 
the  people  that  you  are  not  a  corpse."  Well,  next  Sunday  Dr.  Dods 
tried  a  gesture.  He  got  his  hand  straight  out  in  front  of  him,  like 
that,  and  he  never  got  it  in  again  all  through  the  discourse.  When 
I  told  this  story  to  my  class  one  day,  one  student  seriously  asked, 
"  Why  could  he  not  get  it  down  ?  "  It  is  superfluous  to  say  that 
that  student  is  an  example  of  a  man  devoid  of  humour. 

I  must  conclude  by  referring  to  one  or  two  books  which  satisfied 
another  part  of  my  nature.  I  suppose  I  am  not  out  of  court  in  refer- 
ring to  those  books  which  satisfied  the  higher  part  of  my  being.  I 
think  a  man  should  be  developed  in  his  whole  manhood.  Well,  I 
picked  up  a  book  at  a  bookstall,  and,  after  reading  a  page  of  it, 
carried  it  home — a  volume  of  Dr.  Channing's.  Channing  taught  me, 
I  think,  to  believe  in  a  God.  I  had  always  been  brought  up  to  know 
there  was  a  God,  but  I  did  not  like  the  idea.  I  had  much  rather  there 
had  been  no  God.  But  when  I  read  Channing's  book,  I  saw  the 
character  of  a  Deity  put  in  such  a  way  that  I  was  glad  there  was  a 
God. 

To  the  next  book  on  my  list  I  owed  the  impression  that  God  was  a 
man.  Of  course  He  was  more  than  a  man,  but  He  was  a  man.  I  got 
that  from  one  of  F.  W.  Robertson's  books  of  sermons.  It  was  a  new 
revelation  to  me  when  I  knew  that  Christ  had  been  a  man.  I  went 
to  Robertson  of  Brighton's  life,  and  I  learned  what  freedom  meant. 
Robertson  was  a  British  officer,  and  one  of  the  noblest  and  truest  of 
the  spirits  of  men  that  ever  lived.     He  did  not  care  what  he  said,  so 


Pulpit  Prayers.  443 


long  as  he  spoke  truth;  and  my  first  gh'mpse  of  liberty  in  the 
intellectual  life  I  got  from  reading  "  Robertson  of  Brighton." 

I  will  just  say  that  I  remember  that,  one  day,  when  my  college 
course  was  just  finished,  I  looked  over  the  list  of  the  names  of  the 
authors  in  my  library,  and  I  was  thunderstruck  to  discover  that  almost 
every  one  of  them  was  a  heretic.  /  hadrit  sought  the  books  out,  they 
had  found  me. 

I  don't  think  a  man  need  be  afraid  of  what  are  called  dangerous 
books.  I  have  learned  far  more  from  authors  who  did  not  altogether 
hold  opinions  as  I  held  them  than  from  those  who  coincided  with  me. 
I  don't  mean  that  one  does  not  owe  very  much  to  one's  fellow- 
believers  ;  but  for  the  real  nutriment  of  my  college  life  I  must  express 
my  obligations  to  such  men,  and  that  has  taught  me  toleration.  I 
wouldn't  ask  you  to  read  any  one  of  these  books.  Most  of  them  are 
second-rate  books.  I  was  only  a  second-rate  student,  and  I  didn't 
presume  to  tackle  the  first-rate  books.  But  I  wouldn't  advise  anyone 
to  read  fifth  and  sixth-rate  books. 

I  need  not  remind  3'ou,  in  sitting  down,  that  the  greatest  book  of 
all  is  the  book  of  human  life,  and  that  life  is  the  great  teacher  which 
will  teach  us  far  more  than  all  we  get  in  books. 

I  shall  close  by  inviting  any  of  you  who  may  come  to  the  old 
country  to  come  and  see  me,  and  I  shall  introduce  you  to  my  class  of 
books.  I  have  been  received  with  unusual  courtesy,  and  I  feel  almost 
a  personal  friend  of  many  of  you.  I  know  some  of  you  are  coming  to 
the  old  country,  and  I  hope  you  will  look  into  my  house  in  Glasgow, 
and  get  whatever  help  and  benefit  a  Scotsman  can  give  you. 


PULPIT    PRAYERS. 

By  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Harwood,  of  Sunderland. 
At  Streatham  Congregaiiottal  Church,  Strcatham  Town  Hall. 

Thou  Who  desirest  most  of  all  the  love  of  the  creatures  whom 
Thou  hast  made,  teach  us  how  we  may  love  Thee.  For  Thou  art  not 
far  from  us;  Thou  art  close  at  hand.  In  the  act  we  may  do,  in  the 
service  we  may  render  to  many  in  Thy  name,  in  all  that  is  holiest  and 
best  and  noblest  in  our  life,  there  would  we  express  our  love  to  Thee, 
and  not  alone  in  this  act  of  worship.  Grant,  we  pray  Thee,  that  all 
our  life  may  be  lifted  up  to  the  level  of  this  act  of  devotion.  Not 
here  alone  but  every  day  let  us  be  Thy  servants  indeed.  Inspire  us 
by  Thy  gracious  Spirit  to  all  compassionate  love  for  men,  to  all 
earnest  desire  to  do  Thy  will  at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  and  so 
may  we  all  who  here  worship  Thee  this  night  be  stronger  for  service, 


444  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

truer  in  our  relationship  to  men,  nearer  to  Thyself  because  we  have 
thus  spoken  to  Thee,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 

We  bring  to  Thee  many  lives,  but  one  need.  The  end  of  all  our 
striving  and  aspiring,  what  is  it  but  Thyself  ?  If  we  have  Thee, 
the  many-voiced  prayer  that  rises  to  Thee  will  be  answered,  the 
needs  that  we  cannot  interpret  into  language  will  be  satisfied,  we 
shall  go  hence  stronger  for  our  life,  readier  for  service.  Fulfil, 
then,  O  God,  we  beseech  Thee,  this  supreme  need  of  life  to  each 
one  of  us.  Teach  us  first  of  all  how  great  that  need  is.  Help  us, 
that  we  hunger  and  thirst  after  Thy  presence  and  Thy  blessing. 
And  when  Thou  hast  aroused  within  us  a  deep,  passionate  desire 
for  all  that  is  godlike,  then  come  to  us,  we  pray  Thee,  and  nourish 
the  life  of  each  one  of  us,  and  make  our  lives  strong,  and  pure,  and 
beautiful  in  the  grace  of  Thy  love.  For  we  are  Thy  children,  having 
each  our  own  place  in  Thy  thought,  in  Thine  ambition.  Thou  hast 
some  place  for  us  to  fill  in  the  great  plan  of  Thy  doings,  some  desire 
concerning  each  one  of  us.  Help  us,  that  for  all  our  inspiration  we 
go  back  to  this  beginning  of  all  things,  that  we  derive  our  light,  our 
help,  all  the  teaching  that  we  need  day  by  day,  first  of  all  from  this 
supreme  fact  of  our  faith,  and  then,  having  this  standard  by  which 
to  measure  all  things,  help  us  that  we  become  helpers  of  others, 
showing  to  them  the  reality  of  that  which  we  have  received  from 
Thee.  Guide  us,  we  pray  Thee,  as  we  endeavour  to  think  rightly  of 
Thee.  Thou  hast  made  our  lives  so  complex,  we  cannot  tell  why ; 
Thou  hast  made  misery  and  error  possible,  we  cannot  tell  why.  All 
we  ask  is  that  we  may  have  strength  freely  to  believe  in  Thy 
goodness,  that  the  one  reality  high  over  all  may  never  be  taken 
away  from  us,  but  that  when  life  is  darkest  to  us  we  may  still 
believe  that  Thou  art,  and  that  because  Thou  art,  the  triumph 
of  all  that  is  good  and  true  is  ensured  at  last.  We  have  not  believed 
in  Thee  ;  Thou  hast  been  to  us  a  name  and  only  a  name ;  we  have  not 
made  Thee  the  supreme  guide  and  ruler  of  our  every-day  life ;  we  have 
not  lived  as  though  Thou  hast  been  in  the  cries  of  our  fellow-men  to 
us,  in  the  claims  of  all  those  who  are  nearest  to  us;  we  have  thrust 
Thee  afar  off,  and  now  and  again  and  again  only  bowed  to  Thee  in  the 
act  of  worship.  We  pray,  O  God  our  Father,  that  Thou  wilt  teach  us 
how  truly  Thou  art  in  our  life  day  by  day,  that  Thou  wilt  help  us  to 
walk  in  the  strength  and  in  the  beauty  of  this  belief  in  Thy  presence, 
that  we  may  learn  that  Thou  art  the  beginning  to  us  of  all  that  is 
truest  and  best  in  this  life  of  ours,  that  as  we  grow  into  all  knowledge 
and  all  beauty  we  grow  nearer  to  Thyself  We  thank  Thee  for  all 
that  Thou  hast  taught  us.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  great  compassionate 
story  in  which  we  find  the  revelation  of  Thy  character  and  of 
Thy  purpose.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  in  it  that  comes  so  near 
home  to  our  own  striving,  so  that  we  learn  each  one  for  himself  the 
lesson  Thou  dost  teach  us,  that  we  may  realise  that  when  we  need 
Thee  most  Thou  art  nearest  to  help   us.     We  pray  that  we  may 


Pulpit  Prayers.  445 


never  in  our  prayer  and  our  worship  be  seliish  in  Tny  sight.  We 
would  live  for  those  who  have  the  lirst  claim  upoa  us.  We  would 
live  for  those  into  whose  dark  lives  we  can  bring  brightness,  into 
whose  limited  Hfe  we  can  bring  some  larger  knowledge  of  what  Thy 
purpose  is  and  of  what  Thy  desire  is.  Teach  us,  we  pray  Thee,  how 
near  to  us  our  service  may  be,  how  close  at  hand  is  the  duty  Thou 
dost  desire  for  us,  not  afar  off,  not  in  imaginings ;  but  in  the  duty 
that  we  can  do,  in  the  helpful  human  service  that  we  can  render,  Thou 
dost  desire  that  we  should  serve  Thee.  Again,  we  pray  that  Thou 
wouldst  teach  us  all  the  secret  of  the  true  religious  life,  that 
we  may  set  forth  in  the  eyes  of  men  the  reality  of  that 
which  we  profess.  We  pray  this  night  for  the  many  who  need  our 
prayers  and  our  sympathy.  We  cannot  come  to  Thee  without  bring- 
ing with  us  the  worst,  the  vilest,  the  most  evil  of  men  who  are  about 
us.  Tliou  hast  made  them  to  be  our  brethren,  and  we  cannot  escape 
from  our  kinship  with  them.  Create,  we  pray  Thee,  in  the  heart  of 
each  one  of  us  the  true  spirit  of  Christ,  the  spirit  that  recognises 
gladly  this  great  fellowship  of  human  kind,  and  that  seeks  to  fulfil  all 
that  is  meant  in  that  fellowship.  We  remember,  O  God  our  Father, 
the  many  this  night  who  curse  Thee,  the  many  who  curse  and  blast 
the  lives  of  their  fellow-men,  the  little  children  in  whose  veins  is 
poison,  and  who  have  commenced  their  lives  with  bitter  thoughts  of 
Thee,  and  with  vilest  thoughts  of  all  that  life  means.  Have  compassion 
on  us,  as  we  confess  the  evil  that  is  so  close  to  us,  that  while  we  are  here 
in  comfort  and  in  contentment,  so  many  are  drinking  the  bitterest 
dregs  of  life,  when  the}'  have  never  tasted  the  sweets  of  it,  when  they 
have  come  to  choose  evil  before  they  have  known  the  good.  God  help 
those  who  cannot  help  themselves,  those  to  whom  the  good,  true  life 
is  impossible,  and  whose  life  is  cursed  at  its  very  beginning.  And 
may  we  so  arise  in  this  day  to  the  work  that  is  before  us  that  this 
shame  may  cease  from  us,  that  the  pictures  of  life  that  burn  into  our 
thoughts  to-day  may  become  impossible,  and  that  no  longer  the  cry 
of  the  outcast  child  may  reproach  all  our  religion  and  teach  us  the 
emptiness  of  many  things  that  we  have  professed.  Oh,  that  we  may 
be  the  Church  of  the  living  God  indeed,  that  all  mere  form  of  pro- 
fession may  pass  away  from  us,  and  that  the  love  of  God  may  glow 
and  burn  within  us,  and  that  we  may  desire  nothing  .so  much  as  that 
■  we  may  be  Thy  servants  here  in  the  midst  of  men.  Teach  us  how, 
here  to-day,  we  may  realise  all  that  Thou  hast  had  to  say  to  us  of 
the  great  future  that  is  beyond.  In  all  that  we  are  undertaking  guide 
us  ;  the  little  here,  the  little  there,  make  up  the  great  sum  of  Thy 
ministry  to  men.  Teach  us  the  part  that  we  may  play,  the  place  that 
we  may  fill,  and  help  us  so  to  live  that  when  our  life  shall  cease  some 
place  of  usefulness  may  be  vacant,  some  memories  that  shall  inspire 
men  may  be  left  behind  us.  Be  with  all  who  shall  minister  and 
who  shall  hear  in  this  place.  If  it  be  Thy  will  may  this  become  a 
centre  of  help,  of  life,  of  teaching  to  many  who  have  need  of  Thee, 
and  so  may  those  who  have  responsibility  know  that  Thy  hand  is 


446  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

with  them.  We  pray  Thee  to-night  to  be  our  Helper.  Make  us 
to  know  something  more  of  what  Thou  art,  of  what  we  may  teach 
men  of  Thee,  and  so  may  we  go  hence  with  a  .  larger  conception  of 
what  our  life  is,  and  of  what  Thou  dost  desire  us  to  do  in  it ;  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.     Amen. 


THE  CHOKING  OF  THE  WORD. 

By  Rev.  Alexander  Maclaren,  D.D. 

"And  these  are  they  which  are  sown  among  thorns,  such  as  hear  the  Word, 
and  the  cares  of  this  world  and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other 
things  entering  in,  choke  the  Word,  and  it  becometh  unfruitful." — Mark  iv.  18-19. 

Four  sowings  result  in  three  failures.  That  is  Christ's  estimate  of 
what  was  likely  to  be  the  issue  of  His  work.  He  does  not  tell  us  the 
relative  areas  of  the  different  lots  of  the  field,  and  so  we  cannot  enter 
upon  any  arithmetical  calculations,  but  He  does  tell  us  that  at  every 
stage  of  growth  there  is  a  danger. 

The  first  phase  of  the  parable  illustrates  the  danger  that  first  emerges. 
The  seed  cast  upon  the  trodden  path  never  gets  into  the  ground  at  all. 
The  second,  that  sown  on  the  rocky  soil,  does  get  rooted,  and  it  is 
beginning  to  grow.  And  this  third  has  got  considerably  further  on 
the  way  to  growth,  has  successfully  come  through  the  earlier  dangers, 
but  just  as  it  is  coming  to  perfection  it,  too,  succumbs  and  fades, 

I.  What  are  the  thorns  ?  Jesus  Christ  puts  three  things  which, 
in  another  of  the  versions  of  the  parable,  are  even  more  distinctly 
exhibited  as  being  three  different  forms  of  one  thing ;  "  the  cares  of 
the  world,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other  things," 
says  Mark.  Luke,  on  the  other  hand,  puts  it  "  the  cares  and  the 
riches  and  the  pleasures,"  and  then  a  phrase  which  includes  all  the 
other  three,  "  of  this  life."  So  these  three,  unhke  as  they  look,  down 
at  bottom  are  one  thing,  in  a  very  impoitant  respect.  All  three 
— gnawing  anxiety,  full-fed  confidence,  and  hungry  longing  after 
possible  and  material  good — are  the  three  heads  of  the  one  hound, 
barking  and  yelping  in  different  keys,  but  all  expressive  of  the  same 
tendency  and  disposition.  I  might  use  the  metaphor  of  the  thorn 
otherwise  than  Christ  meant  it.  African  travellers  tell  us  that  when 
they  are  on  their  journeys,  the  thing  that  they  dread  most  is  that 
thorny  plant  which  they  call  the  "  wait-a-bit  thorn,"  that  lays  hold  of 
a  man  as  he  passes  and  keeps  him  from  advancing,  and  makes  the 
march  slow.  These  are  the  thorns  that  check  and  retard  us  in  our 
Christian  progress. 

IL  Note  the  growth  of  these  ugly  things.  The  evil  thing  grows 
spontaneously,  whilst  the  good  is  exotic,  and  wants  cultivation. 
There  is  a  struggle  for  existence,  and  if  we  sit  with  our  hands  in  our 


Sermoneite  for  Children  on  the  Intcrnalional  Lesson.      447 

pockets  and  let    the  things  grow  as  they  will,  the  worse  growth  will 
master  the  better. 

III. — Note  the  slow,  impenetrable,  stealthy,  certain,  choking  of  the 
Word.  A  swift-growing,  thick-stemmed  plant  rises  by  the  side  of  the 
tender  green  spikelets,  shuts  them  in  on  each  hand,  takes  all  the  good- 
ness out  of  the  soil,  excludes  from  them  the  blessed  sunshine  and  the 
quickening  air,  so  that  the  divine  growth  becomes  pale  and  withered, 
and  the  spikelets  droop,  and  there  is  no  healthy  green  tending  to 
ripeness  in  it.  And  after  a  bit  it  is  dead  and  gone,  choked  by  the  slow 
process.  The  thing  meant  is  this,  a  gradual  drawing  away  of  interest 
and  love  from  God's  Gospel  and  from  religion.  If  the  house  is  full, 
Jesus  Christ  has  to  go  to  the  stable.  If  the  great  bulk  of  our  love  and 
all  our  effort,  and  all  our  interest  runs  in  the  one  direction,  there  will 
be  none  left  to  run  in  the  other.  And  if  we  let  the  weeds  grow  there 
is  nothing  left  for  the  good  seed  to  grow  in  or  to  grow  by.  The  silent 
ebbing  out  of  the  life  from  the  religion  of  multitudes  of  professing 
Christians  is  pointed  at  very  solemnly  in  these  words. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  November  \6th.  Z«/^gxxiii.  13-25.  Golden  Text,  Isaiah  liii.  8. 

Barabbas  and  Jesus. 

What  guilt  there  was  in  the  short  answer  the  people  made  to 
Pilate's  inquiry  !  "  Barabbas."  It  was  the  name  of  a  murderer,  yet 
they  preferred  that  murderer  to  Him  who  came  to  give  life  to  the 
world. 

Look,  first,  at  the  choice.  I.  Who  was  rejected  ?  One  was  rejected 
who  was  absolutely  faultless.  The  judge  said  of  Jesus,  "  I  find  no 
fault  in  this  man."  The  centurion  said,  when  all  was  over,  "  Truly, 
this  was  a  righteous  man."  The  traitor  Judas,  with  the  thirty  pieces 
of  silver,  like  thirty  fiery  serpents  stinging  his  heart,  dashed  them 
on  the  marble  floor  of  the  temple,  saying,  "  I  have  sinned  in  that  I 
have  betrayed  the  innocent  blood."  Here  we  see  Barabbas  and  Jesus 
before  the  world,  for  the  world  to  settle  which  of  the  two  shall  be 
kept  back  from  the  cross.  There  stands  perfection,  in  the  form  of 
Jesus  ;  but  the  reply  is,  "  Not  this  man  !  " 

One  was  rejected  who  had  wrought  for  the  world  the  greatest 
wonders  of  kindness.     He  had  brought  health  to  the  sick,  food  to  the 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


448  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

hungry,  and'the  Gospel  to  the  poor.  Many  of  the  multitude  surging 
round  Pilate  had  received  great  benefits  from  this  prisoner's  gracious 
hands.     But  they  choose  "  not  this  man." 

One  was  rejected  who  loved  them  ;  knowing  all  their  want  of  love 
to  Himself.  He  was  not  only  loving,  He  was  love.  If  they  would 
have  come  to  Him,  He  would  have  given  the  Jews  eternal  life,  and 
His  great  grief  was  that  they  would  not  come.  All  love  asks  for 
some  response,  and  so  it  was  with  the  love  of  Jesus.  But  they  cry, 
"  Not  this  man." 

II.  Who  was  chosen  ?    "  Not  this  man,  but  Barabbas." 

Bar  signifies  "  son,"  and  Abbas  was  the  Greek  form  of  the  Hebrew 
word  for  "father."  So  this  man  was  the  son  of  some  distinguished 
father.  We  are  told  that  his  first  name  was  Jesus,  and  as  Jesus  was 
a  common  name  at  that  time  it  was  quite  likely.  He  had  turned  out 
badly,  and  now  was  in  prison  as  the  leader  of  an  insurrection,  and  as 
a  robber  and  murderer.  There  be  stands  !  "  Dangerous  "  is  written 
on  his  face — robber,  plotter,  murderer.  But  he  was  preferred  to 
Jesus.  Barabbas  was  released,  and  we  know  not  whether  he  ever 
believed  in  Him  v/ho  was  led  to  execution,  when  he  himself  was 
permitted  to  live.  There  have  been  many  as  guilty  as  Barabbas  who 
have  believed. 

Do  we  ever  reject  Jesus  for  Barabbas  ?  Yes,  when  we  prefer  any 
bad  habit  or  passion  to  Christ.  If  we  prefer  any  treasure  to  Him, 
that  thing  is  our  Barabbas.  If  we  know  that  the  sin  we  cherish  is  a 
robber  and  a  murderer — robbing  us  of  peace  and  killing  our  souls — 
and  refuse  to  give  the  evil  thing  up  to  be  crucified,  and  will  rather 
give  up  Christ,  that  sin  is  our  Barabbas.  This  choosing  faculty 
which  God  has  given  to  us  is  one  mysterious  and  awful.  Whether 
we  have  heaven  or  hell  is  the  result  of  the  soul  choosing,  "  not  this, 
but  that."  Ask  the  Mighty  Spirit,  who  is  ever  waiting  to  help  and 
enlighten,  to  help  you  to  make  a  right  choice. 


The  British  M^eekly  Pulpit 

Xo.  133,  Vol.  III.  NOVEMBER  20,  1890.  One  Penny. 


FOLLOWING    AFTER    RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

A  Sermon  preac/ied  071  Sunday,  November  ind,  1890,  at  Great  St.  Mary's 
Church,  Ca7tibridgc  by  the 

Vex.  Archdeacon  Farrar,  D.D. 

"  Hearken  unto  me,  ye  that  follow  after  righteousness,  ye  that  seek  the  Lord  : 
look  unto  the  rock  whence  ye  were  liewn,  and  to  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  ye 
were  digged. — Is.  11.  i. 

I  FEEL  the  honour  and  the  responsibility  of  being  appointed  to  address 
you  as  the  Lady  Margaret  Preacher,  on  this  day  of  the  Commemora- 
tion of  Benefactors ;  and  though  I  may  well  be  humbled  to  think 
how  many  wiser  and  worthier  than  myself  have  spoken  before  the 
University  on  these  occasions  during  nearly  four  centuries,  I  will 
endeavour  to  deal,  simply  and  directly  with  some  of  the  thoughts 
which  this  day  and  this  audience  suggest. 

I.  A  classic  Cambridge  poet,  alluding  to  the  founders  of  our 
Colleges,  speaks  of 

"Great  Edward,  with  the  lilies  on  his  brow 

From  haughty  Gallia  torn  ; 

And  sad  Chatillon  on  her  bridal  morn 

That  wept  her  bleeding  love,  and  princely  Clare, 

And  Anjou's  heroine,  and  the  paler  rose, 

The  rival  of  her  crown  and  of  her  woes, 

And  either  Henry  there, — 

The  murdered  saint  and  the  majestic  lord 

That  burst  the  bonds  of  Rome." 

Our  founders  and  minor  benefactors  were  very  various.  Among 
them  were  the  Princes  and  Princesses  who  founded  St.  John's,  and 
King's,  and  Queens',  and  Trinity  College ;  the  noble  ladies  who 
founded  Clare,  and  Pembroke,  and  Sidney  Sussex;  the  ecclesiastics 
and  private  gentlemen  who  founded  Peterhouse,  and  Trinity  Hall 
and  Caius.  Though  no  Cambridge  college  was  founded  by  a 
canonised  saint,  yet  at  King's  College,  as  at  Eton, 

"  Grateful  Science  still  adores 
Her  Henry's  holy  shade." 

That  saintly  King,  in  choosing  arms  for  his  college,  designed,  by 
the  azure  colour  of  the  field,  to  denote  the  perpetuity  of  his  foundation  ; 
by  the  three  roses  argent,  his  hope  that  the  college  might  bring  forth 
the  choicest  flowers;  and  by  the  chief,  containing  portions  of  the 
arms  of  France  and  England,  "  to  impart  something  of  royal  nobility, 
which  might  declare  the  work  to  be  truly  regal  and  renowned."     And 


450  The  Brtttsh  Weekly  Pulptt 

in  the  Lady  Margaret,  who  founded  this  preachership,  we  find  an 
example  of  the  noblest  womanhood.  She  lies  in  Westminster  Abbey, 
in  her  nun's  dress,  with  her  worn  face,  this  descendant  of  the  thrones 
of  France  and  England,  this  kinswoman  of  thirty  kings  and  queens. 
Bishop  Fisher,  in  his  funeral  sermon,  said  that  "  everyone  who  knew 
her  loved  her,  and  everything  she  said  or  did  became  her."  She  told 
the  warring  monarchs  of  Europe  that,  if  they  would  give  up  their 
quarrels  and  join  in  a  Holy  Crusade,  she  would  accompany  them  as 
their  meanest  attendant.  And  what  an  example  have  these  our 
benefactors  set  to  the  world  of  the  consecration  of  wealth  to  the  cause 
of  God,  and  the  service  of  humanity  !  They  might  have  devoted  their 
riches  to  private  aggrandisement,  and  have  died  useless  and  forgotten. 
Better  counselled  in  their  munificence,  they  held  that  it  was  a  deed 
more  worthy  their  high  vocation,  to  leave  of  their  earthly  goods  for  the 
promotion  of  sound  learning  and  religious  education.  Could  they  have 
carried  aught  away  with  them  ?  "  Are  there  pockets  in  men's  shrouds?  " 
Is  it  no  high  reward  for  the  right  use  of  riches,  that  the  Lady  Mar- 
garet should  have  "  founded  two  societies — St.  John's  and  Christ's  Col- 
leges— which,  after  having  graced  the  University  for  more  than  three 
centuries  with  many  a  distinguished  name,  are  still  contributing  with 
undiminished  efficacy  to  its  reputation,  adornment,  and  usefulness  ?  " 
May  we  not,  then,  claim  some  of  our  founders,  even  though  uncanon- 
ised,  as  being  among  those  "  nameless  saints,"  in  whom  is  the  "healing 
of  the  world  ?  " 

IL  When  we  consider  this  fair  crown  of  colleges  which  encircles 
our  University,  if  we  notice  the  different  position  of  their  founders, 
we  are  still  more  struck  by  the  diversity  of  the  religious  opinions 
which  marks  their  rise.  Some  of  them,  like  Jesus  College,  and  Corpus 
Christi,  and  Trinity  Hall,  were  of  monastic  origin  ;  others  sprang 
from  the  Reformation  ;  one  at  least — Emmanuel  College — was  closely 
connected  with  Puritanism.  Antagonistic  in  their  sources,  how  are 
they  united  in  their  results  !  Does  not  the  fact  teach  us  that,  in 
things  human,  there  is  no  finality  ?  The  words  "  for  ever  "  are 
mighty  words,  but  they  are  vain  and  presumptuous,  and  they  are  not 
for  man  to  use.  "  Those  who  trust  in  the  words  '  for  ever,' "  said  a 
good  Lord  Chancellor,  "and  forbear,  from  timid  superstition,  from 
marching  on,  will  find  that  there  are  two  other  words  even  more  sad — 
*  too  late."  The  notion  of  infallibility  about  things  whereon  Christians 
disagree  is  no  more  than  an  enchanting  egotism.  It  is  childish  for 
us  to  claim  that  divine  perogative.  Nor  are  ages  any  more  in- 
fallible than  individuals.  How  many  of  the  wisest  of  our  sons 
have  pointed  the  lesson  ?  They  have  taught  us,  as  the  great 
Bishop  Butler  so  assiduously  taught,  that  all  things  in  the  choir 
of  heaven,  and  the  furniture  of  earth  are  proofs  of  human  ignorance ; 
that  what  we  know  is  little,  what  we  are  ignorant  of  is  immense. 

Hence,  "  Non  progredi  est  regredi."  Except  where  there  is  death 
there  must  be  growth  ;  except  where  there  is  torpor  there  must  be 
progress ;  except  where  there  is  stagnancy  there  must  be  storms. 


Followwg  ajter  Righteousness.  451 

"  Truth,"  says  our  wise  poet,  "  is  compared  in  Scripture  to  a  fountain ; 
if  her  waters  flow  not  in  a  perpetual  progression  they  sicken  into  a 
muddy  pool  of  conformity  and  tradition."  Changelessness  in  human 
aftairs  means  nothing  better  than  a  mouldering  apathy.  The  Cam- 
bridge man  who  does  not  learn  at  least  tolerance  for  opinions  can 
hardly  have  looked  thoughtfully  at  "  the  rock  whence  he  was  hewn, 
and  the  hole  of  the  pit  whence  he  was  digged."  What  are  opinions 
in  comparison  with  action  ?  Opinions  vary  from  age  to  age  and  from 
man  to  man ;  conduct,  character,  holiness,  these  are  infinite  in  their 
value,  eternal  in  their  permanence. 

Does  not  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  eloquent  of  the  fathers  say 
irpu^ii  e7rif3aai9  Ociofu'a^?  Did  not  the  great  modern  religious  re- 
former say,  "  How  far  is  love,  even  with  many  wrong  opinions,  to  be 
preferred  before  truth  itself  without  love  ?  "  "  Whatever  is  right, 
whatever  is  wrong  in  this  perplexing  world,  we  must  be  right  in 
doing  justly,  in  loving  mercy,  in  walking  humbly  with  our  God ;  in 
denying  our  wills,  in  ruling  our  tongues,  in  softening  and  sweetening 
our  tempers,  in  mortifying  our  lusts,  in  learning  patience,  meekness, 
purity,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  and  continuance  in  well-doing." 

1.  Let  us  learn,  then,  from  the  noble  and  holy  deeds  of  men  whose 
opinions  were  antagonistic  and  very  fallible.  Are  we,  for  instance, 
to  blacken  and  denounce  the  Monasticism  which  bequeathed  to  us 
some  of  our  great  foundations  ?  It  had  its  defects,  its  errors,  its 
degeneracies ;  but  was  it  not  a  nursing  mother  of  saints  of  God  ? 
Dominated  still  by  the  thoughts  of  All  Saints'  Day,  may  we  not  ask 
who  were  St.  Augustine,  St.  Jerome,  St.  Benedict,  St.  Edmund  of 
Canterbury,  St.  Bernard,  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  St.  Bonaventura,  St. 
Thomas  Aquinas,  St.  Hugh  of  Aralon,  St.  Thomas  a  Kempis, 
Savanarola,  Fra  Beato  Angelico  da  Fiesole?  Were  not  all  these 
monks  or  friars  ? 

From  whence  went  forth  St.  Patrick,  St.  Columbia,  .St.  Colum- 
banus,  St.  Augustine  of  Canterbury,  St.  Willibrord,  St.  Boniface,  St. 
Anskar,  to  convert  Ireland,  Scotland,  France,  England,  Germany, 
Denmark  ?     Was  it  not  from  monasteries  ? 

Who  gave  us  Westminster  Abbey,  and  the  Cathedrals  of  Canter- 
bury, Ely,  Gloucester,  Peterborough,  Norwich,  Durham,  Winchester  ? 
Were  they  not  Benedictine  monks  ?  Must  we  not  admit,  with  the 
great  Leibnitz,  that  "  he  who  is  ignorant  of,  or  despises  their  services 
has  only  a  narrow  and  vulgar  idea  of  virtue,  and  stupidly  believes 
that  he  has  fulfilled  all  his  duties  towards  God  by  some  habitual 
practices  accomplished  with  that  coldness  which  excludes  zeal  and 
love  ?  " 

2.  But  because  we  are  thus  prepared  to  do  justice  to  the  purer 
elements  of  Monasticism,  must  we  therefore  join  in  the  disloyal 
provincialism  which  in  a  Reformed  Church  considers  it  a  fine  thing 
to  denounce  the  Reformation  ?  Is  it  nothing  that,  here  at  Cambridge, 
the  Reformation  gave  us  the  royal  and  religious  foundation  of  Trinity 
College  ?     Was  not  the  England  of  the  Reformation  the  England  of 


452  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

the  new  learning,  the  England  of  a  more  splendid  individuality,  of  a 
larger  freedom,  of  a  richer  life  ?  the  England  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and 
the  defeat  of  the  Invincible  Armada  ?  the  England  of  Spenser,  and 
Shakespeare,  and  Raleigh  and  Hooker,  and  Bacon  ?  the  England, 
above  all,  of  the  open  Bible,  when  "  the  sweet  odour  of  the  returning 
Gospel  embathed  men's  souls  in  the  fragrancy  of  Heaven  ?  "  Charity 
may  make  us  shrink  in  these  days  from  characterising  Romish  errors 
as  "  blasphemous  fables  and  dangerous  deceits  "  ;  or  from  speaking, 
as  in  the  Royal  Charter  of  Trinity  College,  of  "  the  nefarious  and 
enormous  abuses  of  the  Roman  Papacy,"  yet  we  may  surely  say,  as 
in  our  Convocat  on  Prayer,  that  "  ad  amussim  sanctae  Reformationis 
nostrae,  errores,  corruptelas,  et  superstitiones  olim  hie  grassantes, 
Tyrannidemque  Papalem  merito  et  serio  repudiavimus  ;  "  and 
all  surely,  even  Romanists  must  see  in  the  Reformation  a  great 
and  a  blessed  movement  for  the  purification  of  the  Roman  Church 
itself,  as  well  as  in  the  divine  education  of  the  world. 

3.  Nor  need  we  less  rejoice  that  Puritanism  had  its  share  in 
completing  the  circle  of  our  foundations.  Cambridge  will  teach 
us  to  rise  to  truer  conceptions  of  history  than  are  to  be  found  in 
the  shallow  and  worldly  scorn  which  is  heaped  so  often  on  the 
Puritans.  Among  other  immortal  contributions  to  the  life,  the 
thought,  the  manners,  the  morals  of  England,  did  not  Puritanism 
give  us  its  high  sense  of  self-respect ;  its  energy  of  noble 
individualism;  its  conviction  of  the  indefeasible  religious  privi- 
leges of  man  as  man ;  his  immediate,  independent,  unimpeded 
access  to  God?  Did  it  not  give  us  its  potent  allegory  in  the 
"  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  its  pathetic  appeal  in  Baxter's  "  Saints' 
Rest ; "  its  glorious  epic  in  Milton's  "  Paradise  Lost "  Did  it  not 
furnish  in  such  men  as  Colonel  Hutchinson,  of  Peterhouse,  its 
type  of  the  perfect  gentleman,  and  the  humble  Christian  ?  Did  it 
not  give  to  modern  history  its  passion  for  liberty  ;  its  sense  that 
"  mankind  has  a  nobler  destiny  than  to  make  the  footstool  of  a  few 
families "  ;  its  Pilgrim  Fathers,  its  New  England  of  the  Western 
world  ?  Is  it  not  significant  that  each  phase  of  change  has  its  own 
mighty  exponent,  as  though  to  show  us  the  fundamental  majesty  of 
religion  under  various  aspects— Dante,  the  supreme  poet  of 
Catholicism  ;  Shakespeare,  giving  voice  to  the  Renascence,  and  to 
some  of  the  deepest  aspects  of  Reformation  truth ;  Milton,  the  God- 
gifted  organ-voice  of  England  to  be  the  proud  and  virginal  repre- 
sentative of  the  loftiest  Puritanism  ?  Our  opinions  are  not  infallible. 
They  change  and  must  change. 

III.  But  the  lesson  of  a  wise  and  noble  tolerance  in  judging  of 
opinions  is  closely  connected  with  the  duty  of  loving  sympathy  for 
men.  To  create  gaps  and  chasms  in  history  which  separate  us  from 
this  or  that  age  of  our  fathers  by  the  discontinuity  of  fierce  aversions, 
is  even  a  smaller  evil  than  the  almost  universal  lack  of  charity  in 
speaking  or  thinking  of  men.  Cambridge,  too,  like  Westminster 
Abbey,  should  be  "a  great  temple  of  silence  and  reconciliation,  where 


Following  after  Righteousness.  453 

the  discords  of  twenty  generations  lie  buried."  Let  us  dwell  on  the 
greatness  and  goodness  of  "  famous  men,  and  the  fathers  who  begat 
us,"  rather  than  on  their  differences  and  human  frailties,  and  mutual 
persecutions,  and  all  their  "glimmerings  and  decays."  Of  all  tempers 
thafexist  among  mankind,  surely  the  vilest,  and  the  most  serpentine 
is  that  which  delights  in  criticism  and  depreciation.  If  sensuality 
belongs  to  the  beast  within  us,  malice,  and  envy,  and  lies  belong  to 
the  demons.  To  revel  in  "  the  loathsome  and  lying  spirit  of  defama- 
tion, which  studies  man  only  in  the  skeleton,  and  nature  only  in 
ashes,"  may  be  the  glory  of  the  worldling,  but  it  is  the  infamy  of  the 
Christian.  Here,  in  the  quiet  light  of  history,  we  may  read  that 
many,  who  in  their  lifetime  hated  and  denounced  each  other,  who 
embittered  each  other's  brief,  sad  lives,  and  would  even  have  burnt 
one  other,  were  yet  the  common  servants  of  one  dear  Lord.  "  The 
meek,  the  just,  the  pious,  the  devout,"  said  William  Penn,  "are  all 
of  one  religion."  How  bitter  have  been  the  mutual  animosities  of 
schools,  and  parties,  and  rival  churches  !  Yet  here  surely  we  may 
honour,  and  reverence,  and  love  alike  such  Romanists  as  Fisher  and 
Morton ;  and  such  Protestants  as  Ridley  and  Latimer ;  and  such 
Anglicans  as  Andrewes  and  Cosin ;  and  such  Latitudinarians  as 
Whichcote  and  Tillotson  ;  may  we  not  see  in  them  all  the  beauty  of 
holiness,  and  pray  God  that  He  would  make  us  mindful  to  follow 
their  good  examples  ?  How  fully  may  they  have  learnt  beyond  these 
noises, 

"  That  all  their  earthly  creed  was  not  correct, 
That  God  is  not  the  leader  of  a  sect  I " 

Once  in  the  French  wars,  an  English  frigate  meeting  another,  each 
mistook  the  other  for  a  French  man-of-war.  They  fought  with  each 
other  furiously,  they  injured  each  other  desparately,  in  the  darkness. 
Day  dawned,  and  lo !  with  salutes  and  bitter  weeping,  amid  the  dead 
and  the  dying  and  the  shattered  debris  of  the  fight,  each  recognised 
the  English  flag  flying  over  the  other,  and  found  that  they  had  been 
injuring  their  common  country,  slaying  and  shattering  their  friends 
and  brethren.  Ah  !  let  us  not  make  the  same  mistake  in  the  twilight 
of  our  earthly  opinions. 

When  we  are  tempted  to  shoot  out  our  arrows,  even  bitter  words, 
against  those  who  differ  from  us,  let  us  remember  how  we  must  weep 
and  blush  for  such  base  and  ignorant  railing  when  we  see  them, 
shining  in  the  light  of  their  Saviour's  presence,  God's  chosen  saints 
before  His  throne. 

IV.  And  surely  it  is  one;of  our  high  privileges  here,  that,  in  this 
place,  the  great  and  the  good  seem  to  us  not  only  as  leaders  far  above 
us,  but  also  as  brethren  and  familiar  friends.  Our  loftier  brethren 
they  are,  yet  one  with  us  in  blood.  Our  homes  are  their  homes ;  we 
live  in  their  rooms,  read  the  same  books  which  have  been  in  their 
hands,  look  out  with  them  on  the  same  moonlit  courts  at  night.  "  Our 
walks  have  been  conscious  of  their  soliloquies,  our  hearths  have  been 
consecrated   by  their  presence."     We  are  drawn  to   them  here  by 


454  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

closer  links  of  human  sympathy.  We  mingle  with  the  sweet  com- 
pany of  the  poets,  not  as  they  sat  with  their  garlands  and  singing 
robes  about  them,  but  in  the  familiar  kindliness  of  daily  life.  We  sit 
with  Cowley  by  the  river  side,  in  the  gardens  of  Trinity,  and  see 
George  Herbert,  not  yet  disillusioned  of  the  world,  brightening  its 
courts  with  his  gracious  look.  We  are  with  Crashaw  at  Peterhouse, 
or  Gray  at  Pembroke,  or  Wordsworth  at  St.  John's;  and  at  Jesus 
College  we  see  Coleridge  in  the  splendour  of  his  young  genius,  "  life's 
fiery  pillar  moving  before  him,  the  dark  side  not  yet  turned."  We 
think  of  the  many  pure  and  beautiful  friendships  here  begun.  We 
think  of  Francis  Bacon  unfolding  to  Lancelot  Andrewes  the  germs  of  his 
"  Instauratio  Magna"  ;  of  John  Pearson  mourning  for  young  Edward 
King,  and  laying  his  poetic  flower  side  by  side  with  the  immortal 
wreath  of  John  Milton, 

"  Upon  the  laureat  hearse  where  Lycid  lies  ;  " 

of  that  unknown  friend  who  entering  the  bedroom  of  William 
Paley,  bluntly  denounced  him  as  a  fool  for  his  frivolity  and  idle- 
ness, and  nerved  him  for  the  high  effort  which  saved  him  for  the 
Church  and  for  the  world.  Surely  you,  whose  privilege  it  is  in 
life's  happiest  morning,  before  the  gathering  of  those  clouds  which 
darken  for  so  many  its  sombre  close,  must  sometimes  think  of  your 
predecessors  in  these  courts  which  they  hallowed  by  pure  and  noble 
lives — of  Jeremy  Taylor,  as  Bishop  Rust  describes  him  "  in  his  pure 
youth,  with  his  florid  and  youthful  beauty,  and  sweet  and  pleasant 
air,  like  some  young  angel  newly  descended  from  the  visions  of  glory  ;" 
of  John  Ray,  "  sicut  alter  Salomo  cui  forsan  unico  secundus ;  "  of  Isaac 
Newton,  who,  as  men  said,  had  the  whitest  soul  they  had  ever  known  ? 
Must  not  these  also  be  counted  among  Cambridge  benefactors  ?  Do 
we  not  pay  our  finest  honours  to  the  dead  when  we  follow  all  that  was 
good  in  them  ?  Does  not  that  youth  best  show  his  gratitude  to  those 
who  have  helped  him  in  the  past,  who  in  pureness  and  kindness 
strives  to  hand  on  to  the  future  the  burning  torch  of  knowledge  and 
of  holy  life  ? 

V.     May  I  for  a  brief  moment  speak  of  one  or  two  such  Cambridge 
mqn  ? 

I.  Beside  the  western  door  of  Westminster  Abbey  is  a  little- 
'  noticed  slab  of  marble,  to  a  youth  of  21,  who  died  a  poor  curate  at 
Hoole,  and  yet  who  in  so  short  a  life  had  detected  the  long  inequality  in 
the  mean  motions  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn,  discovered  the  orbit  of  the  moon 
to  be  an  ellipse,  determined  the  motion  of  the  lunar  apse,  suggested 
the  physical  law  of  its  revolutions,  and  predicted  from  his  own 
observations  the  transit  of  Venus,  which  he  witnessed  with  a  friend 
on  November  24,  1639.*  He  observed  it  in  one  of  the  intervals 
between  three  full  Sunday  services.  Not  for  a  moment  did  he  neglect 
his  humble  parish  duties  for  his  high  philosophical  researches. 
Putting  in  the  fore  front  the  simple  service  for  rustics  in  the  poor 
*  Epitaph  of  Jeremiah  Horrocks  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


Following  after  Righteousness.  455 

country  church  and  far  below  them  the  discoveries  which  were  to 
immortahze  his  youthful  name,  he  wrote  in  his  journal  that  he  could 
not  complete  his  observations  "  ad  majora  avocatus  quae  ob  haec 
parerga  negligi  non  decuit."  Could  there  be  a  nobler  example  of 
"  high  humility  ?  "  Did  he  enjoy  the  beatitude  of  the  poor  in  spirit — 
this  Cambridge  boy-clergyman  and  boy-philosopher,  to  whom  that 
modest  tablet  was  not  erected  till  two  hundred  years  after  his  death, 
but  who  died  the  year  before  Newton's  birth,  or  might  have  rivalled 
great  Newton's  aetherial  self. 

2.  Once  more,  think  of  Milton  at  Christ's  College,  as  Wordsworth 
describes  him, 

"  I  seem  to  see  him  here, 
Familiarly,  and  in  his  scholar's  dress, 
Bounding  before  me  yet  a  stripHng  youth ; 
A  boy,  no  better,  with  his  rosy  cheeks 
Angelical,  keen  eye,  courageous  look. 
And  conscious  step  of  purity  and  pride." 

Has  he  not  left  to  all  English  youth  for  ever,  the  highest  example 
of  stainless  chastity ;  of  honest  haughtiness  and  self-esteem,  of  the 
pious  and  just  reverence  which  a  man  ought  to  have  for  his  own  per- 
son ?  What  high  teaching  should  be  more  precious  to  the  youth  of 
Cambridge  than  that  "  he  who  would  be  a  true  poet  ought  himself  to 
be  a  true  poem?"  that  "every  free  and  gentle  spirit  ought  to  be 
born  a  knight";  that  "the  glorious  privileges  of  sanctification  and 
adoption  make  him  more  sacred  than  any  dedicated  altar  ;  "  that  "  he 
that  holds  himself  in  reverence  and  due  esteem,  both  for  the  dignity  of 
God's  image  upon  him,  and  for  the  price  of  his  redemption  which  he 
thinks  is  visibly  marked  upon  his  forehead,  thinks  himself  both  a  fit 
person  to  do  the  noblest  and  godliest  deeds,  and  much  better  worth 
than  to  deject  and  defile  with  such  a  debasement  and  such  a  pollu- 
tion, as  sin  is,  himself  so  highly  ransomed  and  ennobled  to  a  new 
friendship  and  filial  relation  with  God  ;  that 

"  Virtue  could  deem  to  do  what  virtue  would 
By  her  own  radiant  light,  though  sun  and  moon 
Were  in  the  flat  sea  sunk." 

3.  Time  would  fail  me  were  I  to  attempt  to  speak  of  many  more 
— of  Isaac  Barrow  "gazing  here  on  the  bright  countenance  of  truth,  in 
the  mild  and  dewy  air  of  delightful  studies;  "  of  William  Pitt  learning 
here  from  Thucydides  and  Demosthenes  the  lessons  which  enabled 
him  to  stand  so  proudly  at  the  helm  of  England  when  she  was 
labouring  in  the  crimson  waves  of  war ;  of  William  Wilberforce  and 
Thomas  Clarkson,  the  liberators  of  the  slave ;  of  Henry  Kirk  White 
the  student  poet,  and  Henry  Martyn,  the  fervent  missionary,  the 
glory  of  St.  John's.  And  the  long  line  has  not  failed.  I  might, 
among  many  others,  speak  of  him  whom  this  year  took  from  the 
Church  which  his  labours  had  strengthened  and  adorned  ;  that  great 
Bishop  of  Durham  (followed,  thank  God,  by  no  less  great  a  Cambridge 
successor)  so  strong  and  gentle,  so  calm  and  wi.se,  so  learned  and 
generous,  whose  study  lamp,  when  I  was  an  undergraduate,  I  used 


456  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

to  see  burning  in  his  window,  night  after  night,  far  on  into  the  small 
hours,  while  he  was  patiently  accumulating  those  vast  stores  of  learn- 
ing which  were  to  enrich  his  age,  and  while,  in  a  youth  of  noble  aims, 
he  was  entering  upon  that  path  of  the  just  which  is  as  the  shining 
Hght  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day, 

VI.  To  be  among  those  who  were  so  great  is  the  glory  of  the 
fewest ;  but  the  very  humblest  of  us,  and  the  most  commonplace  may 
have  the  higher  glory  of  the  good.  If  yesterday  was  All  Saints' 
Day,  to-day  is  the  day  of  All  Souls.  The  most  ordinary  youth 
who  faithfully  sets  before  him  this  high  ideal,  may  be,  in  his  gene- 
ration, though  utterly  unknown,  a  benefactor  to  his  college  hardly 
less  worthy  than  those  benefactors  whom  we  commemorate  to-day. 

VII.  I  am  bidden  to  ask  your  generous  gifts  to-day  for  the  Barnwell 
and  Chesterton  Clergy  Fund,  in  vv^hich  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham 
took  so  keen  an  interest.  If  any  words  which  I  have  said  to  you 
have  touched  but  one  resonant  chord  in  your  hearts,  I  need  not  pause 
to  urge  on  you  so  clear  a  claim  as  that  of  a  charity  needed  to  support 
the  struggling  churches  of  Cambridge.  You  will  fulfil  the  lower 
duties  if  I  can  stir  you  to  the  larger  aims.  And,  though  I  fear  to 
trespass  unduly  on  your  attention,  bear  with  me  kindly  while  I  speak 
to  you  a  few  last  words.  Young  men  of  Cambridge,  your  privileges 
are  also  your  responsibilities ;  your  blessings  involve  your  duties. 

To-day  I  would  say  three  things :  Be  fearless ;  be  fair ;  be 
true.  If  you  go  hence  to  lead  unworthy  lives;  lives  which  sell  them- 
selves for  applause,  success,  and  gain  ;  lives  which  trim  the  sail  to 
every  veering  breeze  of  popular  approval ;  if  you  go  hence  to  follow 
the  vulgar  standard  of  the  world,  whether  secular  or  professedly 
religious ;  to  plunge  into  the  brawl  of  parties,  to  disseminate  the  lies 
and  feed  on  the  garbage  of  base  gossip,  your  sorrows  will  not  only 
be  overwhelming,  but  ignoble  and  deserved. 

If  you  go  hence  in  the  high  spirit  of  duty  and  of  self-sacrifice, 
to  take  up  the  cause  of  the  oppressed,  to  maintain  truth  against 
unrighteous  convention,  boldly  to  rebuke  vice,  to  dash  your  unarmed 
and  bleeding  hands  against  the  teeth  of  lies,  whether  in  the  world  or 
in  the  Church,  then  you  may  suffer  indeed,  and  be  persecuted,  and 
seem  to  fail,  and  men  may  speak  ill  of  you,  and  you  may  be  as  Christ 
prophesied,  hated,  haply,  of  all  men  for  His  Name's  sake.  Yea,  the 
whole  world  may  turn  for  you  into  thorns ;  and  yet,  serene  in  your 
integrity,  you  shall  still  be  undaunted,  and  not  all  unhappy.  I  set 
before  you  no  delusive  mirage.  The  sands  of  the  wilderness  scorch 
the  feet,  though  there  lies  strewn  thereon  the  manna  which  is  angels' 
food.  You  may  have  to  learn  by  bitter  experience  how  muddy  are  the 
depths  of  human  meanness  and  injustice.  Will  you  be  such  cravens 
as  for  this  cause  to  shrink  back  ?  "  They  say  !  "  What  say  they  ?  let 
them  say.  Be  fearless  :  and  next  be  fair  to  your  fellow-men.  Oh 
seek  the  truth  ;  love  truth ;  tell  truth,  and  shame  the  devil.  The 
fewest  are  just  and  candid,  and  fair  in  their  estimates.  Men  are^r 
too  careless   to   aim   at  justice ;    too   little   charitable   to  desire  it. 


The  Forgiveness  of  Sins.  457 

The  common,  vulgar,  all  but  universal  way,  is  to  snatch  up,  for 
party  or  private  purposes,  the  first  base  or  blunt  weapon  which 
secret  envy  or  malicious  smartness  puts  in  easy  reach.  Men 
enjoy  the  fancied  superiority  implied  in  their  mean  repetition  of 
some  venomous  jibe.  All  they  care  to  know  of  some  men  is  some 
smart  epigram,  to  repeat  which  will  make  them  seem  clever  and 
superior.  Have  not  many  even  of  you  been  guilty  of  this  cheap  in- 
justice ?  Have  your  voices  never  been  heard  among  those  which 
bellow  in  the  shade  to  swell  the  chorus  of  injustice  or  of  hate  ?  Does 
not  our  own  \'erulam  tell  us  that  that  which  bringeth  lies  into  favour 
is  a  natural  though  corrupt  love  of  the  lie  itself;  so  that  to  all  the 
vulgar,  and  they  are  many,  "  the  mixture  of  a  lie  doth  ever  add 
pleasure  ?  "  Oh,  if  there  be  anything  noble  or  generous  in  your 
youth,  train  yourselves  even  now  to  be  just,  to  be  fair  to  all  men. 
I  linger— forgive  me,  because  I  am  speaking  to  the  trustees  of  pos- 
terity :  but  take  from  another,  if  you  will  not  from  me,  this  last 
advice — Be  true. 

Live  thus,  in  the  light  of  the  example  of  Christ  your  Saviour,  and 
by  the  aid  of  that  Holy  Spirit  which  is  never  denied  to  them  that  ask 
Him,  and  then,  whatever  befalls  you,  from  the  storm  without,  you 
shall  ever  be  able  to  turn  to  the  sunshine  within.  Ye  shall  possess 
your  souls  ;  ye  shall  have  yourselves  for  a  better  possession  and  an 
abiding.  Arid  what  will  any  calamities  have  been  to  you,  any  more 
than  to  all  these  saints  of  God  in  whom  we  rejoiced  yesterday,  or 
whom  we  commemorate  to-day,  when— knowing  even  as  also  ye  are 
known,  accepted  in  the  Beloved,  your  sins  washed  away  in  His  blood, 
the  dross  of  all  human  frailties  purged  from  the  fine  gold  of  souls 
perfected  in  Him — the  solemn  agony  of  all  life's  suffering  for  His 
sake  is  over ;  and,  with  a  rush  of  tears,  happier  than  earth's  most 
passionate  bliss,  you  hear  at  last  the  words  which — settling  all  cavils 
and  all  controversies  for  ever — shall  repay  ten  thousand  times  every 
effort  made  humbly  and  earnestly  in  the  cause  of  God  and  of  His 
Church,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant;  thou  hast  been  faith- 
ful over  a  few  things,  I  will  set  thee  over  many  things ;  enter  thou 
into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


THE    FORGIVENESS   OF  SINS. 

A  Sermon  preached  at  Great  St.  Marys,    Cambridge,  by  the 

Rev.   Professor  Paget,  D.D. 

"  I  wTite  unto  you,  little  children,  because  your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for  His 
Name's  sake.  I  write  untu  you,  lathers,  because  ye  have  known  Him  that  is 
from  the  beginning.  I  write  unto  you,  young  men,  because  ye  have  overcome 
the  wicked  one.  1  have  written  unto  you,  little  children,  because  ye  have  known 
the  Father.  I  have  written  unto  you,  fathers,  because  ye  have  known  Him  that 
is  from  the  beginning.  I  have  written  unto  5  ou,  young  men,  because  ye  are 
strong,  and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  you,  and  ye  have  overcome  the  wicked 
•)ne." — I  John  ii.  12-14. 

1.  Wherever  we  look  in  the  wide  scene  of  human  life  we  seem  to 


458  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

mark  two  elements  or  factors  working  out  the  will  of  God.  The 
ceaseless  drama  of  history,  however  great  or  humble  may  be  the 
stage  on  which  we  see  it  played,  constantly  betrays  in  its  course  the 
presence  of  two  forces,  animating  the  action,  meeting  in  its  critical 
points.  Let  us  try,  speaking  broadly,  to  distinguish  them.  On  the 
one  hand  there  is  the  force  of  such  convictions,  affections,  antipathies, 
associations,  habits  of  mind  as  belong  to  those  who  have  already  given 
their  distinctive  impress  to  a  period  which  is  now  passing  away.  It 
is  not  that  their  work,  or  even  the  greater  part  of  their  work,  is  done  ; 
it  well  may  be  that  "  they  shall  bring  forth  more  fruit  in  their  age  ;  " 
and  perhaps  in  the  years  that  remain  to  them  their  influence  may  be, 
if  they  will  have  it  so,  stronger  than  it  ever  has  been  before.  But  the 
stage  of  life  which  bears  their  stamp,  and  in  which  their  characteristic 
powers  told  most  freely  and  evidently,  is  receding  further  and  further 
into  the  past :  and  to  their  eyes,  at  all  events,  the  retrospect  of  their 
life  looks  more  than  the  prospect  in  this  world.  Then  on  the  other 
hand  there  is  the  force  of  their  convictions  or  intentions  whose  dis- 
tinctive work  lies  for  the  most  part  before  them,  or  is  but  just  begin- 
ning. They  are  looking  forward  to  a  time  in  which  they  shall  win 
out  of  the  new  conditions  of  their  age  a  new  triumph  because  of 
the  truth :  a  time  which  shall  be  characterised  by  the  ideas  that  seem 
to  them  the  noblest  and  most  just,  even  as  the  past  was  either 
characterised  or  redeemed  by  the  truth  their  fathers  saw ;  a  time  in 
which  they  shall  find  their  scope,  achieve  their  task,  say  what  they 
have  to  say,  and  dedicate  what  they  have  to  spend.  For  with  them 
there  is,  or  should  be,  the  gladness  and  confidence  of  morning ;  and 
with  whatever  thankfulness,  and  reverence,  and  admiration  they  may 
look  back  to  the  victories  of  the  past,  the  victories  which  have  won 
for  them  the  very  ground  on  which  they  stand,  still  they  know  that 
it  is  only  in  sham  fights  that  men  can  simply  mimic  former  victories ; 
that  it  is  on  other  fields,  amidst  other  difficulties,  and,  it  may  be,  with 
other  weapons  that  their  battle  must  be  fought,  and  their  service 
rendered  in  the  cause  of  God  and  of  His  truth. 

Such  are,  I  think,  roughly  stated,  the  two  great  tendencies  or 
currents  of  influence  which  are  always  telling  in  the  course  of  human 
life.  Still  more  roughly  it  might  be  said  that  they  are  the  tendencies 
generally  characteristic  of  the  old  and  of  the  young  :  the  elements 
which  they  respectively  contribute  to  the  development  of  history. 
The  distinction  is  such  as  one  can  often  see,  real  and  deep,  though  not 
marked  by  any  sharp,  precise  line.  Differences  of  training  and 
temperament  often  take  the  place  of  difference  in  age.  The  boundary 
is  indefinite,  and  there  is  constant  interaction  over  it ;  for  the  scenes 
of  history  succeed  one  another  like  dissolving  views,  and  the  linea- 
ments and  colours  of  that  which  is  passing  away  can  be  traced  long 
after  that  which  is  coming  in  has  begun  to  gather  strength  and  clear- 
ness. Hard  outlines  are  seldom  true  to  nature ;  yet,  when  we  stand 
back  a  little  and  try  to  get  a  broad  view,  we  can  scarcely  doubt,  I 
think,  that  two  such  currents  are  acting  on  the  affairs  of  men  ;  and  as  we 


The  Forgiveness  of  Sins.  459 


I 


watch  the  surging  tide  of  change,  whether  in  the  leaping  waves  or  in 
the  multitude  of  swirling  eddies,  we  see  that  human  history  is  for  the 
most  part  toVo?  ciOdXaaaof,  a  place  where  two  seas  meet. 

II.  Surely,  then,  if  it  be  true  that  at  point  after  point  in  the 
world's  course,  in  its  preparation  for  the  second  coming  of  Christ, 
there  are  these  two  forces  to  be  felt  telling  on  the  way  things  take  : 
if  the  two  groups  of  characters  and  convictions  which  I  have  tried  to 
describs  are  always  present  in  that  silent  and  unconscious  conference 
of  mind  with  mind,  where  the  drift  of  human  thought  and  opinion 
is  decided — then  we  may  be  confident  that  there  must  always  be  a 
work  for  each  to  do,  a  gift  for  each  to  bring,  towards  the  fulfilment  of 
the  will  of  God.  He  maketh  the  outgoings  of  the  morning  and  of  the 
evening  to  praise  Him  ;  so  long  as  it  is  day  we  must  work  the  works  of 
God,  each  according  to  the  powers  he  has  gained,  the  light  that 
he  has  seen,  the  experience  that  has  trained  his  judgment  and  dis- 
ciplined his  will.  So  long  as  it  is  day  each  must  do  all  he  can  of 
that  which  he  can  do  best,  and  it  may  be  that  no  man  knows  when 
he  can  do  most,  when  the  gift  that  it  is  his  to  bring  may  tell  most  for 
the  cause  of  God  and  for  the  good  of  man.  But  we  can  be  sure  that 
there  is  a  true  part  for  us  all  to  bear  at  every  stage  of  life,  whether 
we  be  young  or  old  :  a  contribution  that  we  have  to  make,  being 
what  and  where  we  are,  to  the  welfare  of  the  world :  an  offering 
which  God,  who  has  placed  it  in  our  power,  looks  to  us  to  bring.  And 
we  can  see,  I  think,  how  large  a  part  of  the  worth  and  happiness  of  a 
man's  work,  both  in  his  earlier  and  in  his  later  years,  depends  on  his 
bearing  towards  that  tide  of  life,  that  drift  of  feeling  and  conviction 
which  is  not  his  own.  The  relation  between  the  generation  that  is 
passing  away  and  that  which  is  coming  on  is  always  full  alike  of 
difficulties  and  of  opportunities  on  both  sides ;  and  there  is  a  deep 
pathos  in  the  frequency  with  which  the  opportunities  are  missed  and 
the  difficulties  aggravated.  Let  us  keep  our  minds  back  from  any 
thought  of  judging  where  the  blame  should  fall;  let  us  only  think 
how  pitiful  it  is  when  those  who  might  enrich  and  gladden  and 
invigorate  each  other's  lives  (each  bringing  what  the  other  lacks,  each 
thankfully  welcoming  from  the  other's  hand  what  lay  beyond  his 
own  reach),  instead  of  this  stand  off  and  look  askance  with  mutual 
distrust  or  fear,  or  even  scorn,  letting  themselves  fall  back,  after  only 
a  half-hearted  effort  towards  sympathy,  into  that  despondency  or 
impatience  or  suspicion,  which  blocks  with  an  ever-increasing  barrier 
all  the  ways  of  mutual  understanding  and  influence.  We  may  recall 
the  great  disasters  which  in  bygone  ages  have  been  thus  wrought : 
but  to  some  extent  we  may  see  the  same  dreary  misconception  and 
misuse  of  the  relation  between  old  and  young  going  on  in  many  fields 
of  life.  We  may  see  it  in  the  history  of  a  nation  ;  or  of  the  Church  ; 
it  has  been  prominent  among  the  causes  of  religious  discord  and 
divisions  ;  and  I  venture  to  think  that  it  has  sometimes  cost  much 
waste  of  time  and  strength  in  our  academic  and  collegiate  life.  And 
often  surely  the  same  tragedy  is  going  on  in  the  life  of  many  a  home; 


460  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt 

and  nowhere  perhaps  is  it  more  pathetically  played;  as  father 
and  son,  or  mother  and  daughter  grow  conscious,  sometimes 
with  silent  pain  and  sometimes  with  scarcely  veiled  re- 
sentment, of  an  ever-widening  severance,  a  perpetual  and  al- 
most irrevocable  ebbing  of  sympathy  and  trust.  I  think  that 
there  can  hardly  be  a  sadder  thought  to  realise  than  that ; 
for  all  the  while  the  years  ""are  passing  by  so  swiftly,  and  the 
help  that  each  needs  from  the  other,  the  joy  that  each  might 
minister  to  the  other,  is  wasting  away  unused,  unsought,  until  it 
is  hopelessly  too  late  to  seek  it;  wasting  like  water  that  sinks 
into  the  desert  sand,  while  but  a  few  yards  off  the  traveller  lies 
down  despairingly  to  die  of  thirst.  Is  it  not  true,  brethren,  that 
there  is  no  relation  of  life  in  which  men  have  greater  need  of 
help  and  guidance  and  self-discipline  than  in  this  of  which  I 
have  been  trying  to  speak  :  the  relation  between  that  which  is  pass- 
ing away  and  that  which  is  coming  forward ;  between  that  which 
the  young  are  apt  to  call  old-fashioned  and  that  which  the  old 
are  apt  to  call  new-fangled  ?  It  is  difficult  indeed.  But  the  grace 
of  God  is  given  for  the  hallowing,  the  illumination  of  every  relation 
of  life ;  and  it  is  the  very  work  of  grace  to  transform  difficulties  into 
opportunities.  So  let  us  try  to  see  how  this  difficulty  is  touched  by 
the  light  of  the  Christian  faith. 

III.  In  the  passage  which  I  read  for  my  text,  St.  John  is,  as  has 
been  well  shown,  halting  for  a  moment  and  calling  vividly  before  his 
mind  the  characters  and  positions  of  those  to  whom  he  writes.  He 
is  about  to  close  one  part  of  his  letter  with  a  great  appeal  for  un- 
worldliness ;  and  he  stays  to  consider  on  what  grounds  he  can  presume 
a  readiness  for  that  appeal  in  those  to  whom  he  sends  it.  Twice  do 
they  seem  to  stand  before  his  gaze ;  each  time  he  sees  them  first 
as  one  group,  then  as  parted  into  two  :  each  time  he  marks  first  a 
warrant  for  his  confidence  that  is  common  to  them  all,  and  then  the 
special  warrant  that  he  has  for  making  his  appeal  to  the  older  among 
them,  and  to  the  younger.  "  I  write  unto  you,  little  children,  because 
your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for  His  Name's  sake  : " — there  is  his 
first  ground  of  hope  about  them  all,  both  old  and  young;  but  in  either 
of  those  two  classes  he  marks  a  distinctive  note  that  promises  an 
answer  to  his  words.  "  I  write  unto  you,  fathers,  because  ye  know 
Him  that  is  from  the  beginning."  "I  write  unto  you,  young  men, 
because  ye  have  overcome  the  evil  one."  Again  he  seems  to  see  them 
standing  all  together,  old  and  young,  alike  his  little  ones  in  Christ : 
"  I  have  written  unto  you,"  he  says,  changing  the  tense,  it  may 
be,  as  he  resumes  his  writing  after  some  interruption.  "  I 
have  written  unto  you,  little  ones,  because  ye  know  the  Father," 
and  then,  just  as  before,  he  turns  first  to  the  old  and  afterwards  to  the 
young  :  he  repeats  to  each  the  peculiar  claim  on  which  before  he  had 
rested  his  appeal  :  "  I  have  written  unto  you,  fathers,  because  ye  know 
Him  that  is  from  the  beginning  :  "  "I  have  written  unto  you,  young 
men,  because  " — and  here  he  lingers  on  his  former  words,  and  ampli- 


The  Forgiveness  of  Sins.  461 


fies  them,  as  though  with  something  Hke  that  special  love  and  eager- 
ness with  which  a  parish  priest  thinks  of  those  who  are  giving  to 
their  Lord  the  full  vigour  of  their  early  manhood — "  because  ye 
are  strong,  and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  you,  and  ye  have  over- 
come the  evil  one." 

Let  us  try  briefly  to  gather  up  the  teaching  of  this  passage : 
necessarily  foregoing  the  consideration  of  many  points  of  very 
suggestive  detail.  And  first  let  us  mark  the  thoughts  that  rise  in 
St.  John's  mind  as  he  regards  separately  the  elder  and  the  younger 
among  those  to  whom  he  is  appealing. 

(a)  Each  class,  then,  stands  before  the  Apostle  bearing  its  dis- 
tinctive gift,  characterised  by  the  peculiar  power  which  lifts  the 
standard  of  its  hope  and  effort,  and  binds  it  to  hear  and  to  obey 
Christ's  bidding.  There  is  first  the  matured  discernment  and 
experience,  the  steady  penetration  of  the  old.  They  "  know 
Him  that  is  from  the  beginning."  Faith  has  made  them 
clear-sighted,  and  experience  has  deepened  and  confirmed 
their  intuition ;  they  have  learnt  what  it  is  that  is  really 
going  forward  under  all  the  apparent  confusion  and  disorder  of  the 
world :  and  Who  it  is  that  through  the  strife  and  din  ever  has  been, 
ever  is  carrying  on  the  work  of  love :  and  knowing  Him  they  have 
found  the  clue  to  life,  and  grown  surer  of  its  meaning,  and  less  likely 
to  be  led  aside  from  the  true  aim  of  effort  and  self-concentration. 
Others  may  be  impatient  of  the  twilight,  others  may  lose  heart  when 
hopes  prove  false,  or  may  sacrifice  the  greater  to  the  nearer  object : 
but  he  who  knows  Him  that  is  from  the  beginning  will  endure  as 
seeing  the  Invisible  : 

"  He  holds  on  firmly  to  some  thread  of  life — 
(It  is  the  life  to  lead  perforcedly) : 
Which  runs  across  some  vast  distracting  orb 
Of  glory  on  either  side  that  meagre  thread, 
Which,  conscious  of,  he  must  not  enter  yet — 
The  spiritual  life  around  the  earthly  life : 
The  law  of  that  is  known  to  him  as  this, 
His  heart  and  brain  move  there,  liis  feet  stay  here.'' 

And  then,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  young  there  is  the  glad 
enthusiasm  of  consecrated  strength,  the  glow  of  victory  and  enter- 
prise. "They  are  strong,  and  the  word  of  God  abideth  in  them,  and 
-they  have  overcome  the  evil  one."  The  natural  vigour  of  their  age  is 
lifted  up  and  hallowed  and  assured  in  the  warfare  to  which  Christ 
has  called  them  :  they  will  not  "  faint  and  be  weary,"  for  they  "  renew 
their  strength "  in  abiding  communion  with  the  Eternal  Word : 
and  in  the  thrilling  sense  of  conquest  they  are  sure  that 
greater  is  He  that  is  in  them  than  he  that  is  in  the  world. 
The  fresh  and  bracing  air  of  triumph  fills  their  hearts  with 
hope ;  they  rejoice  in  this,  that  the  spirits  of  evil  are  subject 
unto  them  :  they  are  confident  of  mastery  in  Christ's  name  "  over  all 
the  power  of  the  enemy." 

(b)  Thus,  then,  in  the  prerogative  graces  of  the  old  and  of  the 


462  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

young,  St.  John  sees  ground  for  making  his  appeal  with  a  good  hope. 
He  looks  to  that  which  God  the  Holy  Ghost  has  made  of  their  age 
and  of  their  youth,  and  he  is  not  afraid  to  bid  them  to  further  ventures 
for  Christ's  sake.  As  they  stand  apart  he  has  been  insisting  on  their 
distinctive  powers ;  each  has  that  which  will  give  penetration  and 
definiteness  to  the  appeal  as  it  falls  upon  his  ears ;  each  has  some- 
thing of  his  own,  something  in  his  own  experience  and  consciousness 
which  quickens  a  distinct  receptive  faculty,  something  which  will  wake 
and  stir  at  the  Apostle's  words.  But  beyond  and  above  these  separate 
gifts  there  are  the  two  great  master  truths  to  which  he  points  as 
dominant  alike  in  the  experience  of  all ;  the  truths  that,  high  and 
steadfast  as  the  arch  of  heaven,  span  from  end  to  end  the  Christian 
life  :  those  strong  supreme  convictions  which  are  the  light  and 
strength  of  every  age,  availing  most  of  all,  wherever  they  are  ruling 
a  man's  heart,  to  guard  him  from  the  things  which  make  us  slow  to 
hear  God's  voice,  and  dull  to  see  His  way  in  the  various  relations  of 
this  earth.  "  Your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for  His  Name's  sake,"  and 
"  Ye  know  the  Father."  These  are  the  all-controlling,  all-transforming 
truths  for  every  period  and  every  task  in  life;  in  their  light  the 
Christian  course  begins,  they  give  the  strength  of  perseverance,  they 
sustain  the  glow  of  eventide ;  many  things  change  around  a  man  as 
he  advances  in  his  journey  through  this  world,  but  as  he  draws  near 
its  close,  weary  and  travel-stained,  he  lifts  his  eyes  to  those  same 
heights  on  which  they  rested  as  he  set  out  in  the  freshness  of  the 
morning.  No  change  has  told  on  them,  only  it  may  be,  by  the  divine 
mercy,  he  sees  a  little  clearer  now  the  forgiveness  of  sins  and  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  And  thus  it  is  that  when  he  speaks  of  these  St. 
John  makes  no  distinction  between  old  and  young ;  these  are  truths 
whose  power  he  presumes  in  all  who  are  Christ's ;  truths  in  whose 
ever-remembered  presence  all  must  stand  and  work  together,  as  for- 
given and  as  children. 

IV.  The  forgiveness  of  sins  :  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  Can  it  be, 
brethren,  that  in  the  constant  recollection,  the  advancing  realization 
of  these  truths,  we  may  find  the  help  we  need  in  that  frequent  difficulty 
of  which  we  have  been  thinking  ?  Is  it  thus  that  we  may  learn  to 
do  our  true  work  in  every  stage  of  life,  and  to  be  wise  and  just  and 
generous  towards  those  whom  the  broad  difference  of  age  or  tempera- 
ment may  tempt  us,  if  we  are  careless  or  wilful,  to  think  irreconcilably 
and  impenetrably  unlike  ourselves  ?  It  is  so  easy,  on  either  side,  to 
acquiesce  in  such  differences  as  insuperable ;  it  is  so  hard  at  once  to 
bear  one's  own  witness  to  the  truth  of  which  one's  self  is  sure,  and 
yet  to  persevere  in  courageous  generosity  and  trustfulness  towards  those 
whose  thoughts  and  ways  belong  to  another  generation  than  one's 
own.  It  may  be  that  from  those  two  great  truths,  in  whose  light  St. 
John  forgets  the  difference  of  age  and  youth,  some  help  may  come ; 
help,  perhaps,  only  the  deeper  and  surer  for  coming  indirectly  ;  for 
telling  rather  on  ourselves  than  on  our  difficulties.  In  our  own  hearts, 
or  in  the  history  of  the  past,  we  may  discover  some  of  the  faults  that 


The  Forgiveness  o/Sws.  463 


darken  counsel  and  make  men  prone  to  misunderstand  and  to  suspect 
each  other;  such  faults  as  pride,  impatience,  wilfulness,  despondency; 
or,  issuing  more  or  less  from  these,  that  fear  of  being  beaten  which 
makes  men  withhold  the  opposition  which  they  should  have  offered ; 
the  dread  of  being  wounded  or  of  seeming  slighted  ;  the  exaggeration 
of  fragments  till  they  seem  the  whole  truth  :  the  disinclination  to 
keep  judgment  in  suspense  :  the  failure  to  allow  for  that  which  may 
be  hidden  in  the  unexplored  :  the  love  of  symmetry  or  paradox  or 
epigram  :  reluctance  or  prevarication  in  acknowledging  one's  blunders. 
Surely  we  may  be  stronger  to  resist  such  things  as  these  if  we 
realize  the  seriousness  and  urgency  that  is  disclosed  in  human  life 
since  Christ  was  crucified  that  man  might  be  forgiven ;  and  the 
strength  of  hope  that  should  abound  in  those  who  know  the 
Fatherhood  of  God.  "Your  sins  are  forgiven  you  for  His  Name's 
sake  :  "  the  words  recall  us  to  our  deepest  need,  our  uttermost  un- 
worthiness  :  but  they  recall  us  also  to  the  Cross  :  and  there  falls 
on  life  an  awe  in  which  the  thoughts  of  self-esteem  and  self-assertion, 
of  vanity  and  petulance,  die  down  for  very  shame.  "  Ye  know  the 
Father :  "  infinite  in  power  and  in  wisdom  and  in  goodness  :  ever 
watching  over  this  world,  and  working  out  in  many  ways  the  will 
of  love  :— how  then  is  it  possible  to  be  faint-hearted  or  despondent, 
or  to  doubt  that  in  the  coming  years  His  glory  shall  appear  as 
in  the  ages  that  are  past  ?  Let  us  fasten  our  thoughts  upon  the 
Cross  of  Christ  and  lift  our  hearts  to  our  Father  which  is  in 
heaven ;  and  we  may  find  it  easier  with  reverence  and  self-dis- 
trust simply  to  do  what  work  we  can,  to  be  patient  under  the 
discipline  of  incompleteness  and  obscurity,  and  to  hope  that  much 
which  we  think  strange  and  unpromising,  much  even  which,  so  far 
as  we  can  judge,  we  feel  bound  in  duty  to  resist,  may  have  its 
hidden  purpose  and  value  in  His  sight.  And  as  the  evening  of 
life  falls  on  us,  He  will  guard  us  from  the  true  sadness  of  old  age : 
from 

"  The  inward  change 
On  mind  and  will  and  feelings  wrought ; 

The  narrowing  of  affection's  range, 
The  stiffness  that  impedes  the  thought ; 

The  lapse  of  joy  from  less  to  less, 

The  daily  deepening  loneliness." 

He  will  save  us  from  all  this :  and,  if  it  please  Him,  give  us  grace 
to  say  our  Nunc  Dimittis  with  unfading  hope  :  thankful  to  believe 
that  our  eyes  have  seen  His  salvation,  and  that  He  who  has  shown 
us,  unworthy  as  we  are,  some  fragment  of  His  work,  may  grant  to 
those  who  shall  come  after  us  to  see  His  glory. 


464  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

LESSON.* 
Lesson  for  November  2yd.  Lukexxin.  33-47.  Golden  Text,  Isaiah  liii.  6. 

The  Three  Crosses. 

Martyrs  have  generally  been  led  together  to  the  stake,  and  have 
enjoyed  in  their  dying  moments  the  sweet  society  of  the  righteous. 
When  Ridley  and  Latimer  were  led  to  the  stake  they  spoke  brave 
words  of  cheer  to  each  other.  Ridley  said  to  his  comrade,  "  Be  of 
good  heart,  brother,  for  God  will  either  assuage  the  fury  of  the  flames 
or  else  strengthen  us  to  abide  it."  And  when  the  lighted  faggot  was 
laid  down  at  Ridley's  feet,  Latimer  said,  "  Be  of  good  comfort.  Master 
Ridley,  and  play  the  man.  We  shall  this  day  light  such  a  candle,  by 
God's  grace,  in  England  as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out."  And  so 
with  words  of  comfort  and  prayer  they  left  the  world.  But  the 
glorious  Son  of  Man  was  conducted  to  the  cross  in  company  with  two 
criminals.  Thus  Isaiah's  prophecy  was  fulfilled,  "  He  was  numbered 
with  the  transgressors."  No  men  who  ever  lived  died  in  such 
remarkable  circumstances  as  these  two  thieves.  On  that  central 
cross  there  hung  One  who  was  dying  for  the  sins  of  the  world.  On 
one  side  of  Him  hung  a  man  dying  in  sin — a  cold,  hard-hearted 
wretch  ;  on  the  other  hand  a  sinner,  dying  in  faith  and  in  hope. 

Let  us  take,  first  of  all,  he  who  is  here  mentioned  first.  "  One  of 
the  malefactors  which  were  hanged  railed  on  Christ,  saying :  If  Thou 
be  Christ,  save  Thyself  and  us."  This  man,  dying  because  of  his 
crimes,  has  no  melting  in  him,  no  relenting;  and  in  the  very  act  of  dying 
rails  at  his  Redeemer.  And  thus  he  died,  stout,  and  hard,  and  firm, 
in  the  face  of  the  atoning  Redeemer  !  We  can  die  also,  just  as  hard 
and  firm  in  the  face  of  the  Redeemer.  Sin,  that  terrible,  stubborn 
thing,  refuses  to  know  this  Christ  and  resists  Him. 

Look  at  the  other  cross.  ''The  other  answering  rebuked  him, 
saying,  Dost  not  thou  fear  God,  seeing  thou  art  in  the  same  con- 
demnation ?  We  indeed  justly,  for  we  receive  the  due  reward  of 
our  deeds ;  but  this  Man  hath  done  nothing  amiss."  Notice  that  this 
good  robber,  this  bonus  latro,  was  convinced  of  his  sin  and  ill-desert 
"justly."  A  story  tells  us  that  his  name  was  Dysmas,  and  that  he 
once  saved  the  Virgin  Mary  and  her  Child  from  his  comrades  during 
their  flight  into  Egypt.  He  may  have  heard  Jesus  teaching  in  former 
days.  "  Doubtless  the  cross  aided  his  penitence ;  on  the  soft  couch 
conversion  is  rare."  After  his  grand  acquittal  of  Jesus  he  pra3's, 
"  Lord,  remember  me  when  Thou  comest  into  Thy  Kingdom."  John 
Calvin  says  about  this  dying  thief,  that  "  never  since  the  world  began 
was,  there  a  more  remarkable  instance  of  faith."  How  difficult  it  was 
to  say  "  Lord  "  then  ;  yet,  in  all  the  dimness  and  confusion,  his  eyes 
were  opened  to  see  that  this  crucified  One  was  a  King !  What  did 
Jesus  say  ?  "  To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  Me  in  Paradise."  A  great 
French  preacher,  Bossuct,  says  :  "  '  To-day  ! '  what  promptitude  ! 
*  With  me  ! '  what  company  !  '  In  Paradise  ! '  what  repose  !  " 
*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 

No.  134,  Vol.  III.  NOVEMBER  27,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE   OLD    TESTAMENT    IN    THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH. 

A  Sermon  preached  in  Great  St.  Marys,  Ca?nbridge,on  Sunday,  May  18th, 
1890,  dy 

The  Rev.  A.  F.  Kirkpatrick,  B.D.,  Regius    Professor 
OF  Hebrew. 

"  Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets ;  I  came  not  to 
destroy,  but  to  fulfil."— St.  Matthew  v.  17. 

Very  full  of  wondering  thought  must  those  ten  days  have  been 
during  which  the  Apostles  tarried  in  Jerusalem,  waiting  for  "  the 
promise  of  the  Father."  The  Ascension  had  removed  the  visible 
Presence  of  their  Master  from  their  midst ;  Pentecost  had  not  yet 
endowed  them  with  the  power  by  which  they  were  to  interpret  His 
work,  and  bear  witness  to  His  name  even  "  unto  the  uttermost  part 
of  the  earth."  They  were  alone;  but  He  had  promised  not  to  leave 
them  orphans  :  the  Resurrection  had  taught  them  to  trust  Him,  and 
they  could  return  from  the  Mount  of  Olives  "with  great  joy,"  the  joy 
of  thankfulness  and  the  joy  of  hope. 

"Those  days  were  spent  in  the  temple,  blessing  God  "  (St.  Luke 
xxiv.  53),  and  in  unanimous,  persistent  prayer  (T/ffuv  TrpoaKa/nepoDvrt'^ 
IfioOvfiaciv  T5  irpoaevxTi- — ^cts  i.  14) ;  and  must  there  not  have  been 
mingled  with  those  prayers  many  meditations  and  questionings  of 
retrospect  and  prospect  as  they  reviewed  the  completed  life  and  work 
of  the  Lord,  and  contemplated  the  world-wide  commission  which  He 
had  entrusted  to  them  ? 

Among  those  meditations  must  not  the  great  question  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  new  order  to  the  old,  of  the  Gospel  to  the  Law,  of  Christ 
to  Moses  and  the  Prophets,  have  held  a  foremost  place  ?  We  know 
that  the  interpretation  of  the  things  that  were  written  in  all  the 
Scriptures  concerning  Himself  was  one  of  the  first  subjects  of  the 
teaching  of  the  risen  Lord  (St.  Luke  xxiv.  25  ff  44  ff) ;  we  know  that 
the  manifold  fulfilment  of  those  Scriptures  was  the  first  subject  of  the 
preaching  of  the  newly-illuminated  Apostles  (Acts  ii. — iv.),  and  is  it 
not  a  natural  inference  that  the  same  subject,  of  vital  importance  at 


466  The.  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

that  critical  moment,  occupied  their  minds  in  that  solemn  interval  of 
reflexion  and  anticipation  ? 

That  question  has  not  lost  its  importance  or  its  interest :  and  it 
does  not  seem  inappropriate  that  to-day,  when  we  stand,  in  a 
manner,  between  the  old  order  and  the  new,  we  should  once  again 
turn  our  thoughts  to  the  subject  of  "  The  Old  Testament  in  the 
Christian  Church,"  and  re-examine  the  fundamental  principle  which 
determines  and  regulates  its  use,  its  interpretation,  and  its  authority. 

For  there  is  a  vague  sense  of  uneasiness  abroad,  a  kind  of  suspicion 
that  the  Old  Testament  is  on  its  way  to  become  a  discredited,  and 
therefore  disused  book.  "  A  theory,"  we  are  told,  "  is  already  pro- 
pounded both  in  private  and  in  a  naive,  simple  way  in  sermons,  that 
the  Old  Testament  is  of  no  particular  moment,  all  that  we  need  being 
the  New  Testament,  which  has  been  defended  by  our  valiant  apologists 
and  expounded  by  our  admirable  interpreters." 

"  Quite  a  dangerous  neglect  of  the  Old  Testament,"  writes  another^ 
"  that  unique  literary  monument  of  the  past  world,  has  characterised 
Christian  thinking  all  too  long.  I  have  even  heard  of  a  prominent 
Nonconformist  minister  so  preferring  the  New  Testament  to  the  Old 
in  reading  lessons,  as  to  use  in  public  no  part  of  the  Old  Testament 
except  the  Psalms.  And  even  where  the  Old  Testament  has  not 
been  ignored,  too  frequently  its  poetry  has  been  spiritualised  beyond 
recognition,  and  its  prose  has  been  wholly  removed  from  its  historical 
setting ;  whilst  as  for  its  magnificent  prophecy,  it  has  been  rendered 
unintelligible  by  crude  extravagance." 

Such  neglect  of  the  Old  Testament,  if  statements  like  these  are 
warranted,  is  an  unfaithfulness  to  the  teaching  of  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  which  can  be  nothing  less  than  disastrous,  my  brethren,  both 
to  the  growth  and  establishment  of  our  own  spiritual  life,  and  to  the 
building  up  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Partly  it  may  be  due  to  the  feeling— in  itself  true  and  right — that 
the  New  Testament  is  the  charter  of  the  Christian  Church,  and 
demands  our  first  and  most  careful  attention  ;  that  its  teaching  is  at 
once  more  spiritual  and  more  readily  intelligible ;  while  the  Old 
Testament  is  vast  and  vague  and  obscure  of  interpretation. 

But  dare  we  neglect  a  whole  region  of  our  inheritance  because 
some  pains  are  needed  to  explore  it  and  labour  in  it  before  we  can 
reap  its  harvest  ?  Can  we  be  content  with  the  ground  which  seems — 
but  only  seems — to  be  ready  to  yield  fruit  of  itself,  without  our  effort  ? 

Again,  the  neglect  may  be  due  to  a  reaction — in  itself  a  natural  and 
healthy  reaction — from  that  unlimited  license  of  interpretation,  which 
has  converted  the  Old  Testament  into  something  little  better  than  a 
field  for  the  exercise  of  a  curious  ingenuit}^,  and  has  pointed  the 
contemptuous  sarcasm  of  the  epigrammatist.  Men  have  invented  their 
theories  of  the  double,  the  triple,  the  quadruple  sense  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, nay,  they  have  lost  themselves  in  a  whole  "forest  of  senses  ;  " 
they  have  imposed  their  own  arbitrary  meanings  on  the  sacred  text, 
instead  of  striving  patiently   and  prayerfully   so  to  train  and  educate 


The  Old  lestmncnt  in  the  Christian  Clinrch.  467 

the  ears  of  their  understanding,  that  they  might  hear  the  voice  of  God 
speaking  to  them  through  its  words. 

But  misuse  cannot  justify  disuse. 

Mainly,  however,  just  now  the  neglect  of  the  Old  Testament  is,  no 
doubt,  due  to  a  vague  feeling  that  the  so-called  " higher  criticism" 
has  raised  a  host  of  questions  about  the  date  and  composition  and 
character  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  must  be  settled 
before  we  can  use  it  again  with  any  confidence ;  or  which,  it  is  sup- 
posed, have  been  already  settled,  or  are  on  the  high  road  to  being 
settled,  in  such  a  way  that  the  Old  Testament  must  be  thrown  aside 
as  a  discredited  book. 

Such  an  attitude  is  inconsistent  with  the  courage  which  is  born  of 
faith  ;  it  is  a  distrust  of  the  promise  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  by  whose 
inspiration  those  ancient  Scriptures  were  written,  is  still  present  to 
guide  us  into  all  the  truth  ;  it  is  a  neglect  of  the  apostolic  precept  to 
"  prove  all  things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good  ;  "  and  if  in  every 
age  "  the  removing  of  those  things  that  are  shaken  "  must  needs  be  a 
process  of  trial,  its  issue  is  the  firmer  establishment  of  "those  things 
which  are  not  shaken." 

Under  these  circumstances  then,  it  is  well  for  us  to  re-examine  the 
fundamental  principal  which  our  Lord  Himself  lays  down,  and  which 
the  Apostles  throughout  assume,  respecting  the  interpretation  and 
authority  of  the  Old  Testament.  There  are  two  distinct  methods, 
distinct  but  complementary  and  not  contradictory,  in  which  the  Old 
Testament  may  be  studied.  We  may  follow  it  along  the  line  of  its 
growth  and  development,  or  we  may  look  back  upon  it  as  a  completed 
whole. 

We  may  trace  the  gradual  progress  of  God's  revelation  of  Himself 
and  His  purposes ;  we  may  enquire  what  special  elements  each  suc- 
cessive age,  each  inspired  writer,  each  turn  of  Israel's  fortunes,  con- 
tributed to  the  growing  sum  of  revealed  truth  ;  we  may  observe  the 
patient  and  manifold  preparation  for  that  central  event  of  the  world's 
history,  to  which  all  prophetically  pointed  forward.  Three  Sundays 
ago  you  listened  to  a  masterly  sketch,  drawn  with  a  few  firm  strokes, 
of  the  varied  characteristics  of  the  Old  Testament  from  this  point  of 
view.  Need  I  say  that  this  method  of  study  is  indispensable  ?  We 
must  take  each  volume  in  the  "  Divine  library,"  and  investigate  its 
origin  and  its  character  and  its  historical  significance  for  its  own  age, 
with  a  treatment  which  will  be  bold  because  it  is  loving,  thorough 
because  the  subject  is  worthy  of  it. 

But  this  method  of  study  is  not  by  itself  enough.  There  is  a 
danger  of  limiting  ourselves  to  literary  problems ;  of  confining  our 
attention  to  the  primary  and  original  meaning  of  the  books  for  the 
times  in  which  they  were  written  ;  of  considering  processes  rather 
than  results.  We  may  be  like  a  geologist  visiting  a  cathedral,  who  is 
too  much  interested  in  determining  the  quarries  from  which  its  stones 
were  brought  to  let  the  completed  whole  take  his  spirit  with  its 
message  of  beauty  and  devotion. 


468  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

For  in  all  that  manifold  variety  of  the  Old  Testament  there  is  an 
essential  unity.  It  was  one  God  who  spake  in  many  fragments  and 
in  many  fashions  through  Law,  and  History,  and  Prophecy,  and 
Psalm  :  and  that  message  is  of  one  origin  and  piece  with  the  New 
Testament,  for  He  is  the  same  who  "  at  the  end  of  these  days  spoke 
to  us  in  His  Son,"  and  the  Spirit  of  that  Son  was  already  working  in 
those  prophets  of  the  ancient  time  (i  Pet.  i.  1 1).  There  is  a  continuity 
and  a  unity,  not  only  between  the  several  books  which  form  the  two 
Testaments,  but  between  the  Testaments  themselves.  The  many 
"Books"  {Biblia,  plur.)  of  the  two  Testaments  form  but  the  one 
"  Bible  "  {Biblia,  sing.). 

The  Old  Testament  leads  us  up  to  Christ,  and  Christ  takes  it  and 
puts  it  back  into  our  hands  as  a  completed  whole.  He  bids  us  study 
it  as  "fulfilled  in  Him,  and  "put  ourselves  to  school  with  every  part 
of  it."  The  old  lesson-book  is  not  to  be  thrown  away  or  kept  as  an 
archaeological  curiosity :  it  is  to  be  re-studied  in  this  fresh 
light  of  further  knowledge  :  and  it  is  of  this  specifically  Christian 
interpretation  and  use  of  the  Old  Testament  that  I  wish  to  speak 
to-day. 

"  Think  not  that  I  came  to  destroy  the  law  and  the  prophets." 
There  were  some,  it  seems,  who  expected  the  Messiah  to  abrogate  the 
ancient  law,  to  abolish  the  old  institutions,  and  to  promulgate  a  wholly 
new  constitution  for  His  kingdom.  There  have  been  those  within 
and  without  the  Christian  Church,  who  have  virtually  or  explicitly 
maintained  that  He  did  so,  in  the  teeth  of  His  own  emphatic  assertion, 
"  I  came  not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil." 

"To  fulfil."  Do  we  not  often  limit  the  idea  of  " fulfilment "  to 
what  are  called  the  typical  and  prophetic  parts  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  regard  the  fulfilment  as  just  the  counterpart  of  the  type  or  pre- 
diction, as  the  reality  of  which  the  reflexion  only  had  hitherto  been 
visible?  But  "fulfilment"  is  far  more  than  this.  It  is  the  completion 
of  what  was  before  imperfect ;  it  is  the  realisation  of  what  was 
shadowy ;  it  is  the  development  of  what  was  rudimentary ;  it  is  the 
union  and  reconciliation  of  what  was  isolated  and  disconnected  ;  it  is 
the  full  growth  from  the  antecedent  germ.  Christ  came  to  disengage 
eternal  truths  from  the  limited  forms  in  which  they  had  hitherto  been 
expressed ;  and  He  bids  us  look  back  upon  those  limited  forms  in 
the  light  of  His  teaching  and  work,  and  discern  the  eternal  truths 
embodied  in  them.  The  Old  Testament  was  not  as  it  were  the 
scaffolding  necessary  for  the  erection  of  the  Christian  Church,  needing 
to  be  taken  down  in  order  that  the  full  symmetry  and  beauty  of  the 
building  may  be  seen,  and  only  to  be  had  recourse  to  from  time  to 
time  when  repairs  are  needed.  It  is  an  integral  part  of  the  structure. 
"Ye  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets, 
Christ  Jesus  Himself  being  the  chief  corner  stone"  (Eph.  ii.  20). 

How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  we  ask  with  reverence.  It  was  God 
who  spake  "  through  the  prophets,"  it  is  God  who  speaks  "  in  a  Son." 
Every  divine  word  must  be  of  eternal  import.     God's  truth  does  not 


The  Old  Testament  in  the  Christian  Church.  469 

vary  :  there  is  no  mutability  of  purpose  in  the  eternal   present  of  the 
divine  mind.     As  in  creation,  so  in  revelation, 

"  Was,  and  is,  and  will  be,  are  but  is  ; 
*  *  *  But  we  that  are  not  all, 
As  parts  can  see  but  parts,  now  this,  now  that. 
And  live  perforce  from  thought  to  thought.  .  .  . 

Human  words,  even  inspired  words,  can  express  no  more  than 
some  infinitesimal  fragments  of  the  infinite  mind  of  God.  They  must 
necessarily  circumscribe  and  limit  the  infinite.  But  any  worthy  con- 
ception of  inspiration  must  include  at  least  this,  that  the  inspired 
words  so  correspond  to  the  truth  which  they  reveal  that  they  are 
capable  of  disclosing  more  and  more  of  it  as  men  are  able  to  receive 
it. 

Man  can  only  be  educated  by  degrees.  The  childhood  of  the  race, 
like  the  childhood  of  the  individual,  must  be  taught  as  it  could  bear  it. 
But  the  lessons  of  childhood  grow  with  advancing  years.  Words 
cannot  continue  to  mean  for  us  only  what  they  meant  at  first.  They 
must  expand  with  the  expanding  mind. 

God's  great  Book  of  Nature  remains  unchanged  ;  but  it  speaks  to 
men  with  different  voices  in  successive  ages.  A  Copernicus,  a  Newton, 
a  Darwin  arises,  and  points  out  new  laws  which  co-ordinate  and 
explain  phenomena,  and  Nature's  lessons  can  be  read  more  clearly. 
The  words  of  the  poet,  the  works  of  the  painter,  contain  and  teach 
more  of  truth  and  beauty  than  poet  or  painter  knew  or  intended  them- 
selves, for  the  intuition  of  genius  perceives  truth  unconsciously,  and 
records  it  for  those  who  come  after  to  interpret. 

So  the  old  words  of  Revelation,  because  they  were  the  reflexion  of 
the  divine  mind  and  will,  contained  a  larger  meaning  than  was  at  once 
perceptible;  and  Christ  has  come,  and  "fulfilled"  them,  infused  new 
force  and  meaning  into  them,  shewn  us  how  they  express  more  of  the 
"  grace  and  truth  "  which  He  came  to  bring  in  all  its  fulness.  It  is 
not  that  the  words  "  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense : "  it  is  that  the 
Word  of  God  is  "living  and  energetic,"  possessed,  in  virtue  of  its 
essential  nature,  of  a  springing  and  germinant  vitality. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  idea  of  the  "fulfilment"  of  prophecy, 
though  that  idea  is  often  unduly  limited.  Prophecy  is  not  "  inverted 
history  :  "  it  was  not  a  reflexion  beforehand  by  which  men  could 
foreknow  what  was  to  come :  it  was  but  as  the  seed  out  of  which 
plant  and  flower  and  fruit  were  to  be  developed.  Prophecy  kept 
men's  eyes  fixed  upon  the  future  ;  it  created  a  sense  of  need,  it 
stirred  deep  and  earnest  longings;  it  stimulated  hope.  And  then 
the  fulfilment  gathered  into  one  unimagined  reality  all  the  various 
lines  of  thouglit  and  longing  and  hope,  in  a  completeness  far  tran- 
scending all  anticipation.  The  fulfilment  could  not  have  been  con- 
jectured from  the  prophecy,  but  it  answers  to  it,  and  shews  the 
working  of  the  one  divine  purpose,  unhasting,  unresting,  to  its  final 
goal  of  man's  redemption.  "  Fulfilment"  does  not  exhaust  prophecy. 
It   interprets   it,  and  gathers  up  its  scattered    elements  into  a  new 


470  77!^  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

combination,  possessing  fresh  and  abiding  and  ever  increasing 
significance. 

But  "  fulfilment "  is  not  limited  to  prophecy  commonly  so-called. 
When  Christ  said  that  He  came  to  "  fulfil  the  law  and  the  prophets," 
He  doubtless  meant  to  include  the  whole  of  the  Old  Testament 
Scriptures.  For  all  those  Scriptures,  as  the  utterance  of  divine 
truth  through  human  instruments,  awaited  a  fulfilment,  and  it  is  as 
interpreted  by  that  fulfilment  that  they  are  commended  to  the  study 
of  the  Christian  Church.  Their  permanent  function  is  not  "  simply 
to  p'oint  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  both  Jew  and  Gentile  "  : 
they  are  still  the  living  source  of  instruction  for  us.  But  if  we  would 
understand  the  principle  of  their  interpretation,  we  must  study  the 
illustrations  which  Christ  Himself  gives  of  what  He  meant  by  "  ful- 
filling "  the  law  and  the  prophets.  In  them  we  see  how  He  pierces 
through  the  outward  form  to  the  divine  truth  of  which  the  outward 
form  was  but  the  vehicle,  how  He  discloses  and  affirms  the  inward 
spirit,  how  He  raises  all  to  the  higher  level  of  His  own  teaching. 

Had  the  law  forbidden  murder  ?  The  prohibition  rests  ultimately 
on  the  principle  of  mutual  love,  which  must  exclude  even  the  spirit  of 
hatred. 

Had  the  law  condemned  adultery  ?  That  is  but  one  limited  appli- 
cation of  the  principle  of  purity,  which  must  govern  not  merely  action 
but  thought. 

Had  the  law  prohibited  perjury  ?  Fidelity  to  an  oath  is  but  one 
small  part  of  the  universal  duty  of  truth  between  man  and  man. 

Had  the  law  enforced  a  rough  equality  of  justice  by  way  of 
restraining  revenge  ?  The  true  restraint  of  revenge  is  to  be  found 
in  the  conquest  of  evil  by  self-sacrifice. 

Had  the  law  allowed  a  limitation  of  love  to  countrymen  and  friends  ? 
Human  love  is  the  reflexion  of  divine  love ;  divine  love  is  universal, 
and  human  love  must  henceforth  be  universal  too. 

Thus  in  each  case  the  underlying  principle  is  seized  and  enforced, 
and  carried  to  its  full  development.  The  imperfect  morality  of  an 
earlier  age  is  left  behind  :  the  limited  rules  which  were  all  that  men 
could  bear  at  first,  but  which  were  designed  to  raise  them  to  higher 
things,  are  extended  and  expanded  :  a  new  and  generous  spirit  is 
infused  into  the  outward  form. 

Mark  the  emphatic  assertion  of  the  universality  of  this  fulfilment. 
"  Verily  1  say  unto  you,  till  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or 
one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  away  from  the  law,  till  all  things  be 
accomplished."  There  is  no  distinction  of  ceremonial  and  moral  law; 
no  classification  of  precepts  according  to  their  supposed  importance 
or  insignificance.  All  is  the  reflexion  of  divine  truth;  all  has  its 
appointed  purpose ;  all  is  to  find  its  fulfilment.  We  may  not  be  able 
to  see  the  significance  of  every  element,  any  more  than  the  naturalist 
can  trace  the  use  of  every  physical  organ,  but  the  general  drift  and 
purpose  of  the  whole  are  clear. 

And  for  the  Christian  Church  this  is  the  canon  of  interpretation  for 


The  Old  Testament  in  the  Christian   Church.  47 1 

the  Old  Testament.  Very  simple  3'et  very  comprehensive  it  is,  this 
principle  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  entering  into  the  old  order  and 
"  fulfilling"  it;  yet  how  strangely  Christians  in  almost  all  ages  have 
ignored  it.  What  scandals,  nay,  what  monstrous  crimes,  would  have 
been  avoided  had  it  but  been  realised  that  the  Christian  Church  can 
never  find  authority  in  the  Old  Testament  for  any  act  that  is  at 
variance  with  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel. 

When  we  turn  from  our  Lord's  teaching  to  that  of  His  Apostles', 
we  find  everywhere  that  the  Old  Testament  is  accepted  as  the  natural 
inheritance  of  the  Christian  Church  ;  we  find  the  old  words  used  with 
all  the  fresh  intensity  of  meaning  with  which  the  new  revelation  has 
shown  them  to  be  instinct. 

The  life  and  death  of  Christ  have  given  a  deeper  insight  into  the 
holiness  of  God  ;  a  new  standard  and  motive  for  the  holiness  which 
He  desires  in  man.  Yet  the  Christian's  call  to  holiness  can  still  be 
enforced  by  an  appeal  to  the  authority  of  the  old  scriptures.  "It  is 
written,  3'e  shall  be  holy;  for  I  am  holy"  (i  Pet.  i.  16). 

Old  promises  can  still  be  urged  as  the  ground  for  trustful  con- 
tentedness  (Heb.  xiii.  5,  6) ;  but  do  they  not  come  with  all  the  added 
force  of  Christ's  own  teaching  and  example  ? 

The  old  exhortation  which  bids  us  see  the  loving  hand  of  God  in 
the  discipline  of  chastisement  is  still  valid,  but  it  receives  new 
illumination  from  the  revelation  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  in  Christ 
(Heb.  xii.  5,  6).  Old  warnings  of  the  certain  punishment  which 
awaits  a  contemptuous  and  wilful  disregard  of  God's  working  in  the 
world,  are  still  significant,  and  they  come  with  augumented  emphasis 
under  new  circumstances  (Acts  xiii.  40,  41). 

Old  laws  of  divine  government  are  still  in  force,  but  it  is  in  the 
higher  sphere  of  spiritual  experience  that  they  find  their  application 
(i  Cor.  i.  19;  iii.  19,  20). 

Words  which  of  old  affirmed  the  principle  of  stability  for  the  Hfe  of 
nations  expand  and  convey  a  spiritual  meaning  and  express  the 
essential  principle  of  the  inner  life  (i  Rom.  17  ;  Gal.  iii.  ii). 

But  what  need  is  there  to  multiply  instances  ?  The  whole  Old 
Testament  is  regarded  as  transfigured,  deepened,  spiritualised,  not  by 
the  arbitrary  imposition  upon  its  words  of  a  sense  which  they  do  not 
bear,  but  because  in  the  clearer  light  of  Christ's  "  fulfilment "  of  that 
old  dispensation,  they  can  and  must  convey  to  us  more  of  that 
divine  truth  which  at  best  they  can  but  partially  and  imperfectly 
express. 

This  principle  of  "  fulfilment "  is  a  far  reaching  and  fruitful  principle. 
Apply  it  to  the  teaching,  of  which  the  Old  Testament  is  full,  concerning 
sin,  and  righteousness,  and  judgment,  "  the  cardinal  elements  in  the 
determination  of  man's  spiritual  state,"  concerning  which  the  Advocate 
comes  to  convict  the  world  (St.  John  xvi.  8).  The  old  words  cannot 
for  us  have  simply  their  "  original  "  sense  ;  they  must  speak  with  new 
depth  and  solemnity  to  those  who  have  seen  the  condemnation  of  sin, 
and  the  standard  of  righteousness,  and  the  declaration  of  judgment 


472  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

set  forth  in  the  life  and  death  and  resurrection  of  Christ  (Rom.  iii. 
25,  26). 

Those  glowing  words  in  which  the  Psalmists  express  their  calm 
confidence  in  the  loving  care  of  God,  their  passionate  yearning  for  a 
closer  approach  to  His  presence,  their  wonderful  sense  that  man's 
only  true  happiness  consists  in  fellowship  with  Him,  though  athwart 
it  all  lies  the  dark  shadow  of  the  breach  of  that  communion  by  death — 
a  shadow  which  in  moments  of  exultant  hopefulness  seems  to  be 
dispersed  by  a  ray  of  the  coming  light,  only  to  return  again  with  all 
its  chilling  horror — those  marvellous  outbursts  of  praise,  in  which  all 
creation  is  joined  in  one  jubilant  harmony  of  adoration;  do  they  not 
all  flash  and  sparkle  for  us  with  a  new  glory  in  the  light  of  Christ's 
revelation  of  the  Father  ?  since  "  the  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath 
given  us  an  understanding,  that  we  know  Him  that  is  true ;  "  and  that 
dark  shadow  of  death  has  been  for  ever  banished  since  He  "  has 
overcome  death  and  opened  unto  us  the  gate  of  everlasting  life." 

Christ  puts  the  Old  Testament  into  the  hands  of  His  Church  and 
bids  her  interpret  and  use  it  as  "fulfilled"  in  Him.  The  truth  is  simple 
and  familiar,  and  yet  it  has  seemed  worth  while  to  offer  it  once  more 
for  your  thoughts  to-day ;  because,  as  it  seems  to  me,  it  is  just  the 
truth  which  will  enable  us  to  look  with  calmness  and  patience  upon 
those  critical  investigations  of  the  Old  Testament  which  are  causing 
pain  and  anxiety  to  many  who  love  God's  Holy  Word.  It  is 
independent  of  those  investigations  ;  it  rises  above  them  into  a  higher 
sphere  :  it  is  not  antagonistic  to  them,  nor  they  to  it.  Critical  research 
must  be  fearlessly,  honestly,  and  patiently  pursued ;  we  must  be 
prepared  loyally  to  accept  its  proved  results  when  they  have  stood 
the  test  or  searching  cross-examination.  "  We  may  hope  for  the 
time,."  wrote  our  great  teacher  twenty-six  years  ago,  and  the  words 
are  not  less  needed  now  than  then,  "  when  the  student  of  Holy 
Scripture  will  look  for  what  it  contains,  and  not  measure  its  contents 
by  preconceived  notions  of  the  manner  and  form  in  which  its  lessons 
must  have  been  given."  But  critical  research  cannot  shake  or 
overthrow  the  certainty  that  our  Lord  bids  us  study  the  Old  Testa- 
ment for  our  spiritual  instruction,  as  "  fulfilled  "  in  Him  :  interpreted, 
spiritualised  and  endowed  with  living  force  and  power  in  the  light  of 
the  revelation  which  He  came  to  be  and  to  manifest. 

This  view  of  the  Old  Testament  excludes  the  opposite  dangers  of 
abuse  and  neglect. 

I.  It  secures  us  from  the  danger  of  confounding  the  Testaments, 
and  supposing,  as  some  have  done,  that  all  Christian  doctrine  is 
contained  already  in  the  Old  Testament.  We  shall  not  appeal  to  the 
Old  Testament  for  the  proof  of  distinctively  Christian  doctrines, 
though  the  light  reflected  on  it  shows  that  much  which  could  not 
have  been  intelligible  at  the  time  was  implicitly  contained  in  the 
inspired  message.  On  the  other  hand,  we  shall  not  suppose  that 
anything  unchristian  can  possibly  be  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of 
the  Old  Testament.     That  is  not  our  danger  now  ;  but  it  has  been  an 


Kept  from  the  Evil  One.  473 

error  fruitful  of  evils  in  past  ages.  It  is,  we  are  told,  even  now  a 
danger  among  new  converts  from  heathenism. 

II.  It  guards  us  from  the  danger  of  neglecting  the  Old  Testament. 
We  dare  not  disregard  what  Christ  has  "fulfilled,"  and  stamped  with 
His  approval ;  what  His  Apostles,  learning  from  Him,  bid  us  use, 
and  set  us  the  example  of  using.  We  read  the  Old  Testament  as 
"fulfilled"  in  Christ,  and  just  bceause  it  is  "fulfilled"  we  know  that 
it  still  awaits  fulfilment,  and  we  are  strengthened  to  believe  that  it 
will  yet  receive  that  fulfilment ;  that  "  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  nO' 
wise  pass  away  "  from  it,  "  till  all  things  be  accomplished."  Is  there 
anything  so  animating  to  Christian  hope  as  the  study  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  the  light  of  the  New  ? 

These  things,  brethren,  are  not  a  vain  thing  for  us,  they  are  our 
life.  "  Wherewithal,"  asked  the  Psalmist  of  old,  "  shall  a  young  man 
cleanse  his  way  ?  "  and  the  answer  is  still  valid,  "  Even  by  taking 
heed  thereto  according  to  Thy  Word."  The  true  aim  of  every  life 
must  be  that  service  of  God  which  includes  and  consecrates  the 
service  of  man ;  and  it  is  the  purpose  of  Holy  Scripture,  in  all  its 
manifold  variety  and  fulness,  so  to  educate  you,  "  that  the  man  of 
God  may  be  complete,  completely  furnished  unto  every  good  work." 


KEPT   FROM    THE    EVIL    ONE. 

A  Sermon  preached  in  the  Wesleyan  Centenary  Chapel,  Boston,  November  16, 
1890,  before  the  Mayor  attd  Corporation. 

By  Rev.  Thomas  Puddicombe. 

"  I  pray  not  that  Thou  shoiildeat  take  them  from  the  world,  but  that  ThoU' 
shouldest  keep  them  from  the  evil  one."— John  xvii.  15. 

This  chapter  is  the  true  Lord's  prayer,  the  prayer  which  Jesus 
offered,  and  which  we  are  permitted  to  hear.  It  is  the  Holy  of 
Holies  of  the  Gospel,  in  which  the  glory  of  God  is  revealed  to  the  eye 
of  faith  more  perfectly  than  to  Moses  on  Sinai,  or  to  priest  in  the 
ancient  temple.  The  glory  of  God — it  is  the  inspiring  thought  of  the 
whole  prayer  and  binds  it  into  unity.  In  the  first  words  the  key- 
note is  struck  :  "  Father,  the  hour  is  come  :  glorify  Thy  Son,  that 
the  Son  may  glorify  Thee."  Throughout  His  course  on  earth,  now 
regarded  as  ended,  the  Son  had  glorified  the  "Father  by  sinless  obedi- 
ence. He  now  prayed  to  be  restored  to  His  native  glory,  "the 
glory  that  I  had  with  Thee  before  the  world  was,"  that  the  Father's 
glory  might  be  more  clearly  seen  among  men,  and  that  He  Himself 
might  possess  increased  power  for  spreading  the  heavenly  kingdom. 
The  few  men  who  stood  round  him  were,  so  far.  the  chief  result  of 


474  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

the  Saviour's  work.  For  these,  therefore,  He  prayed.  First,  that 
they  might  be  kept  in  the  midst  of  an  unfriendly  world,  and  then, 
that  they  might  be  consecrated  and  fitted  for  their  great  mission 
of  bringing  the  world  to  believe  in  the  Father  and  the  Son.  Then, 
as  His  thought  ranged  through  the  coming  ages,  His  desire  went  out 
for  the  whole  body  of  believers  in  all  the  generations,  and  He  asked 
that  they  all  might  be  one  in  the  Father  and  the  Son.  Finally,  all 
is  crowned  with  the  calm  and  confident  claim,  as  of  assured  triumph  : 
"  Father,  I  will  that  they  whom  Thou  hast  given  Me,  be  with  Me 
where  I  am,  that  they  may  behold  My  glory." 

Right  in  the  heart  of  all,  the  very  core  of  the  prayer,  lies  the 
twice  repeated  petition  :  "  Keep  them  in  Thy  name  ....  keep  them 
from  the  evil  one."  Keep  them  in  their  simple  faith  in  the  Son 
whom  Thou  hast  sent,  and  in  the  Father  whom  He  has  revealed. 
Keep  them  from  the  snares,  and  deceits,  and  allurements  of  that 
spirit  of  evil,  who  like  a  roaring  lion,  goeth  about  seeking  whom  he 
may  devour. 

Jesus  might  well  pray  for  them.  In  a  few  short  days  He  must 
leave  them.  They  would  be  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves. 
Defenceless  and  unskilled,  how  would  they  do  when  He  was  gone  ? 
When  He  was  gone!  But,  why  not  go  too?  Would  He  not  take 
them  with  Him,  take  them  right  awa}^  from  a  world  so  hard  and 
unsympathetic,  so  antagonistic,  which  cherished  such  dark  and  mur- 
derous thoughts?  Might  they  not  adorn  His  triumphal  entry  into 
the  heavenly  places,  and  there  be  exhibited  as  trophies  of  His  work 
among  men  ?  No.  It  could  not  be.  They  were  not  ready  to  go. 
Like  their  Captain,  they  must  be  perfected  by  the  stern  discipline  of 
sufiering.  And  the  world  could  not  spare  them,  much  as  it  hated 
them.  They  were  the  hope  of  the  future.  The  success  of  the  Re- 
deemer's kingdom  was  bound  up  with  them.  So  reading,  it  may  be, 
their  half- formed  thoughts,  the  Saviour  said  :  "  I  pray  not  that  Thou 
shouldest  take  them  from  the  world." 

With  what  tender  solicitude  does  He  add  :  "But  that  Thou  shouldest 
.keep  them  from  the  evil  one."  Such  a  prayer  could  not  have  been 
unavailing.  Dwell  for  a  moment,  then,  on  their  after  history.  Inter- 
preted by  the  event,  what  dots  this  being  "kept  from  the  evil  one" 
mean  ?  Were  tliese  men  to  be  free  from  the  ills  to  which  all  are 
liable  ?  Were  they  to  be  exempt  from  bodily  weakness  and  sick- 
ness ?  to  know  nothing  of  false  words,  hatred,  loss  of  goods,  perse- 
cution, violent  and  cruel  deaths  ?  These  are  the  things  men  call 
evils  ;  things  to  be  dr.-adtd,  to  be  avoided  at  all  costs.  But  those 
first  disciples  of  Jesus  Christ  were  not  kept  from  these.  Persecution 
and  suffering  came  upon  them  more  than  upon  most  men  They 
rejoiced  in  it.  They  counted  it  their  honour  to  be  sharers  of  that 
cup  of  which  their  Master  drank  so  deeply. 

Wherein  then  were  they  kept  ?  They  were  kept  in  their  loyalty 
to  Jesus.  Kept  in  the  confidence  that  He  came  forth  from  the 
Father.     Kept  in  obedience  to  His  will.      Kept  in  fellowship  with  the 


Kept  from  the  Evd  One.  475 

unseen  Father  through  the  Spirit.  Kept,  by  the  same  Spirit,  in 
power  to  do  right ;  in  powtr  to  live  not  according  to  the  customs  of 
this  world,  not  seeking  its  rewards,  not  courting  its  good  opinion, 
but  as  children  of  the  unseen,  whose  real  treasure  is  above,  whose 
real  hfe  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 

Leaving  those  for  whom  it  was  first  offered,  let  us  now  think  what 
bearing  this  pra}  er  has  on  our  own  life  and  conduct.  We  have  been 
slow  to  receive  its  teaching.  For  it  is  hard  to  get  a  thought  into 
men's  minds,  that  is  to  get  them  to  act  upon  it,  when  they  do  not 
wish  to  receive  it.  To  borrow  an  illustration  from  a  great  writer, 
take  the  words  of  our  Lord  to  Pilate  :  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world."  Jesus  declined  to  use  force,  declared  that  His  kingdom  was 
of  another  order  from  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  with  their  glittering 
pomp  resting  on  force  of  arms.  So  it  stands  written,  and  so  during 
all  these  long  centuries  it  has  stood  written  :  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world."  The  Church  of  Christ  was  unwilling  to  receive  this, 
even  acted  as  though  the  very  opposite  were  true.  When  the  oppor- 
tunity presented  itself  it  seized  the  sceptre  which  was  dropping  from 
the  enfeebled  hand  of  the  temporal  sovereign,  mounted  the  tjirone  of 
all  the  Caesars,  ruled  by  force,  became  a  great  world  power,  a  king- 
dom of  this  world.  Yet  there,  unaltered,  were  Christ's  words ;  an 
eye,  it  has  been  said,  silently  regarding  the  Church.  Have  we  f:ven 
yet  received  them,  with  our  pride  in  numbers,  in  wealth,  in  stately 
buildings,  in  respectability,  learning,  prestige  ?  While  we  thus  rest 
in  all  that  is  visible,  can  we  be  said  to  have  understood,  to  have 
taken  to  our  hearts,  the  saying  of  Jesus  :  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world  ?  "  So  difficult  it  has  proved  to  get  this  truth  really  believed 
and  acted  out. 

So  with  this  prayer  of  Jesus  :  "  I  pray  not  that  Thou  shouldest  take 
them  from  the  world."  The  followers  of  Jesus  have  not  understood 
it,  have  not  believed  it.  They  have  thought,  onl}^  by  getting  away 
from  this  wicked  world  can  we  be  safe.  They  have  tried  this  plan, 
by  anticipation  condemned  in  these  words,  they  have  fulh'  and  coin- 
pletely  tested  it.  It  has  failed,  and  the  truth  of  our  Lord's  words  has 
been  confirmed  by  a  sad  and  bitter  experience.  In  the  early  Christian 
ages  men  began  to  betake  themselves  to  desert  places,  to  caves  and 
woods,  that  they  might  escape  the  temptations  of  common  life,  and 
give  themselves  uninterruptedly  to  communion  with  heaven.  Then 
the  monastic  system  arose,  and  that  false  idea  of  the  religious  life. 
The  "  religious  life  "  was  not  possible  to  all,  but  only  to  those  who 
retired  from  the  world,  and  within  the  holy  calm  of  monastery  or 
convent,  exclusively  followed  the  exercises  of  devotion,  or  went  forth 
to  perform  deeds  of  charity.  Such  was  the  accepted  meaning  of  the 
"  religious  life "  during  the  Middle  Ages.  How^  terrible  was  the 
penalty  exacted  for  going  contrary  to  the  words  of  our  Lord  !  That 
which  was  to  have  been  a  refuge  from  evil,  the  home  of  all  that  was 
pure  and  heavenly,  a  witness  for  righteousness,  a  hand  stretched  out 
to   help   the  fallen,  became  a   byword,  a  reproach,  a  sink  of  iniquity. 


47  6  77?^  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

corrupt,  abominable,  not  to  be  tolerated  by  the  world  itself.  The 
condemnation  of  the  monastic  system  is  written  large  upon  the  page 
of  history,  and  it  is  written  in  letters  of  fire  ! 

Well,  it  may  be  said,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  us  ?  These  are 
not  the  thoughts  we  are  thinking ;  we  have  no  wish  to  enter  either  a 
convent  or  a  monastery.  Probably  not,  yet  how  common  among  us 
is  this  longing  to  get  away  from  the  world.  How  ready  we  are  to 
put  our  failure  to  live  a  true,  faithful,  earnest.  Christian  life  upon  our 
surroundings.  The  man  of  many  affairs,  whilst  admitting  that  he 
has  grown  worldly,  unspiritual,  careless  about  the  life  eternal,  thinks 
it  enough  to  throw  the  blame  upon  his  calling.  Has  he  not  daily  to 
go  out  into  the  world,  to  be  in  it,  to  mix  with  people  of  the  world,  to 
do  as  they  do,  if  he  would  earn  his  bread  ?  The  mother  sometimes 
feels  that  much  that  is  noble,  spiritual,  holy  in  her  nature  is  being 
trampled  in  the  dust  by  the  hurrying  feet  of  crowding  duties  and 
thronging  cares.  But  she  hastily  banishes  the  thought  and  concludes 
it  must  be  so  !  The  youth  is  half-conscious  that  there  is  a  higher, 
purer,  truer  life  than  the  one  he  is  leading ;  that  he  has  not  fulfilled 
the  vows  with  which  he  set  out ;  that  he  has  not  been  faithful  to  the 
holy  light  that  has  sometimes  shone  within  ;  that  he  has  not  obeyed 
the  voice  which  he  has  heard,  which  singled  him  out,  and  called  him 
by  his  name.  But  how  could  he,  in  such  unhelpful  circumstances, 
thrown  into  the  midst  of  such  companionships  ?  Some  are  ready  ta 
blame  the  "  spirit  of  the  age."  Their  loss  of  faith,  their  lack  of 
fellowship  with  the  divine,  their  powerlessness  in  the  face  of  tempta- 
tion—all this  is  due  to  tne  spirit  of  inquiry  which  is  abroad,  and 
which  demands  that  everything  should  be  verified.  Musical  even  in 
despair  they  sigh  for  the  past,  for  the  ages  of  faith — as  though  faith, 
was  -ever  anything  but  a  victory  over  the  visible,  a  grasping  of  the 
unseen  : 

Oh,  had  I  lived  in  that  great  day, 
How  had  its  glory  new 

Filled  earth  and  heaven,  and  caught  away 
My  ravished  spirit  too  ! 

No  thoughts  that  to  the  world  belong, 

Had  stood  against  the  wave 
Of  love,  which  set  so  deep  and  strong 

From  Christ's  then  open  grave ! 


In  the  light,  then,  of  this  almost  universal  restless  longing  to  get 
away  from  the  world,  at  least,  from  our  world,  how  instructive  is  the 
prayer  of  our  Lord  :  "  I  pray  not  that  Thou  shouldest  take  them  from 
the  world  " — "  I  do  not  ask  special  favour  for  My  disciples,  that  they 
should  dwell  in  a  seclusion  which  no  temptation  can  penetrate."  Not 
in  that  direction  are  we  to  look  for  deliverance.  "  But  that  Thou 
shouldest  keep  them  from  the  evil  one."  This  is  the  heart  of 
the  prayer.  This  is  the  Master's  intense  desire  concerning  His 
own.     And    what    He    so    intensely  desired    for  us  should    be    our 


Kept  from  the  Evil  One.  477 


law  and  guide.      Will  you  look  at  it  and   see  what  it  has   to   say 
to  us? 

"  Keep  them  from  the  evil  one."  Then  the  disciple  of  Jesus  is  in 
danger.  Christ  does  not  make  light  of  the  dangers  which  beset  His 
disciples  in  this  world.  He  had  met  the  tempter  and  defeated  him, 
but  He  knew  the  craft  and  cunning  with  whi'-h  he  lies  in  wait  to 
deceive,  and  this  prayer  is  a  cry  of  warning.  St.  Paul  does  not 
underrate  our  peril  :  "  For  our  wrestling  is  not  against  flesh  and 
blood,  but  against  the  principalities,  against  the  powers,  against  the 
world-rulers  of  this  darkness,  against  the  spiritual  hosts  of  wicked- 
ness in  the  heavenly  places."  The  noble  and  the  good  of  former 
•days  unite  in  declaring  that  this  world  is  to  the  servant  of  Christ 
an  enemy's  country.  There  is  the  god  of  this  world,  the  powers 
of  this  world,  the  men  of  this  world,  the  things  of  this  world — all 
in  their  degree  fight  against  the  man  who  believes  in  Jesus.  As 
an  old  writer  has  said,  this  world  is  like  a  chess-board,  you  cannot 
make  a  move  in  any  direction  but  the  devil  instantly  sets  out  some 
•creature  to  attack  3jou.  Let  us  then  wake  up  and  not  cherish  a  false 
security.  Did  you  fancy  that  things  were  somewhat  changed  now  ? 
That  the  world  had  lost  something  of  its  old  hatred  to  Christ  and 
His  servants  ?  That  the  devil  himself  was  less  alert,  less  full  of  malice 
and  evil,  perhaps  after  all  not  so  black  as  he  has  been  painted  ?  Oh,  be 
not  deceived  !  Your  daily  papers  will  tell  3'ou  that  he  is  a  liar  and 
murderer  still  as  he  has  ever  been.  And  do  not  imagine  that  he 
tolerates  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  any  more  now  than  formerly. 
A  religion  which  means  outward  decency  merely,  a  kind  of  bowing 
homage  to  some  form  of  Christianity,  with  such  a  religion  he  may 
but  little  interfere.  But  a  religion  which  means  believing  that 
Jesus  came  forth  from  the  Father,  that  He  has  made  known  the 
Father's  love,  and  that  by  His  death  He  has  reconciled  us  to  God, 
against  this  he  brings  to  bear  his  subtlest  attack,  his  most  fiery 
darts,  his  most  mighty  engines  of  destruction. 

"  Holy  Father  keep,"  do  Thou  keep  them. — Then  the  disciple  cannot 
keep  himself.  The  Saviour  did  not  turn  to  those  who  stood  round 
Him  and  bind  them  by  strong  vows  to  remain  faithful  when  He  was 
gone.  He  knew  their  weakness,  and  He  looked  away  from  them  to 
God's  strength.  It  is  well  for  us  to  know  our  weakness.  We  can- 
not keep  ourselves.  We  have  no  strength  to  meet  the  attack,  and  no 
skill  to  evade  it.  How  will  you  do  ?  Will  you  resolve  sternly  to 
resist  when  next  you  are  tempted  ?  Such  resolves  have  been  made, 
as  in  a  soul's  agony  they  have  been  made,  and  they  have  gone  down 
before  the  fierce  onslaught  like  lead  before  the  blow-pipe,  or  they  have 
yielded  to  the  gentle  wooings  and  insinuations  of  the  evil  one.  Be 
not  too  confident,  that  is,  not  self-confident.  Peter's  brave  challenge 
to  man  or  devil  to  make  him  desert  his  Master  was  but  the  prelude  to 
his  fall.      Put  away  all  confidence  in  yourself  and  listen  again. 

"Father     .     .     keep  them."    Then  the  disciple  may  be  kept.   Here  is 


478  The  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

everything  to  encourage.  The  Father  whom  the  Saviour  has  made 
known,  and  whose  word  we  have  received,  and  in  whom  through 
Christ  is  our  trust  and  confidence,  He  can  keep  us,  "The  Lord 
knoweth  how  to  deliver  the  godly  out  of  temptation."  "  He  is  able 
to  keep  you  from  falling."  "  The  angel  of  the  Lord  encampeth 
round  about  thf-m  that  fear  Him  and  delivereth  them."  "If  God  be  for  us 
who  can  be  against  us  ?  "  The  servant  of  the  Lord  can  live  any- 
where where  God  puts  him,  and  flourish  there.  He  is  not  a  hot- 
house plant,  but  will  grow  in  any  climate,  and  is  an  evergreen.  The 
brightest  characters  have  shone  out  in  the  most  unlikely  times  and 
places.  The  glory  of  God  is  shown  in  keeping  His  people.  Amid 
abounding  sin  He  has  kept  them  pure.  In  days  of  blasphemy  and 
general  disaffection  He  has  kept  them  faithful.  Alwa3^s  and  every- 
where it  is  His  glory  to  keep  them. 

Only  let  us  remember  for  whom  it  was  Christ  thus  prayed.  It  was 
for  those  who  received  Him,  for  those  who  believed  that  He  came 
forth  from  the  Father,  for  those  who  kept  the  Father's  word.  Yes, 
let  us  keep  the  Father's  word,  hiding  it  in  our  heart,  obeying  it  in  our 
life,  and  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  man  or  devil,  the  Father  will 
keep  us.  And  what  is  the  Father's  word  ?  "  This  is  My  beloved 
Son,  hear  y&  Him."  Do  you  accept  Him  ?  Do  you  ?  All  is  summed 
up  in  this  :  "  Dost  thou  believe  on  the  Son  of  God  ?  "  All  is  summed 
up  there.  It  is  the  difference  between  faith  and  unbelief,  between 
living  for  the  world  and  living  to  do  the  will  of  the  Father,  between 
the  future  being  dark  and  the  future  bright  with  a  glorious  hope.  Do 
you  believe  in  Christ  ?  If  so,  then  all  is  well,  the  prayer  of  Christ 
shelters  you.  If  not — what  will  you  do  ?  May  God  the  Holy  Spirit 
reveal  Him  to  every  heart,  and  help  each  to  cry,  "Lord,  I  believe — 
help  Thou  my  unbelief." 


SFRMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  November  ^oth.  Lukexxiv.  1-12.  Golden  Text,  i  Cor.  xv.  20. 

Jesus  Risen. 

The  Bible  tells  us  of  many  remarkable  mornings.  But  what  were 
all  the  great  mornings  in  history  compared  with  the  first  Easter 
morning  when  the  Miracle  of  miracles  was  wrought!  It  happened 
very  early  in  the  morning,  so  early  that  "  it  was  yet  dark."  You 
would  have  wondered  what  could  have  taken  three  women  out  of 
their  homes  at  that  early   hour ;  but  yet  you  need  not  wonder,  for 

•  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


Sermonetle  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.       479 


they  were  dear  friends  of  Jesus  Christ's.  They  had  loved  Ilim 
when  He  was  living,  and  when  they  saw  Him  nailed  to  the  cross, 
and  left  there  to  die  by  inches,  it  almost  broke  their  hearts.  They  were 
last  at  the  cross  and  first  at  the  tomb.  While  the  men  were  scat- 
tered, all  the  women  were  firm  and  faithful.  These  women  inherited 
the  promise,  "  Them  that  honour  Me,  I  will  honour,"  for  while  this 
morning  is  remembered,  they  will  be. 

Let  us  look  at  them  on  their  journey  to  the  tomb.  They  were 
coming  to  put  sweet  spices  round  about  where  His  body  lay— but 
they  suddenly  remembered  a  difficulty.  They  did  not  know  about 
the  soldiers  who  guarded  the  sepulchre,  or  theiV  difficulty  would  have 
been,  "  How  shall  we  pass  the  guards  ?  "  But  they  knew  about  the 
heavy  stone  in  the  mouth  of  the  cave,  and  they  looked  at  each  other 
and  said,  "  Who  shall  roll  us  away  the  stone  ?  "  What  could  three 
weak  women  do  with  a  great  stone  ?  Was  the  case  hopeless,  and  did 
they  turn  back  ?  No,  love  never  turns  back.  It  drew  them  like  an 
irresistible  magnet,  and  they  still  held  on,  "  faint,  but  pursuing."  So 
they  went  on  to  the  very  grave,  and  found  to  their  wonder  that  the 
stone  was  already  rolled  away.  All  through  that  cold,  dark  night  the 
Roman  guard  had  watched  the  tomb  by  the  light  of  a  large  fire,  and 
when  morning  drew  near,  as  they  looked  to  the  east  for  the  first  signs 
of  the  coming  day,  suddenly  an  earthquake  shook  the  ground.  An 
angel  with  shining  raiment  rolled  away  the  stone  and  sat  down  on  it 
to  wait.  When  he  turned  his  face  towards  them  it  shone  like 
lightning,  and  the  soldiers  fell  down  and  lay  with  their  faces  on  the 
ground.  \Vhen  they  looked  up  again,  the  grave  was  empty,  for 
Jesus  had  risen  from  the  grave,  to  live  for  evermore. 

These  women  wanted  to  show  their  love  for  Jesus,  but  they 
imagined  that  a  great  stone  lay  in  their  way.  So  there  are  always 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  doing  good.  When  you  want  to  do  anything 
wrong  the  road  is  oh  !  so  easy ;  but  as  soon  as  you  want  to  do  some- 
thing right  and  good,  then  a  steep  hill  starts  up  before  you— the  Hill 
Difficulty.  What  are  you  to  do  ?  Turn  and  go  back  ?  You  must 
just  go  on,  and  you  will  get  over  the  highest  hill,  and  will  find  the 
heaviest  stone  cleared  out  of  the  way  when  you  get  up  to  it.  A  boy 
once  almost  quite  lost  heart  about  his  arithmetic  book.  He  looked 
at  it  in  the  middle,  and  then  at  the  end,  and  then  he  shut  the  book 
and  looked  to  see  how  thick  it  was,  and  he  thought  it  was  hopeless. 
Eut  he  mastered  it  all  by  just  facing  his  difficulty  and  going  straight 
over  it  one  step  at  a  time. 

Remember  that  Jesus  is  not  dead,  but  living,  and  that  He  has  all 
power.  You  can  always  depend  on  Him  to  help  you  when  you  want 
to  do  good. 


48o  The  British   Weekly  Pulpit. 

A    BALL,    A    DOLL,    AND    A    MAN. 
(From  the  Pansy.) 

One  day  in  Chautauqua,  N.  Y.,  Professor  Drummond,  of  Scotland,  told  us 
this  true  story  about  a  ball,  and  a  doll,  and  a  man.  A  great  steamer  had  started 
from  Liverpool  for  New  York.  Among  the  passengers  was  a  little  boy  and  his 
sister.  One  day  the  boy  lost  his  ball  overboard;  he  rushed  to  the  captain, 
begging  him  to  stop  the  ship  and  get  it.  The  captain  laughed,  and  told  him  it 
would  never  do  to  stop  a  steamship  for  the  sake  of  a  ball.  The  boy  argued  a 
little,  and  grumbled  a  good  deal,  and  told  his  sister  that  he  believed  the  reason 
the  captain  did  not  stop  his  ship  was  because  he  could  not ;  he  believed  it  was 
wound  up  some  way,  so  it  would  have  to  keep  going  until  it  run  down,  or  else 
he  would  never  have  left  a  great  splendid  rubber  ball  like  that  in  the  ocean. 

Two  days  afterwards  the  little  girl's  dolly  fell  overboard.  She  ran  crying 
to  the  captain  to  beg  him  to  stop  the  steamer.  "  That  won't  do  any  good,"  her 
brother  shouted  to  her ;  "  he  can't  stop  it ;  don't  you  know  about  my  ball  ?  " 

But  the  little  girl  made  her  pitiful  prayer  to  the  captain,  who  ran  to  the  engine- 
room,  peeped  down,  and  saw  the  dolly  within  reach.  "  Wait  a  minute,"  he  said 
to  the  little  girl,  and  the  ship  went  steadily  on  its  way ;  but  in  a  few  minutes  the 
captain  came  back  with  the  dolly  in  his  arms,  all  dripping  with  salt  water, 
but  safe. 

Only  the  next  day  there  went  a  cry  over  the  deck  of  that  steamer,  "  Man 
overboard ! "  Instantly  a  bell  rang  in  the  engine-room,  short  sharp  orders 
were  given  and  obeyed,  and  the  great  ship  stood  still  in  mid-ocean,  while 
•the  life-boat  was  launched  and  slipped  out  after  the  drowning  man.  Then  there 
was  one  very  much  astonished  boy  on  board  I  As  soon  as  the  steamer  reached 
New  York,  or  as  soon  afterwards  as  possible,  the  boy  received  a  handsome  new 
ball  from  the  captain,  with  a  note  expressing  his  regret  that  he  could  not  accom- 
modate his  passenger  and  stop  the  ship  to  get  the  one  left  in  the  ocean. 

I  wonder  if  you  could  think  why  Professor  Drummond  told  this  story  ? 

"To  please  the  children,"  one  little  girl  said  when  I  asked  her,  which  was 
a  good  answer,  but  he  had  even  a  better  reason  than  that ;  and  he  pleased  the 
grown  people  too.  He  told  it  to  illustrate  different  ways  in  which  God  answers 
our  prayers.  The  captain  thought  it  not  best  to  stop  his  great  ship  for  the  sake 
of  a  ball,  yet  the  boy  received  from  him  in  due  time  a  newer  and  better  one 
than  he  had  lost.  It  was  not  necessary  to  stop  the  ship  in  order  to  answer 
the  little  girl's  prayer ;  she  begged  him  to  do  it,  but  that  was  because  she  did 
(not  understand  his  power  to  save  the  dolly  without  that ;  the  thing  she  prayed 
for  she  received,  though  not  in  the  way  she  asked. 

Yet  the  moment  came  when — because  a  human  life  was  in  peril — even  the 
great  engine  had  to  be  silenced,  and  the  course  of  the  steamer  changed,  because 
the  captain  had  power  to  do  it. 

I  wonder  how  many  Pansies  who  read  this  will  understand  how  it  applies 
to  prayer  ?  Please  each  sit  down  next  Sunday  in  some  quiet  corner  and  think  out 
the  "How  ?" 

Then  if  you  feel  like  it,  write  and  tell  me  about  it.  Tell  mother  and  father  any 
way. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 

No.  135,  Vol.  III.  DECEMBER  4,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  ETERNAL   LOVE   OF  JESUS. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  John  Robertson,  of  Edinburgh. 

Preached  in  the  Metropolitan   Tabernacle,  London,  on  Sunday  morning, 
November  2Yd,  1890. 

"  Unto  Him  that  lived  us  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  and 
hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God  and  His  Father,  to  Him  be  glory  and 
dominion  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." — Revelation  i.  5,  6. 

John  is  in  Patmos  for  the  word  of  God  and  for  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  Christ — blessed  reason  for  being  anywhere.  His  feet  are  on 
the  silver  sands  of  the  ^gean  Sea,  and  it  is  the  hour  when  thought 
is  born.  The  sunset  is  casting  the  long  shadows  of  the  headland 
into  the  ocean,  and  John  in  his  exile  is  taking  a  walk  with  his  God 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening.  And  his  heart  takes  its  flight  to  Ephesus 
where  his  flock  is ;  and  from  Ephesus  takes  its  flight  to  heaven 
where  his  Saviour  is.  And  what  was  that  ?  Was  it  the  wind  lifting 
up  the  sand  of  the  sea-shore  and  playing  with  it  as  with  an  Eolian 
harp  ?  or  was  it  the  moaning  of  the  waves  round  yonder  cliffs  ?  or 
was  it  the  scream  of  yon  sea-bird  ?  or  was  it  the  echo  of  the  revelry 
in  the  fishing  village  of  Patmos,  for  a  wedding  was  to-night  ? 

It  is  the  echo  of  the  heavenly  harping  that  John  hears,  lliere 
come  struggling  by  the  stars  into  this  dull,  fogg}',  sin-laden  atmos- 
phere four  bars  of  the  divinest  music  that  he  ever  heard.  And  he 
catches  them,  for  he  has  got  an  ear,  John,  for  the  heavenly  harpings. 
.  He  catches  the  lilt,  and  going  home  he  bends  over  the  growing  manu- 
script of  Revelation,  and  with  his  stylus  he  puts  down  what  he 
heard  for  his  own  practising,  and  for  yours  and  mine.  This  is  what 
they  are  singing  on  high,  and  what  we  are  training  for  here.  **  Can 
you  play  the  fiddle,  John?"  said  the  minister  to  the  northern  boy. 
"I  dinna  ken,  sir;  I  never  tried,"  said  he.  "Ah,  my  boy,  if  you 
never  tried  that  difiicult  instrument  3^ou  may  just  as  well  say  you 
cannot  do  it."  So,  so,  if  you  nsver  tried  to  hum  over  on  earth  the 
bars  of  this  song  that  they  sing  in  heaven,  you  cannot  do  it,  that  is 
all.  You  cannot  take  your  place  in  heaven's  choir  without  the 
practising.     The  Conductor  will  look  after  that.     He  is  not  to  have 


482  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

His  name  and  fame  bespattered  through  you.  You  will  have  to  get 
it  up  on  earth  ;  you  will  have  to  practise  it,  and  have  all  your  mis- 
takes over  before  the  Conductor  taps  with  his  baton  for  the  orchestra 
of  heaven  to  take  their  places  and  sing  to  His  glory. 

That  is  what  we  are  all  doing  down  here ;  you  and  I — blessed  be 
God — are  humming  in  our  closets,  are  humming  in  our  places  of 
business,  in  our  offices,  this  glorious  song.  And  there  are  some  of 
us  that  have  already  caught  the  highest,  purest  notes  of  it,  and  the 
Lord  has  said,  "  Make  way  for  this  man.  Have  you  got  a  place  in 
the  front  rank,  ye  heavenly  singers,  for  this  saint  that  caught  the 
high  note  ?  "  He  is  ready  for  the  promotion,  and  he  has  gone  home.  Or 
it  is  some  poor  bedridden  saint.  In  her  trouble  and  pain  she  caught  it, 
and  it  was  reported  to  the  Lord  that  there  was  a  fine  voice  on  earth, 
that  a  fine  singer  had  been  discovered  in  the  furnace  of  time.  And 
the  Lord  said,  "  Send  for  her,  I  have  got  a  place  for  her  if  she  has 
got  a  voice  that  can  sing  perfectly,  as  ye  say,  this  song.  Make  way." 
And  they  are  all  coming  home  from  the  streets  of  time,  they  are  all 
taking  their  places  with  confirmed  singing  powers,  with  all  their 
mistakes  over ;  and  how  they  sing  it  on  high  ! 

Suppose  we  try  this  morning  to  hum  over  the  bars,  and  may  God 
help  us  with  the  harps  of  our  souls  to  sing  it  sincerely,  if  not  purely  ; 
to  sing  it  willingl}'',  if  not  holily.  But  the  Lord  help  us  to  sing  it 
purely,  and  willingly,  and  holily,  for  His  name's  sake. 

The  first  bar  is  this  :  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us."  Can  you  sing 
that  ?  This  is,  in  the  first  place,  the  source  of  salvation  for  eternity. 
"  Unto  Him  that  loved  us."  When  God  set  out  for  His  journey  of 
redemption  He  must  have  looked  round  the  shelves  of  glory  for  what 
to  take,  as  some  of  you  starting  on  a  journey,  pack  your  bag  or  port- 
manteau. Certain  things  you  take  with  you  for  the  journey.  So 
with  God.  There  are  the  thunders  of  almighty  power.  Is  He  to  take 
these  ?  No.  He  became  man— poor,  feeble  man,  and  the  thunders 
slept  till  He  came  back.  Is  He  to  take  the  glory  above  the  sun's 
strength  ?  Is  He  to  take  the  robe  of  uncreated  light  ?  No.  He  strips 
Him  of  the  visible  Godhead.  He  lays  aside  the  uncreated  shekinah 
manifestation,  but  He  takes  something — something  that  heaven  can 
give  and  that  earth  needs.  He  dips  His  almighty  heart  in  love. 
He  cannot  do  without  that.  The  hope-springs  are  dried  up.  He  will 
not  get  love  enough,  so  if  He  is  to  bring  love  He  must  get  it  before 
He  starts.  And  so  in  the  counsels  of  eternity  the  chalice  of  His  heart 
is  filled  with  love,  love  which  is  salvation.  And  so  He  comes  with 
the  only  qualification  for  His  great  work  that  He  sees  needful — love 
in  His  heart. 

Now  earth  had  seen  love  a  million  times  before,  since  Adam  had 
whispered  the  story  of  his  heart's  adoration  into  the  ear  of  Eve.  A 
million  times  this  earth  had  witnessed  a  heart  beating  with  love.  And 
what  about  that  ?  Wherein  is  Christ's  love  different  from  the  love 
that  the  sun  had  looked  down  upon  for  a  million  times  a  million  ? 
Love  had  been  reckoned  with  before. 


The  Eternal  Love  of  Jems.  48  3 

It  was  in  Leith,  and  the  sailor  had  never  had  this  feehng  prior 
to  a  voyage  before  ;  he  never  had  this  chill  presentiment  of  coming 
disaster  creep  over  his  heart ;  and  he  bids  his  wife  and  bairns  good- 
bye up  there  in  the  attic,  and  he  comes  down  to  the  first  landing- 
place.  It  won't  do;  back  again  for  another  kiss,  for  another  twin- 
ing of  his  eldest  born  round  his  neck,  for  another  look  into  the  dear 
eyes.  He  never  did  this  before ;  he  bids  them  farewell  again.  Down 
to  the  street  this  time,  out  among  the  gas-lamps,  but  he  does  not  get 
round  the  corner;  he  must  go  back.  And  the  wife  hears  his  step 
coming  up  the  stairs,  and  a  chill  for  the  first  time  creeps  into  her 
heart  She  never  saw  him  like  this  before.  He  could  take  his  fare- 
well and  go  singing  down  the  stairs  to  the  sea ;  but  not  so  to-day. 
And  he  says,  "  Oh,  wife,  I  have  just  come  back  to  get  a  kiss  of  the 
bairnies.  I  feel  very  strange  bidding  you  good-bye  ;  I  never  felt  like 
this  before."  And  so  he  goes  through  it  again,  and  the  little  ones 
twine  their  arms  round  his  neck,  and  they  say,  "Good-bye,  papa; 
bring  some  nice  things  from  the  foreign  land  to  your  little  boy  and 
your  little  girl ;  good-bye  !  "  And  at  last  he  gets  on  board,  and  the 
boat  rocks  at  the  pier  of  Leith,  and  at  last  takes  her  way.  And  the 
wind  rises  and  the  waves  put  on  their  white  caps  and  roll,  and  they 
climb  up  to  see  what  the  big  vessel  is  like,  and  they  signal  to  the 
great  heaving  deep  to  prepare  for  the  struggle,  and  a  leak  starts,  and 
the  vessel,  reeling  and  rocking  before  the  tempest,  goes  with  a 
shudder  to  the  deep.  And  they  take  from  the  ooze  and  mud  of  that 
foreign  shore  the  limp,  lifeless  body,  and  they  part  the  yellow  hair  of 
the  Scottish  sailor  from  his  white  brow,  and  they  bury  him  on  the 
foreign  shore.  The  widow,  with  her  sad  weeds  upon  her,  is  wearing 
herself  to  the  very  bone  to  rear  the  sailor's  lads  and  lasses  in  the 
fear  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

That  is  human  love.  What  is  it  when  death  interferes  with  it  ? 
Why,  man,  you  have  to  leave  your  loved  ones,  you  have  to  leave  the 
sunshine  of  your  home,  you  have  to  go  down  to  the  deep,  you  have 
to  list  to  the  flapping  of  the  sail  and  the  clanking  of  the  oars  in  the 
rowlocks,  you  are  going  away  from  home,  and  hope  is  going  away 
from  you.  Alas  for  love,  if  thou  wert  all  and  naught  beyond  !  When 
Christ  came  with  His  heart  of  love,  there  was  a  grim  chuckle  in  hell. 
"  We  have  seen  love  in  the  human  heart  before,"  and  the  grim  angel 
of  death  fluttered  his  black  wings,  and  said,  "  I'll  settle  it.  Has  the 
strange  mysteriousman  only  brought  love  with  Him?  I  have  annihilated 
love  a  million  times,  and  I  will  do  it  for  Him  also."  And  the  men 
surrounded  Him,  and  the  traitor's  kiss  was  planted  on  His  cheek,  and 
the  priests  got  hold  of  Him,  and  the  soldiers  took  Him  away,  and 
they  put  Him  up  on  the  cross.  And  true.  His  head  did  bow  in 
death,  and  His  pale  lips  say,  "  It  is  finished."  And  true,  they  did 
bring  Him  from  the  cross,  a  limp,  lifeless  body.  The  arms  hung  by 
the  side,  and  the  head  fell  on  the  breast  of  the  bearer.  They  put  Him 
into  a  grave  and  rolled  a  great  stone  there,  and  they  went  about,  say- 
ing, "  He  is  dead."     O  love  in  the  Saviour's  heart,  thou  art  blotted 


484  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

out  after  all !  Death  has  interfered  with  love.  And  on  the  way  to 
Emmaus  there  are  two  disciples.  They  are  very  downhearted  this 
morning.  They  are  saying  one  to  the  other,  "  What  an  awful 
thing  !  We  trusted  it  had  been  He  who  should  have  redeemed 
Israel,  and  to-day  is  the  third  day,  and  He  is  in  the  grave." 
Was  He  dead  ?  The  Divine  sleeper  stirs  in  His  sleep.  A 
tremor  of  returning  life  runs  through  His  frame.  He  rises  and 
calmly  puts  aside  the  cerements  of  the  grave,  and  on  the  Sabbath 
morning  He  is  risen.  Death  has  lost  its  power,  and  with  the  love 
in  Christ's  heart  death  has  been  defeated.  "  O  grave,  where  is  thy 
sting  ?  "  Where  is  it  ?  Christ  hath  brought  immortality  to  light. 
And  it  is  that  love  that  you  and  I  need  this  morning,  the  love  that 
death  has  no  power  over,  a  deathless  love,  and  love  that  is  to  exist 
and  be  strong  when  yonder  sun  flickers  out  into  eternal  midnight. 
It  is  that  love  that  my  longing  soul  craves  for,  and  it  is  that  love  that 
is  in  Christ's  heart.  It  is  a  deathless  love  ;  it  is  a  love  that  you  can 
allow  yourselves  to  sail  in.  Human  love  ! — why,  we  dare  only  creep 
from  headland  to  headland  ;  we  cannot  launch  out  into  the  deep,  for 
death  is  nigh.  How  many  go  forth  in  the  morning  that  never  come 
back  at  night !  But  in  Christ's  love  you  can  let  your  soul  go.  You  can 
sail  into  the  mighty  ocean  assured  that  there  is  no  limit,  that  there  is 
no  further  shore  to  it,  that  there  are  no  shoals  to  tear  the  ribs  of  the 
vessel  of  your  heart  asunder.  The  deathless  love  of  Christ,  can  you 
sing  it  ?     "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us  "  with  a  deathless  love. 

Ay,  but  there  is  a  worse  thing  than  death  about  love.  He  had 
breathed  his  pledges  of  devotion  into  a  trusting  ear,  and  had 
brought  a  blush  to  one  cheek,  and  he  had  vowed  to  be  true.  He  is 
going  away  to  America  :  he  is  to  make  his  fortune  in  that  big  land, 
and  as  soon  as  he  gets  a  nest  cosily  and  comfortably  prepared  he  is  to 
send  for  her.  "Never  fear,  I'll  be  true."  And  he  did  set  sail,  and 
he  did  get  on,  and  eyes — not  fairer  than  the  eyes  he  had  left  behind — 
of  an  American  girl  were  turned  on  him.  He  saw  not  her,  but  her 
purse,  and  he  saw  the  chance  of  promotion.  He  would  wed,  not  her, 
but  the  old  father  who  had  the  busmess.  And  so  the  letters  home- 
ward descended  very  rapidly  from  "  Yours  devotedly  and  eternally, 
and  for  ever  and  ever  and  ever,"  at  last,  to  "  Yours  truly."  And 
what  was  it  in  that  morning  paper,  as  she  turned  the  leaves  thereof, 
made  the  lassie  fall  as  a  huddled  heap  at  the  feet  of  her  mother  ? 
It  is  this  :  "  On  such  and  such  a  date,  in  such  and  such  a  church  in 
New  York,  So-and-so  to  So-and-so."  Poor  lassie !  go  down  to  the 
grave  now  with  a  broken  heart.  The  parents  can  hear  the  drip,  drip, 
drip  of  the  heart's  blood  to  the  last.  He  is  faithless,  his  promises  are 
false.  And  that  is  human  love.  You  cannot  ride  the  water  on  it,  as 
we  say  in  the  north ;  you  cannot  trust  very  much.  Blessed  are  ye  if 
you  have  got  a  love  in  the  human  heart  that  you  can  trust  fully  and 
unreservedly.  How  often  have  vows  been  like  the  shifting  winds  ? 
How  often  have  promises  written  in  blood  disappeared  as  if  written  in 
water  on  the  sea-shore  ? 


The  Eternal  Love  of  Jesus.  485 

And  so,  Christ,  Thou  hast  brought  many  promises — that  is  true  ; 
and  many  pledges  of  undying  affection — that  is  true.  But  the  world — 
this  grim,  heartless  world — has  heard  vows  before,  has  received  pro- 
mises and  pledges  before.  O  Christ,  what  about  Thine  ?  "  God  is 
not  a  man  that  He  should  lie,  neither  the  son  of  man  that  He  should 
repent."  "  Hath  He  said  and  shall  He  not  do  it  ?  Hath  He  spoken 
and  shall  He  not  make  it  good  ?  "  Is  there  any  other  attraction  on 
the  other  side  that  Christ  hath  loved  be3'ond  my  poor,  sinful  heart  ? 
Are  not  the  fields  of  glory  blooming  with  a  thousand  flowers  that 
would  be  proud  to  be  worn  on  Thy  breast  ?  Wilt  Thou  be  faithful 
on  high,  O  Christ?  Thou  didst  come  to  me  a  poor  sinner,  and  Thou 
didst  cast  Thy  mantle  of  love  over  me,  and  in  the  silence  Thou  didst 
breathe  affection  to  my  heart,  and  Thou  hast  won  it.  Art  Thou  to 
be  faithful  ?  Is  not  Christ  yearning  and  longing  for  the  day  when 
He  will  welcome  you  to  glory  ?  Christ's  humiliation  is  not  yet  ended. 
His  service  of  heart  is  not  3^et  by.  He  is  sad  and  weary  with  long- 
ing for  the  day  when  He  will  present  me,  faultless,  before  the 
presence  of  His  Father  with  exceeding  joy.  He  is  faithful,  beloved. 
Never  fear.  He  can  get  no  brighter  eyes  meeting  His  than  your  dim, 
blear,  reek-filled  eyes  on  earth.  The  Lord  has  loved  you  with  an 
everlasting  love.  A  mother  may  forget,  yet  not  I,  He  says;  a. lover 
may  be  false,  yet  not  I.  I  have  loved  thee  with  an  everlasting 
love.  Can  you  sing  it  yet  ?  Is  it  not  a  glorious  love — deathless, 
faithful,  abiding,  unchanging  amid  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crash 
of  worlds  ?  The  love  of  Christ  will  outlive  the  sun ;  the  love  of 
Christ  will  be  strong  in  mighty  current  when  the  stars,  the  last  of 
them,  pull  a  veil  over  their  faces  and  die.  The  love  of  Christ  is  the 
one  eternal,  abiding,  almighty  force  in  the  universe.  Can  you  sing 
it  ?  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,"  with  a  deathless,  undying,  unchang- 
ing, abiding,  eternal  love,  to  Him  "  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever 
and  for  ever." 

Then,  in  the  second  place,  we  have  in  these  four  bars  of  heavenly 
music,  the  fact  of  salvation  in  time.  The  first  was  the  source  of  sal- 
vation in  eternity ;  the  second  is  the  fact  of  salvation  in  time.  The 
stream  runs  from  the  hillside  to  the  valle}^,  and  it  gets  deep,  and  wide, 
and  broad,  and  the  masts  of  the  navy  of  a  commercial  city  are 
reflected  in  its  fair  bosom.  So  with  the  love  of  God.  It  came  rush- 
ing out  of  the  pearly  gates  a  mighty  torrent,  and  it  came  down  to  the 
valley  and  expanded  there  into  a  broad  lake,  and  the  love  has  become 
a  fact  in  time.  And  the  way  it  has  become  a  fact  is  this  :  The  love 
has  washed  us  in  the  precious  blood  of  Christ — strange  effect  of  love, 
the  washing  ;  strange  result  of  the  affection  of  the  Lord.  The  wash- 
ing— you,  mother,  can  understand  it.  Your  little  son  has  been  out 
all  the  summer  day.  He  has  had  splendid  fun.  Oh,  what  enjoy- 
ment !  And  he  has  stayed  out  till  the  shadows  have  fallen,  and  he  is 
very  tired,  tired  even  of  amusement.  He  comes  into  the  house  where 
love  is,  and  what  does  love  do  ?  Oh,  he  is  very  sleepy  ;  just  let  him 
go  to  bed.     "  Mother,  I  am  awfully  sleepy ;  I  am  not  for  any  supper; 


486  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

indeed,  I  am  so  tired."  But  love  has  something  to  say,  love  has 
some  action  to  go  through,  before  the  dirty  little  boy  can  get  between 
the  clean  sheets.  Love  draws  out  the  bath  into  the  middle  of  the 
floor,  and  love  puts  the  towels  there,  and  love  puts  the  soap  there, 
and  love  catches  hold  of  the  little  fellow's  collar,  and  in  spite  of 
grumbling,  in  spite  of  the  little  fellow's  bad  temper — for'  he  is  sleepy, 
God  help  him — plunges  him  into  the  bath,  and  love  takes  him  out 
spluttering,  but  clean. 

So  with  God.  Oh,  how  foul  we  were,  how  the  streets  of  time  had 
left  their  defilement  on  our  spirit.  What  must  love  do  in  the  first 
place?  "Oh,"  says  one,  "love  will  just  please  wink  and  take  us, 
bad  as  we  are,  into  heaven  ;  love  will  open  wide  the  pearly  gates,  and 
let  us  all  as  we  are,  unwashed,  foul,  unclean,  into  heaven."  Would 
love  do  such  a  thing  ?  How  can  a  soul  in  all  its  vileness  get  into 
heaven  without  washing  ?  That  is  the  problem  that  God  had  to  set 
to  solve.  How  can  man  be  just  with  God  ?  How  can  the  sinful  soul 
get  into  heaven  without  washing  ?  Na}^,  nay.  There  must  be  ablu- 
tion, there  must  be  washing,  and  what  is  to  do  (it?  A  thousand 
rivers — have  they  water  enough  to  cleanse  a  sinful  heart  ?  What  is 
necessary  ?  What  did  God  find  and  feel  to  be  necessary  ?  What  is 
that  awful  tinge  that  reddens  the  waves  of  the  laver  of  regeneration  ? 
What  is  this  mysterious  chemical.  Thou,  God,  art  putting  there  ? 
Why  this  agony  of  Thy  beloved  Son  ?  Why  the  open  side,  why  the 
pierced  hands  and  feet,  why  the  blood  ?  "  Without  shedding  of 
blood  there  is  no  remission,"  says  God.  Do  you  think  that  God  would 
have  shed  the  precious  blood  of  His  Son  had  it  not  been  necessary  ? 
Was  it  superfluous  ?  Was  it  a  mere  superfluous  reddening  of  the 
laver  ?     It  was  necessary,  God  saw  it. 

"  What  can  wash  away  my  sin  ? 
Nothing  but  the  blood  of  Jesus. 
What  can  make  me  whole  again  ? 
Nothing  but  the  blood  of  Jesus." 

Aiid  that  is  what  love  did.  If  you  turn  to  the  Revised  Version, 
you  will  see  that  the  wise  men  of  the  West  have  wisely  put  the 
word  "loosed"  for  "washing."  It  is  the  same  idea,  but  more  vigorously 
expressed.  Sometimes  when  the  dirt  sticks  you  take  pumice  stone, 
or  something  that  will  rub  or  scrape.  And  so  the  Greek  word  shows 
that  God's  washing  is  so  effectual,  the  blood  of  Jesus  is  so  effectual 
in  its  cleansing,  that  it  is  more  like  cutting-oft',  it  is  more  hke  excising 
and  putting  aside.  The  word  is  a  strong  word — loosing,  cutting  us 
out  from  our  sins  by  His  precious  blood.  And  in  this  washing  the 
very  skin  is  gone.  You  must  be  clean  if  you  have  gone  to  the  quick, 
and  if  God's  washing  has  rubbed  the  very  skin  off  it  is  all  right. 
Tliere  is  no  room  for  more  defilement.  The  Greek  word  then  is, 
"  Unto  Him  that  looseth  us  from  our  sins  with  His  own  blood." 
When  you  English  folk  hunted  away  our  Bruce,  you  were  not  content 


The  Eternal  Love  of  Jesus.  487 

with  your  own  great,  grand,  glorious  plains,  you  would  have  liked  our 
mountainous  little  country,  but  you  did  not  get  it !  Bruce  stood  up, 
and  you  went  after  him,  and  you  put  his  own  bloodhounds  on  his 
track,  and  with  nostrils  bent  to  the  ground  they  followed  their  royal 
master,  unaware  that  they  were  tracking  him  to  his  death  ;  and  you 
came  after,  and  you  urged  the  hounds.  Bruce  heard  the  distant  bay- 
ing of  his  own  beloved  pack  behind  him,  and  the  attendapts  said, 
"  We  are  done  for,  the  English  have  unleashed  the  hounds,  and  they 
are  on  your  trail,  and  they  will  betray  your  hiding-place."  "  Stop  a 
bit,"  says  Bruce,  "it's  all  right."  There  is  a  stream  flowing  through 
the  forest,  and  he  goes  to  it,  and  he  plunges  into  the  stream  and 
wades  three  bowshots  up,  and  then  into  the  depths  of  the  forest. 
The  hounds  come  up  to  the  bank,  tracking  step  by  step  their  beloved 
master.  But  no  further.  "  Urge  them  on  and  see  your  hounds  over 
that  little  brook,  and  get  up  the  trail,"  They  cannot.  You  may 
urge  them,  and  you  may  whip  them,  you  may  lash  them,  you  may 
spear  them,  but  they  are  done  for.  The  trail  is  broken.  The  stream 
has  carried  the  scent  of  the  king  far  downward.  And  Bruce,  one 
day  soon  after,  puts  the  crown  of  Scotland  on  his  own  brow.  So  my 
sins,  urged  by  the  devil,  came  behind  me  a  yelling  pack.  I  felt  their 
hot  breath  as  I  fled,  and  they  vowed  to  have  me.  But  a  stream,  not 
glassy  and  clear,  but  red  with  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  came  up 
to  my  feet.  I  plunged  in,  through  God's  grace,  and  I  can  stand  on 
the  other  bank  and  defy  every  hell-hound  of  my  past  to  touch  me. 
That  is  it.  The  scent  is  lost,  blessed  be  God.  The  trail  of  the  past 
— where  is  it  ?     It  is  broken  in  the  blood  of  Christ. 

"  I  plunged  and  am  cleansed,  I  plunged  and  am  free ; 
I  plunged  in  the  crimson  tide  flowing  for  me. 
From  sin  and  uncleanness  exulting  1  stand ! 
And  point  to  the  prints  of  the  nails  in  His  hand. 
Oh,  sing  of  His  mighty  love, 
Sing  of  His  mighty  love, 
Sing  of  His  mighty  love, 
Mighty  to  save." 

Can  you  sing  it,  the  glorious  second  part  of  this  glorious  song  ? 

Then  the  third  bar,  you  notice,  is  this — the  efifect  of  salvation  on 
man,  "  And  hath  made  us  kings."  We  crouch,  a  slave  to  the  cross, 
but  we  give  three  leaps  for  it,  and  tread  to  heaven  with  the  tramp  of 
a  king.  The  cross  gives  dignity,  the  cross  gives  ro^'alt}',  to  the 
same  heart.  Christ  crowns  us  when  the  heart  accepts  Him.  We 
are  kings,  and  we  have  a  country.  We  are  not  like  John  Lackland, 
for  a  king  must  have  a  kingdom,  •  We  are  kings  from  the  cross,  and 
what  is  our  kingdom  ?  It  is  our  heart,  our  own  soul,  that  is  our 
kingdom.  "  I  thought  God  promised  us  a  land,"  lightly  said  a  doubt- 
ing, unbelieving  soldier  to  his  comrade,  as  they  crossed  the  Jordan  ; 
"  I  thought  this  was  the  promised  land,  our  land,  and  here  wc- 
are    preparing  for   battle.       Why  are  we   not   going   into  the   vine- 


488  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

yards  to  eat  and  drink  our  fill  ?  Why  are  we  in  armour — 
why  has  the  word  come  to  up  and  at  them  ?  This  is  our 
land.  Are  we  not  over  the  Jordan  ?  "  They  had,  as  soon  as  they 
were  at  the  other  side  of  the  river,  to  take  sword  in  hand,  and  from 
point  to  point,  from  city  to  city,  on  to  Jerusalem,  they  had  to  conquer 
their  own  land.  So  with  your  heart.  It  is  the  promised  land,  it  is 
the  possessed  land,  but  you  have  to  fight  for  it.  You  have,  as  a  con- 
queror, to  make  the  plains  of  your  own  soul  reverberate  with  your 
tread.  Joshua  said  of  the  five  kings,  "Just  put  them  into  the  cave 
alive,  and  don't  waste  time  over  them,"  and  they  put  them  into  the 
cave  of  Makkedah,  and  pursued  the  foe  till  sunset.  After  they  had 
wiped  the  sweat  from  their  brow  and  the  blood  from  their  swords, 
they  came  back.  "Now,"  says  Joshua — and  it  is  Jesus,  the  Old 
Testament  Jesus  in  holy  symbol  that  we  see—"  Now,"  says  Joshua, 
"  roll  away  the  stone  of  the  place,"  and  they  rolled  away  the  stone. 
"  Bring  the  five  kings  out,"  he  says,  and  they  come  out.  How  crest- 
fallen, how  slave-like,  how  puny  they  look  !  "  Now,"  says  he  to  the 
captains  of  the  host,  "  come  near  and  put  your  feet  on  the  neck  of 
those  kings."  And  they  came  near  and  put  their  feet  on  the  necks  of 
these  kings.  So  says  Jesus  to  me  when  He  forgives  me, when  He  washes 
me  in  His  precious  blood,  when  He  looses  me  from  my  sinful  past. 
Old  habits,  come  out !  old  sins,  passions,  lusts,  come  out !  "  Put  your 
feet  on  the  necks  of  them,"  says  Christ,  and  I,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
put  my  feet  on  old  habits,  old  sins,  old  passions,  and  am  king  over 
my  own  heart.     "  And  hath  made  us  kings." 

What  is  the  last  ?  for  it  is  time  you  were  at  your  dinner.  You 
will  dislike  the  sermon  if  I  keep  you  too  long,  and  I  have  one  head  more. 
The  last  bar  is  the  effect  of  salvation  on  God.  "  And  hath  made  us 
priests  unto  God  and  to  His  Father."  So  God  is  not  done  with 
priests  ?  That  is  true,  but  the  priests  no  more  enter  the  house  of  the 
new  testament,  because  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  filling  the  Lord's 
house.  We  have  no  use  for  a  priest  with  his  robes,  and  yet  God  sa3's 
that  salvation  brings  to  him  a  priesthood,  a  service  acceptable.  What 
is  that  ?  It  is  not  the  sacrifice.  The  smoke  has  curled  away  into  the 
blue  air  of  Palestine  for  ever.  The  red  flame  has  run  along  the  eaves 
of  the  Temple  and  it  is  in  ruins.  What  has  the  priest  to  do  with  God  ? 
All  through  the  night  in  that  holy  house  there  were  relays  of  priests 
to  keep  up  continuously  the  song  of  praise  to  Him  whose  shekinah 
is  in  there  behind  the  quivering  curtains.  And  all  through  the  night 
the  priests  in  solemn  tone  would  sing  to  God — 

"  Thv  foot  He'll  not  let  slide,  nor  will 
He  slumber  that  thee  keeps  ; 
Bcnold,  He  that  keeps  Israel, 
He  slumbers  not  nor  sleeps." 


And  it  is  this  part  of  the  priest's  service  that  God  accepts  and  needs 


The  Eternal  Love  of  Jesus.  489 

to-day.  It  is  the  profession  of  adoration,  it  is  the  song  of  praise  from 
my  heart  that  He  cannot  get  from  the  harps  of  heaven.  It  is  this 
that  you  and  I  should  just  tell  I  lim  more,  that  we  love  Mim.  You  know 
they  say  a  Scotchman  never  tells  his  wife  he  loves  her  till  he  is  just 
dying.  Well,  it  is  a  pity,  a  great  pity.  In  this  world  he  would 
be  happier  and  she  would  be  happier,  if  he  would  tell  his  love  into 
the  ear  while  it  can  hear. 

He  was  a  rough  fellow.  Jack,  the  terror  of  the  Aberdeenshire 
village.  A  ne'er-do-weel,  in  every  scrape  he,  always  in  trouble,  always 
in  hot  water,  the  terror  of  the  whole  country-side,  rough,  swearing 
Jack.  His  mother's  heart  was  nigh  broken  over  it,  and  she 
was  a  widow,  and  he  her  only  son.  And  he  slipped  out 
one  night  and  took  ship  at  Aberdeen  without  telling  his  mother 
or  anybody.  He  went  away  to  Australia,  and  into  the  bush  went  he, 
lived  a  rough  godless  life  as  a  gold-digger,  and  at  last  one  day  he  is 
a  millionaire,  a  rich  man,  unspeakably  rich  those  nuggets  have  made 
him.  And  a  great  rush  of  emotion  comes  to  his  heart.  "  I'll  away 
home  ;  I'll  make  mother  proud  of  her  boy  now.  I  will  buy  the  estate 
beside  the  village,  and  I'll  take  dear  mother.  How  she  has  borne 
with  me !  How  she  will  be  proud  when  I  come  in  the  carriage  for 
her  and  bring  her  to  the  mansion,  and  say,  '  These  broad  lands  are 
mine  and  thine,  dear  mother.'"  And  all  the  way  home  he  was  pacing 
the  deck,  and  he  was  saying  what  a  surprise  it  would  be  to  the  old 
body  !  How  proud  she  would  be,  and  how  the  villagers  would 
wonder  that  the  ne'er-do-weel  had  turned  out  pretty  well  after  all. 
Who  is  this  that  comes  staggering  into  the  peat  firelight  of  the  old 
kitchen  in  this  neighbouring  farmhouse  ?  What  drunken,  staggering 
man  reels  his  way  to  a  chair  at  the  fire  ?  The  assembled  household 
look  in  wonder  upon  him.  He  left  a  beardless  young  boy  ;  here  is 
a  brown-tanned  foreigner.  "  Don't  you  know  me  ?  Where's  mother?" 
Approaching  the  village,  he  had  come  in  sight  of  that  saddest  of  all 
sights,  and  that  is  too  frequent  in  our  beloved  Scotland — two  bare 
gables,  as  if  in  bitter  mocker}',  appealing  to  a  dumb  God  on  high, 
who  witnesses  evictions  and  yet  is  silent.  The  fields  and  the  little 
croft  have  been  added  to  the  big  farm.  "  Mother  !  I'll  take  you  on 
the  morrow  and  shov/  you  where  mother  is."  And  he  came  to  the 
churchyard  by  the  river,  and  his  friend  said,  "  Just  in  yonder  corner, 
'Jack  ;  you  see  where  the  lilies  are  ;  we  planted  them  for  your  sake 
— ^just  there."  And  the  friend  heard  this  before  he  turned  away, 
where  angels  would  fear  to  tread — the  strong  man  flung  himself  on 
the  grass  and  said,  "  O  mother !  I  did  love  you,  mother ! "  But 
mother  was  away.  "  ]^ck,  you  lost  the  chance,  man.  She  pined 
visibly  for  her  boy.  .  There  was  no  letter.  No ;  you  were  too  late, 
Jack."  And  the  friend  catches  sometimes  a  sigh,  a  far-away  look  in 
the  face,  and  he  is  silent  with  amazement  to  know  that  Jack  is  back 
to  the  green  grave,  back  to  the  lilies,  is  back  to  the  dear  mother 
who  never  heard  from  her  wilful  boy.  "  O  mother,  I  did  love  you." 
And  yet  he  did  lose  her. 


490  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

So  the  Lord  Jesus,  beloved,  is  longing  for  you  and  me,  in  time, 
while  we  have  the  opportunity.  His  ear  is  bent  down  ;  He  is  long- 
ing for  you  and  me  to  say — 

"  My  Jesus,  I  love  Thee,  I  know  Thou  art  mine, 
For  Thee  all  the  pleasures  of  sin  I  resign  ; 
My  gracious  Redeemer,  my  Saviour  art  Thou  : 
If  ever  I  loved  Thee,  my  Jesus,  'tis  now. 

I  will  trust  Thee  in  life,  I  will'  trust  Thee  in  death  ; 
I  will  praise  Thee  as  long  as  Thou  givest  me  breath. 
And  I'll  say  when  the  dealh-dew  lies  cold  on  my  brow : 
If  ever  I  loved  Thee,  my  Jesus,  'tis  now." 

Go  home  to  your  own  room  and  kneel  down,  beloved,  and  say  in 
this  holy  priesthood :  "  Lord  Jesus,  I  adore  Thee,  I  love  Thee  ;  to 
Thee  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." 


Prayer    before    Sermon. 

O  God,  we  hold  up  this  morning  unto  Thee  the  pastor  of  this  great 
flock,  who  bears  in  his  body  for  their  sakes  the  marks  of  the  Lord 
Jesus.  And  now  that  he  has  fainted  by  the  way,  through  the 
excessive  labour  of  this  place,  through  the  strain  on  body,  on  mind, 
and  on  spirit,  the  Lord  grant  that  the  rest  may  do  him  great  good, 
that  the  freedom  from  the  visible  strain  ot  this  work  may  bring  to 
him  rest  of  body  and  mind,  that  so  nature  may  recover  itself.  O 
our  God,  we  know  that  his  thoughts  are  with  his  people  to-day,  and 
we  would  make  it  our  united  prayer  that  Thou  wouldst  heal  and 
restore  him  speedily,  that  Thou  wouldst,  as  we  pray,  make  him  well. 
The  Lord  put  away  all  pain  just  at  this  moment,  and  the  Lord  clear 
away  all  clouds  on  the  spirit  that  physical  prostration  must  bring. 
The  Lord  make  him  glad  and  happy  in  his  spirit  this  morning; 
bless  him,  and  bring  him  back  vigorous  and  strong. 

And  now,  Lord,  wilt  Thou  be  with  us  to-day  ?  Unless  Thou  dost 
speak  to  us  we  woyld  rather  be  dumb.  Unless  we  get  the  message 
whispered  to  our  hearts,  O  Lord,  let  us  not  speak.  But  is  it  not 
Thy  house,  this  ?  is  it  not  Thy  day,  this  ?  is  it  not  Thy  book,  this  ? 
is  it  not  Thine  ordinance,  this,  the  preaching  of  the  word  ?  By 
whatever  lips,  Thou  wilt  bless;  and  we  lean  back  on  that  promise. 
Though  the  great  pieacher  be  away,  the  great  preacher's  greater 
Christ  is  here.  Make  manifest  Thy  power  in  weakness.  Make 
manifest  how  it  is  the  Holy  Ghost  that  after  'all  takes  the  word 
and  sends  it  home  to  heart  and  conscience  with  demonstration  and 
irresistible  power. 

Wc  thank  Thee  for  the  great  fact  on  which  we  rest  our  souls  amid 
our  shifting  feelings.     The  Lord  hath  laid  on  Him  the  iniquity  of  us 


God's  Manifold  Mercies,  491 


all.  He  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us  Who  knew  no  sin,  that  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him.  He  hath  redeemed 
us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us.  God  com- 
mendeth  His  love  toward  us  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners 
Christ  died  for  us.  Much  more,  then,  being  now  justified  by  His 
blood,  we  shall  be  saved  from  wrath  through  Him.  For  if  while 
we  were  enemies  we  were  reconciled  unto  God  by  His  Son,  much 
more  shall  we  be  saved  by  His  life.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  also 
joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  Whom  we  have  now 
received  the  atonement. 

We  praise  Thee  for  the  pardon  of  all  our  sins  for  the  sake  of 
Christ  Jesus.  We  praise  Thee  that  Thou  hast  said, ''  Speak  ye  com- 
fortably unto  Jerusalem,  and  say  unto  her  she  hath  received  of  the 
Lord's  hand  double — double  for  all  her  sins."  There  is  a  great  margin 
in  Thy  work,  O  Christ,  there  is  an  infinite  merit  in  it.  It  was  God's 
death  for  man's  sin,  so  we  need  never  fear  that  our  accounts  will  bring 
into  difficulty  the  bank  of  grace.  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ,  God's 
Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.  So  let  Thy  people  realise  their  privi- 
leges this  morning.  Redeemed  not  with  corruptible  things,  as  with 
silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  let  us  this  morn- 
ing get  a  fresh  sense  of  pardon,  get  a  fresh  sense  of  the  forgiveness 
of  our  sins.  Oh  that  it  were  with  me  as  in  days  past,  is  the  cry  of 
many  of  us.  Oh  for  the  new  love  again,  for  the  fresh  enthusiasm 
of  our  young  love  !  The  Lord  baptise  us  all  into  fresh  faith  and 
new  love  through  this  service,  for  His  name's  sake.     Amen. 


GOD'S  MANIFOLD  MERCIES. 

By  Rev.  J.  C.  M'Clintock. 

Psalm  cvii.  1-9. 

The  whole  Psalm  must  be  read  and  considered  in  order  to  reach  a 
p-oper  conception  of  the  theme  which  inspired  the  pen  of  the  writer, 
and  produced  what  Dr.  Lowth  terms  "an  idyl"  surpassing  the 
masterpieces  of  Theocritus,  Virgil,  or  even  Aeschylus  himself. 

I.  It  begins  with  the  summons  to  give  thanks,  verse  i.  "It  is  all 
we  can  give  Him,"  says  Spurgeon,  "and  the  least  we  can  give; 
therefore  let  us  diligently  render  to  Him  our  thanksgiving."  This  is 
not  the  only  call  in  the  Scriptures  to  give  thanks.  A  score  of  times 
the  Psalmist  challenges  men  to  the  performance  of  this  duty,  and  he 
sets  the  example,  and  furnishes  us  the  words  for  our  gratitude  to  ex- 
press itself  in  song  after  song  of  praise.  Nor  is  the  duty  rested 
alone  on  Old  Testament  precept.     It  is  not  less  a  Christian  duty, 


492  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

most  assuredly,  to  recognise  the  mercies  and  the  loving  kind- 
nesses of  God,  than  it  was  under  the  old  and  shadowy  dispensa- 
tion of  the  law.  "  In  every  thing  give  thanks,"  is  the  high  measure 
of  Christian  duty  laid  down  by  the  Apostle,  i  Thes.  v.  i8. 
"Be  ye  thankful";  and  "in  every  thing  by  prayer  and  sup- 
pHcation,  with  thanksgiving,  let  your  requests  be  made  known  unto 
God."  As  the  greatest  mercies  of  God  are  found  clustered  about  the 
cross,  and  expressed  in  the  gift  of  His  Son,  so  the  warmest  recogni- 
tion of  them,  and  the  heartiest  praise  and  gratitude  for  them,  belong 
of  rights  to  those  who  have  their  hves  brightened  by  the  sunshine  of 
Christianity.  "Thanks  be  unto  God  for  His  unspeakable  gift," 
2  Cor.  ix.  15. 

2,  We  have  the  foundation  and  reason  for  thanksgiving,  "  For  He 
is  good,  for  His  mercy  endureth  forever,"  The  one  hundred  and 
thirty-sixth  Psalm  takes  up  this  thought  and  runs  it  as  a  refrain 
through  the  whole  texture  of  the  song,  as  though  to  connect  every 
act  of  God's  providence  in  nature  and  in  the  history  of  His  people, 
with  His  abounding  mercy  as  its  source.  And  is  it  not  so  ?  .  .  . 
What  have  we  that  is  not  of  mercy  ?  Mercy  has  been  defined 
"  favour  to  the  undeserving."  According  to  this  definition,  all  the 
joy  and  comfort,  all  the  common  good,  and  all  the  daily  supplies 
of  life,  as  well  as  the  gifts  of  grace,  are  mercies ;  for  we  do  not 
deserve  any  of  them  ! 

Dr.  William  Adams  quotes  Carlyle  as  saying  that  a  man  should 
put  himself  at  zero,  and  then  reckon  every  degree  ascending  from 
that  point  as  an  occasion  of  thanks.  "  Precisely  on  this  scale,"  adds 
Dr.  Adams,  "do  the  Scriptures  compute  our  mercies.  Demerit  places 
us  at  the  very  nadir.  Every  step  we  take  from  the  point  where 
conscious  unworthiness  would  consign  us,  should  call  for  an  offering 
of  gratitude,  whatever  envied  heights  may  tower,  unreached,  above 
us."  If  "it  is  of  the  Lord's  mercies  that  we  are  not  consumed,"  as 
Jeremiah  says,  then  every  ray  of  beauty,  and  crumb  of  good,  and 
note  of  joy  that  God  has  added  to  our  existence  here,  and  every  hope 
that  He  has  kindled  and  assured  for  the  future,  are  so  many  additional 
mercies.  And  who  can  count  the  number  of  them  ?  Never  through 
the  long  years  have  they  failed  us.  "  His  mercy  endureth  for 
ever." 

3.  The  psalmist  fills  the  song  with  particular  illustrations  of  the 
goodness,  and  proofs  of  the  mercy  of  God.  They  may,  in  his 
thought,  have  been  taken  from  the  history  of  Israel,  and  have  been 
temporal  and  external,  rather  than  spiritual.  "  But  these  things  are 
an  allegory  " — they  have  a  spiritual  side,  and  they  fit  the  experience 
of  God's  redeemed  ones  now, 

(i)  There  is  the  case  of  the  wanderers  led  through  the  wilderness, 
and  delivered  from  their  deep  distresses,  verses  3-7,  Is  any  way 
more  dreary  and  distressing  than  the  sinner's  way  ?  or  any  deliver- 
ance in  answer  to  the  cry  of  distress,  a  greater  mercy  ?  We  can 
thank  God  for  that  mercy. 


Mr.  Horton  on  Ritualism,  493 

(2)  Then  we  have  the  captive,  sitting  in  darkness  and  the  shadov/ 
of  death,  bound  in  afQiction  and  iron,  verses  10-14.  Does  not.  the 
bird  sing  when  the  bars  of  its  cage  are  broken,  and  it  soars  away 
free  to  its  forest  home  ?  Out  of  how  many  "  tight  places,"  prisons, 
houses  of  despair,  places  of  spiritual  bondage,  as  well  as  places  of 
temporal  difficulty,  has  God  released  during  the  past  year  ?  Shall 
we  have  no  song  of  praise  ? 

(3)  Then  comes  the  case  of  the  sick  man,  drawing  near  to  the 
gates  of  death — looking  into  the  blackness  of  the  tomb,  verses  17-20. 
But  again  the  cry  of  distress  is  heard,  and  God  spares  the  rod  His 
children  deserve — spares,  and  heals  them.  How  many  of  us  find  a 
transcript  of  our  past  year's  experience  in  this  part  of  the  song  ? 
And  even  though  we  have  not  suffered,  all  the  more  the  reason  for 
gratitude,  for  we  have  had  just  that  much  more  that  we  did  not 
deserve ! 

(4)  The  next  illustration  is  drawn  from  the  great  sea,  and  God's 
providence  over  "  them  that  do  business  in  great  waters,"  verses 
23-30.  The  spiritual  correspondence  here,  too,  is  evident.  So  for 
the  final  illustration,  in  the  common,  general  providence  of  God  over 
all  the  events  of  our  lives,  verses  32-43.  "  Oh,  that  men,"  that  we, 
"  would  praise  the  Lord  for  His  goodness  and  for  His  wonderful 
works  to  the  children  of  men  !  " 


MR.  HORTON  ON  RITUALISM. 

On  Sunday  morning  the  Rev.  R.  F.  Horton  took  for  his  text,  Gal. 
V.  I  :  "  Stand  fast,  therefore,  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath 
made  us  free."  He  said  that  the  liberty  of  which  the  apostle  speaks 
is  not  freedom  to  sin,  but  freedom  from  contracted  and  imperfect 
forms  of  religion.  Christ  has  purchased  this  freedom  for  us  with  a 
great  price;  if  we  reject  it  we  reject  Him.  If  we  elect  to  be  Chris- 
tians in  bondage,  we  cease  to  be  Christians  at  all.  All  religions  are 
at  first  closely  implicated  with  the  rudiments  or  alphabet  of  external 
forms.  They  have  their  holy  places,  their  sacred  buildings,  their 
priesthood,  altars,  and  sacrifices.  But  as  the  alphabet  is  useless  unless 
it  leads  you  on  to  ideas,  truths,  and  facts,  so  the  rudiments  of 
religion  are  useless  unless  they  lead  on  to  the  things  for  which 
alone  they  exist.  It  was  necessary  that  the  race  should  1  go 
to  school  and  begin  at  the  first  class ;  but  it  was  necessary  also  that 
they  should  pass  out  of  it.  The  education  of  the  race  reached  a 
turning-point  when  Christ  came  to  the  world.  He  came  to  disentangle 
us  from  the  weak  and  beggarly  elements,  and  to  make  it  possible  for 
us  by  simple  faith  in  Him  to  become  the  sons  of  God.     After  the 


494  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

ascension  of  Christ  the  world  gradually  drifted  back  to  the  old 
pagan  rudiments.  Slowly  the  votaries  of  the  Christian  Church 
were  led  back  into  the  very  heart  of  heathenism.  St,  Paul's 
complaint  against  the  Galatians  was  that  they  had  fallen  into  this 
error  as  Christians.  They  had  renounced  their  freedom  to  go  back 
into  bondage.  The  very  point  against  which  the  epistle  speaks,  the 
keeping  sacred  of  times  and  seasons,  has  been  adopted  by 
the  Christian  Church  all  over  the  world.  The  year  has  been 
divided  into  periods ;  fasts  and  feasts  have  been  ordained ; 
Lent  must  be  kept  strictly,  and  afterwards  there  is  a  return 
to  the  ordinary  course  of  life,  St.  Paul  speaks  sternly,  be- 
cause when  you  introduce  distinctions  of  times  and  seasons, 
you  strike  at  the  root  of  spiritual  life,  which  should  be  a  calm,  sweet, 
equable  walk  with  God ;  the  life  of  a  child  in  its  Father's  house.  In 
England  to-day  we  are  in  danger  of  going  back  to  outward  ceremonies. 
We  have  seen  our  Metropolitan  Cathedral  re-decorated,  just  as  if  a 
building  could  ever  be  consecrated,  and  as  if  every  idolatrous  thought 
were  not  a  desecration  of  the  House  of  God.  Ritualism  has  ever 
tended  to  prevent  the  formation  of  Christ  in  the  heart.  Therefore  let 
us  have  no  tampering  with  it,  but  remembering  that  God  desires  the 
service  of  children — not  of  slaves — let  us  stand  fast  in  the  liberty 
wherein  Christ  hath  made  us  free. 


SERMONETTES  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THEilNTERNATIONAL 
LESSON,  * 

Lesson  for  December  yth.     Ltikexx\v.iy27.     Golden  Text,  Verse  26. 

A  Spring  Walk. 

Has  any  one  who  loves  Jesus  ever  read  the  account  of  this  walk 
to  Emmaus  without  wishing  he  had  been  there  ?  How  delightful 
it  must  have  been  to  hear  the  Lord  explain  in  all  the  Scriptures  the 
things  concerning  Himself !  But  He  has  promised  His  Holy  Spirit 
to  enlighten  us  when  we  search  His  holy  word,  and  there  are  things 
concerning  Himself  in  all  the  Scriptures, 

During  all  that  Sunday  (which  was  the  Jewish  Monday)  the 
disciples  and  friends  of  Jesus  were  meeting  each  other  and  talking 
over  the  strange  rumours  and  stories  of  the  day  ;  for  Jesus  had  also 
appeared  to  Peter,  but  we  are  not  told  where  it  was ;  and  in  the  after- 
noon of  that  day  He  appeared  to  one  called  Cleopas  and  his  com- 
panion. They  were  walking  from  Jerusalem  to  Emmaus,  a  little 
country  village  about  eight  miles  westward  over  the  hills  towards  the 

*  These  Sermonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


Serf nonettes  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.       495 

sea.  In  this  quiet  country  walk,  with  everything  beautiful  in  the  April 
spring-time,  they  saw  none  of  the  beauties  around  them,  for  their 
hearts  were  full  of  sorrow,  thinking  that  the  death  of  Jesus  had  put 
an  end  to  all  their  hopes.  What  a  comfort  it  sometimes  is  in  times 
of  sorrow  to  open  one's  heart  to  those  whom  we  love  I  These  two 
disciples  talked  of  their  sorrow,  and  whilst  they  were  walking  and 
talking,  Jesus  Himself  joined  them.  They  did  not  know  Him,  and 
Mark  says,  "  He  appeared  in  another  form."  When  the  disciples 
had  told  Him  theirl  sorrow,  our  blessed  Lord  shows  them  that  the 
very  things  which  shook  their  faith  were  the  things  which  proved 
that  the  crucified  Jesus  was  the  Christ.  As  they  listened,  their 
hearts  glowed  with  joy  at  what  He  said.  They  walked  for  two 
hours,  and  the  afternoon  was  far  advanced  before  they  reached  the 
white  houses  and  lemon  groves  of  Emmaus.  Our  Lord  made  as 
though  He  would  go  further,  but  they  urged  Him  to  stay,  "  Abide 
with  us."  The  red  sun  sinking  over  the  hills  of  Ephraim  told  them 
it  would  soon  be  dark,  and  the  Stranger  accepted  their  invitation  and 
sat  down  to  their  evening  meal.  Taking  up  bread,  the  Stranger 
blessed  it  and  brake  it  and  held  it  out  to  them,  and  we  read  that  as 
soon  as  He  had  done  this  their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they  knew  it 
was  Jesus  Himself.  Perhaps  they  had  seen  the  print  of  the  nails  on 
His  hands  as  He  uplifted  them.  Then  He  vanished  out  of  their 
sight.     There  are  two  lessons  for  you  to  think  about. 

L  "  They  constrained  Him  "  to  abide  with  them.  The  Lord  likes 
to  be  entreated  by  His  people.  Had  they  not  invited  Him,  Jesus 
would  have  gone  past.  Whenever  we  return  to  our  homes,  let  us 
make  the  same  prayer,  "  Abide  with  us."  No  home  can  [^be  really 
sweet  in  which  Jesus  does  not  abide.  Where  He  abides,  there  are 
peace  and  love  and  joy. 

IL  Think  of  how  Jesus  was  with  these  two  men  and  taught  them. 
Remember  that  whilst  you  can  never  see  Him,  yet  He  will  give  you 
views  of  truth  and  golden  openings  of  heaven  in  a  companionship 
closer  even  than  they  had. 

For  though  His  face  we  cannot  see, 

Nor  touch  His  human  hand, 
He  dwelleth  with  the  pure  in  heart 

Of  every  cHme  and  land. 


Lesson  for  December  14th.    Luke  xxW.  28-4$-  Go/den  Text,  Verse  13. 

Jesus  made   Known. 

During  the  course  of  the  Resurrection  day,  the  Lord  Jesus 
appeared  to  several  of  His  people,  either  alone  or  when  two  or  three 
were  together.  But  He  crowned  the  joy  of  the  day  by  showing 
Himself  in  the  evening  to  a  larger  assembly. 


496  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 

I.  The  company  in  the  upper  room.  After  Cleopas  and  his  com- 
panion had  experienced  that  bright  apocalypse,  "  The  revelation  of 
Jesus  who  was  dead,  and  is  alive  for  evermore,"  they  returned  to 
Jerusalem,  and  went  direct  to  the  well-known  trysting  place.  There 
they  found  the  ten  apostles  (Thomas  was  absent)  and  others  gathered 
for  their  evening  meal.  Through  all  this  exciting  day  some  of  these 
simple  people  believed,  and  some  could  not  believe,  though  they 
tried.  Simon  Peter  had  come  in,  "  fire  and  water  in  his  eyes,"  saying 
"he  had  seen  the  Lord."  And  now  these  last  comers  " told  what 
things  were  done  in  the  way,  and  how  He  was  known  to  them  in  the 
breaking  of  bread."  This  was  the  company,  full  of  mingled  hope 
and  fear,  faith  and  unbelief,  when  Jesus  appeared. 

II.  The  fast  closed  doors.  The  same  fear  that  shut  the  door  would 
securely  lock  it.  The  Shepherd  had  been  slain,  and  the  trembling 
sheep  were  fearful  and  timid.  They  had  heard  their  Shepherd  say, 
"  This  is  your  hour  and  the  power  of  darkness." 

III.  The  greeting  of  the  Master.  As  they  discussed  the  one  subject, 
Jesus  Himself  stood  before  them.  Though  giving  to  them  the  old- 
time  greeting,  "  Peace  be  to  you,"  it  did  not  calm  them  ;  the  chill  of 
a  great  fear  fell  upon  them  as  they  gazed,  and  they  trembled.  "  Why 
are  ye  troubled,  and  wherefore  do  reasonings  arise  in  your  hearts  ?  " 
asked  Jesus.  He  then  stretched  out  His  hands,  drew  back  His  robe 
from  His  feet,  and  uncovered  His  side  that  they  might  see  the  wound- 
prints.  It  was  enough,  and  their  hearts  passed  from  an  extreme  of 
fear  to  an  extreme  of  joy.  Then  Jesus  asked  them  for  food,  and 
when  they  gave  Him  some  of  the  remnants  of  their  own  meal.  He 
ate  before  them.  He  did  not  need  earthly  food  in  His  resurrection 
life,  but  by  this  simple  act  He  put  another  seal  upon  His  true 
humanity.  He  was  still  the  "  Son  of  Man,"  interested  in  all  things 
belonging  to  us. 

Why  did  Jesus  come  back  to  this  world  again  before  He  entered 
His  glory?  One  reason  was  to  show  that  He  loved  us  still,  and  that 
He  was  not  in  such  a  hurry  to  leave  this  bad  world.  Another  reason 
was  to  show  for  certain  that  He  had  risen  from  the  grave.  He  had 
caid  He  would  rise,  and  He  showed  Himself  to  witnesses  that 
they  might  witness  to  everybody  that  He  was  risen.  If  Jesus  did 
not  rise,  then  we  shall  not  rise  from  the  grave.  That  would  be  a  sad 
thing.  A  third  reason  was  because  He  wished  to  show  that  He  was 
the  very  same  Jesus.  He  showed  that  He  had  got  the  same  body — 
He  showed  the  five  wounds,  and  He  twice  ate  before  them.  He 
showed  that  He  had  the  same  heart.  He  loved  them  and  He  com- 
forted them,  and  taught  them,  and  said  He  was  their  Brother  just  as 
before.  These  are  some  of  the  reasons  of  His  showing  Himself 
during  the  Forty  Days. 


The  British  IVeekly  Pulpit 

No.  136,  Vol.  III.  DECEMBER  11,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE    TRUE    CONCEPTION    OF    GOD. 

A  Sermon  by 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Harwood,  of  Sunderland, 

Preached  in  Streathain  Town  Hall  {Streathatn  Congregational  Church) 

on  Sunday  Evening,  October  icjth,  1890. 
"One  generation  shall  praise  Thy  works  to  another." — Psalm  cxlv.  4. 
I  SPOKE  this  morning  of  the  unalterable  association  between  the 
service  of  God  and  the  service  of  humanity,  and  the  place  that  that 
association  ought  to  take  in  our  endeavour  to  restore  the  power  of 
religion  in  the  midst  of  men.  I  wish  to  speak  to-night  of  a  kindred 
subject,  the  conception  of  God  that  we  present  to  men,  a  conception 
that  shall  be  worth  handing  down  from  one  generation  to  another. 

There  is  one  period  in  our  English  history  that  will  provide  us  with 
a  partial  illustration  of  the  idea  that  seems  to  be  present  in  the 
Psalmist's  mind.  The  part  the  bards  and  ballad-singers  played  in 
the  military  and  heroic  records  of  the  past,  I  think,  roughly  indicates 
the  desire  that  is  present  in  the  mind  of  this  Psalmist.  Those  deeds 
which  made  a  great  part  of  the  history  of  men  in  those  days  were 
sung  and  told  by  the  privileged  bards  and  musicians  who  wandered 
about  the  country.  The  national  spirit  was  largely  fostered  so,  and 
many  a  winter's  night,  when  hours  were  long  because  work  was  little, 
none  would  be  so  welcome  as  the  bard  of  the  district.  Many  a  youth 
first  learned  at  his  father's  hearth  the  stirrings  of  ambition,  the  move- 
ments of  chivalry,  as  some  ballad-singer  told  the  story  of  some  past 
conquest,  or  the  deeds  of  some  hero  whom  he  himself  had  known, 
and  whom  he  reverenced.  And  so  the  record  of  all  noble  deeds  went 
down  the  generations,  one  generation  speaking  to  another  of  that 
which  had  been  done.  And  even  to-day,  in  this  age  of  printed  books, 
something  of  the  same  service  is  being  rendered.  What  are  our 
biographies ;  what  are  many  of  our  histories  ;  what  are  many  of  the 
most  stirring  utterances  of  our  poets  and  singers  but  the  utterances 
from  one  generation  to  another  of  that  which  has  been  strong  and  ' 
heroic  in  human  life  ?  Whatever  may  have  been  the  place  of  the 
hero — the  battlefield,  the  library,  the  school,  the  church — whatever 
has  been  worth  telling  has  been  told,  and  the  generation  following  has 
heard  it. 


498  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit, 

I  imagine  that  the  Psalmist  desires  in  some  fashion  that  some  such 
recognition  may  be  made  of  the  doings  of  God,  and  that  the  con- 
ception which  men  may  have  of  God  may  be  worth  thus  handing 
down.  His  ambition  is  that  the  idea  of  God  may  be  so  beautiful,  so 
full  of  power  and  of  truth  to  men  that  it  shall  become  the  favourite 
theme  of  the  praise-makers  of  each  generation.  Minstrel  never  sang 
of  deed  of  prowess,  poet  never  sang  of  deed  of  deliverance  with 
greater  enthusiasm  than  men  of  the  spirit  of  the  Psalmist  would  show 
as  they  speak  of  the  records  of  what  God  is  and  of  what  God  does. 
A  conception  of  God  worth  handing  down — that,  I  think,  is  the  theme 
of  this  part  of  the  psalm. 

Need  I  say  that  this  ideal,  that  I  suppose  is  in  the  minds  of  most  of 
us,  stands  out  from  a  background  of  fact  that  is  very  dark  and  very 
different  ?  Shall  we  not  all  admit  that  the  conception  of  God  that 
exists  in  the  ordinary  mind  of  the  ordinary  worshipper  is  so  meagre, 
so  dull,  that  it  rouses  no  enthusiasm.  There  is  nothing  in  it  to  hand 
down  to  men.  Should  we  be  far  wrong  if  we  said  that  the  average 
conception  of  God  is  upon  that  level  ?  There  are  other  things  in  the 
lives  of  men  in  our  churches  that  are  worth  handing  down  ;  their 
business  success,  their  social  charms,  their  political  influence  and 
power ;  but  their  conception  of  God,  as  evidenced  in  its  effect  upon 
their  own  character,  is  not  worth  speaking  of  to  those  who  come  after 
them.  Now,  I  think  that  if  we  consider  the  average  conception  of 
God  held  by  those  groups  of  men  in  any  part  of  our  religious  history 
whose  conception  has  been  worth  remembering,  the  value  is  not  so 
much  in  the  idea  of  God  as  in  the  intensity  with  which  they  hold  the 
idea.  That  is  true  within  certain  limits.  Men  have  had  very  different 
conceptions  of  what  God  is,  and  yet  they  have  been  alike  in  this, 
that  those  conceptions  have  been  found  worthy  of  a  place  in  religious 
history.  For  instance,  there  have  been  men  who  have  with  intense 
power  believed  and  uttered  simply  the  spiritual  side  of  religious 
truth,  men  who  have  put  social  and  political  and  intellectual  considera- 
tions out  of  the  question,  and  with  an  earnestness  at  white  heat  have 
demanded  the  application  of  certain  religious  truths  simply  to  the 
spiritual  side  of  man's  nature.  Narrow  as  their  conception  was,  and 
wrong  as  some  of  us  believe  it  to  have  been,  the  intensity  of  their 
belief  made  a  theme  that  was  worth  handing  down  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another. 

Over  against  them  there  are  those  whose  belief  has  been  more 
ethical,  personal.  Some  of  the  best  of  them,  perhaps,  have  been 
found  in  this  nineteenth  century,  men  who  would  have  no  religion 
that  could  not  go  about  in  common  garb,  men  who  would  believe  in 
no  faith  that  was  not  as  much  at  home  in  the  market,  in  the  senate, 
in  the  home  as  in  the  actual  Church  itself  Their  larger  idea  of  God 
has  made  an  anthem  of  praise,  their  conception  is  worthy  to  be  told 
as  one  generation  passes  after  another. 

And  so  there  are  many  possible  distinctions  in  this  conception  of 
God.     The  point  is  not  simply  the  difference  of  idea  :  the  intensity, 


The  True  Conception  of  God.  499 

the  reality  of  the  behef  that  men  hold,  that  has   made   the  name  of 
God  to  be  a  song  in  the  midst  of  the  generations. 

I  understand  the  author  of  this  psalm — for,  as  we  have 
seen  to-day,  that  which  is  true  once  is  always  true  —  the 
author  of  this  psalm  takes  his  stand  in  the  midst  of  all 
religious  men  of  all  times,  and  out  of  a  large  spiritual  faith  and  deep 
human  sympathy  that  rings  through  the  psalm  he  looks  upou 
his  own  vision  of  God — a  vision  as  free  from  sectarian  prejudice  as  it 
is  full  of  a  devout  faith — and  he  cries  with  something  of  the  pro- 
foundest  enthusiasm:  "  Could  men  but  see  God  as  I  see  Him,  could  the 
vision  of  His  works  but  burn  in  their  imaginations  as  it  does  now  in 
mine,  the  generations  would  take  up  the  song,  the  conception  of  God 
would  be  the  dearest  heirloom  that  men  could  receive  from  those  who 
had  gone  before."  He  calls,  in  effect,  upon  all  who  make  the  Church 
of  God  to  cultivate  those  conceptions  that  should  be  worth  telling  to 
others. 

We  must  ask,  then :  "What  is  the  Psalmist's  own  conception  ?  Is  it 
worth  telling  ?  "  I  think,  if  you  will  study  this  beautiful  poem  that  we 
have  read,  you  will  feel  that  the  author  of  it  has  the  exact  qualities  of 
the  religious  poet.  He  observes,  he  apprehends,  he  looks  all  round 
the  picture.  The  psalm  is  a  beautiful  mosaic  of  human  life,  a 
harmonious  song  that  is  made  up  of  the  minuter  details  ;  all  in  his 
mind  conspiring  to  speak  of  the  presence  of  God  there.  He  sees  God 
in  the  provident  hand  in  nature  ;  he  sees  Him  in  His  compassionate 
forgiveness ;  he  sees  Him  in  the  majestic  overruling  of  human  history. 
The  whole  spirit  of  the  psalm  is  a  healthy  conception  of  God,  of  God 
not  in  part  of  life,  but  in  all  life.  Who  cannot  be  separated  from 
any  part. 

Now,  I  think  it  is  needful  to  the  understanding  of  the  psalm  and 
its  lesson  that  we  should  realise  that  the  religion  of  separation  has 
no  place  whatever  in  the  spirit  of  it  ?  The  conception  of  God  here 
is  not  of  a  being  whom  men  can  obey  while  they  separate  themselves 
from  all  human  interest.  It  is  a  conception  of  a  God  who  brings  men 
back  again  into  human  interests,  and  uplifts  and  dignifies  all  that  they 
have  to  do  day  by  day. 

Unhappily,  as  I  ventured  to  say  this  morning,  this  spirit  of  separa- 
tion has  largely  entered  into  our  life  and  has  hindered  wonderfully 
■  the  progress  of  our  faith.  I  repeat  that  monasteries  are  not  the 
only  places  in  which  men  may  shut  themselves  out,  religiously,  from 
the  common  interests  of  mankind,  and,  ostrich-like,  escape  the  duties 
I  and  dangers  of  life  by  hiding  their  eyes  from  them.  When  we  look 
at  the  monastery,  perhaps  we  are  carried  away  by  its  romance.  You 
saw  it  on  your  holidays  nestling  in  some  hillside,  having  no  harsher 
sounds  about  it  than  the  water  and  the  song  of  birds,  and  you  were 
fascinated  by  the  picture.  Surely,  you  said,  here  a  man  may  concen- 
trate his  thought  upon  God  and  become  a  religious  character.  I  say 
again,  as  I  said  this  morning,  the  thing  is  an  impossibility.  A  man 
contenting  himself  simply  in  his  own  life  cannot  serve  the  Christian 


500  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

God,  cannot  realise  what  the  Christian  faith  is.  It  is  worse  when  a 
man,  touching  men  at  every  point,  meeting  them  day  by  day,  at  home, 
in  society,  in  the  market,  even  then  shuts  himself  up  in  some  isolated 
thought  of  God  and  makes  no  attempt  to  make  men  feel  the  reality 
of  that  in  which  he  believes.  The  man  or  the  woman  who  in  the 
name  of  the  Son  of  Man,  in  the  name  of  Christianity,  of  religion, 
of  humanity,  can  shut  himself  in  a  mere  ascetic  refusal  of  all  human 
pleasures,  who  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  worldly  affairs  except, 
perhaps,  to  make  money,  in  which  he  may  be  an  adept,  who  will  turn 
from  all  enjoyments  that  his  own  jaundiced  judgment  cannot  approve 
— such  a  man,  I  say,  presents  a  travesty  upon  the  faith  in  which 
we  profess  to  believe.  He  may  boast  of  his  Protestantism ; 
whether  his  place  be  in  the  cloister  or  in  the  conference,  whether 
it  be  in  the  monastery  or  in  the  prayer  meeting,  the  attitude 
of  such  a  man  is  false  and  is  cowardly.  He  who  runs  away  from  his 
human  responsibilities  and  duties  and  sets  up  for  being  a  greater 
saint  than  other  men  is  contradicting  in  every  line  that  which  Christ 
has  commanded  him. 

I  wish  to  say  emphatically,  that  in  the  spirit  of  the  psalm  we 
are  reading,  there  is  no  such  suspicious  element.  It  is  a  healthy  all- 
round  love,  and  a  sense  of  God's  presence  there,  a  psalm  of  which 
the  most  advanced  nineteenth  century  Christian  need  not  in  any 
sense  be  ashamed.  For  this  Psalmist  sees  God  where  some  of  us 
even  to  day  do  not  see  Him,  in  nature.  God  speaks  through  all 
physical  life.  "  The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  Thee  ;  Thou  givest  them 
their  meat  in  due  season."  That  utterance,  that  to  him  in  his  limited 
knowledge,  had  so  great  meaning — oh,  the  infinitely  greater  meaning 
to  us  !  The  little  child  in  your  house  says  :  "  God  made  the  world,"  and 
it  is  C[uite  satisfied  that  it  has  solved  all  problems.  Those  simple  four 
words  in  the  lips  of  a  scientist,  of  a  Darwin,  branch  out  into  a 
hundred  new  meanings  and  possible  developments.  The  presence  of 
God  in  nature  ought  to  be  part  of  the  music  that  the  Church  of  God 
renders,  in  this  age  of  a  larger  science  and  understanding ;  and  yet, 
how  many  of  us,  even  our  Churches,  are  frightened  at  any  mention  of 
the  thing.  Have  some  of  us  grasped  the  most  elementary  thought  in 
all  religion,  that  if  there  be  a  God  of  faith  He  must  be  the  same  as 
the  God  of  all  knowledge,  of  all  attainment  in  science,  that  the  truth 
in  all  revelation  must  be  the  truth  concerning  Him  Whom  you  see  in 
sky  and  sea,  in  all  the  wonders  of  life  about  you  ?  And  yet  men 
to-day  will  speak  with  something  like  a  sneaking  contempt  of  all  en- 
deavour to  understand  what  God  does  in  this  part  of  His  world.  I 
know  good  people  yet  who  think  the  decoration  of  a  church  to  be  one 
of  the  greatest  sins  in  the  world.  I  will  not  for  a  moment  quarrel 
with  any  man  in  his  conviction,  but  may  I  ask  this  one  question  : 
"Have  we  any  right  to  rob  the  Creator  of  this  part  of  His 
praise?  Have  we  a  right  to  make  that  dull  which  God  has  made 
eloquent  with  the  acknowledgment  of  His  power  ? "  I  fail  to 
see    why    the    exact  teaching    of    knowledge — why    the    museum, 


The  True  Conception  of  God.  50 1 

for  instance,  might  not,  within  proper  Hmits,  be  part  of  the  work  of 
the  Christian  Church.  I  trust  the  day  is  coming  when  men  will  go 
as  truly  with  reverence  in  their  endeavour  to  understand  what  nature 
is  as  they  profess  to  go  to-day  into  the  study  of  theology.  You  shut 
out  great  possible  thoughts  of  God  when  you  consign  this  part  of  the 
revelation  of  Him  to  a  lower  place,  and  will  let  it  have  no  part  in 
your  worship. 

I  say  this  strongly,  dear  friends,  for  this  reason,  that  many  of  the 
young  men  in  our  Churches  are  being  taught,  directly  and  indirectly, 
that  this  branch  of  the  growth  of  life,  if  it  is  not  anti-religious  is,  at 
least  separate,  for  religion  is  no  part  of  their  growth  unto  the  know- 
ledge of  God.  We  must  alter  that,  and  speedily.  Teach  men  that 
God  is  the  first  word  and  the  last  word  in  everything  that  is  beautiful 
and  orderly.  The  sublimest  picture  that  you  ever  saw  upon  canvas 
was  in  God's  mind  before  it  was  in  the  artist's.  The  most  beautiful 
music  that  ever  thrilled  you  through  and  through,  was  a  thought  in 
God  before  it  entered  into  the  mind  of  him  who,  you  say,  created  it. 
Everything  that  is  best  in  our  life  is  of  Him.  Nature  is  a  shrine  of 
His  worship,  a  side  chapel  in  the  great  cathedral  of  service  that  we 
may  render  Him.  Can  there  be  a  conception  of  God  that  is  worth 
handing  down  that  does  not  include  this?  The  old  Catholic  idea  is 
right,  though  many  of  its  developments  were  wrong.  The  Church — 
it  was  a  narrow  conception — was  the  patron  and  centre  of  all  know- 
ledge and  of  all  art.  The  musician,  the  poet,  the  student,  found 
their  honie  in  the  abbey,  in  the  ecclesiastical  establishment.  Our 
business  is  to  begin  at  the  other  end,  not  necessarily  to  bring  all 
these  things  into  the  Church,  but  to  bring  a  reverent  belief  into  all 
these  things.  The  State  and  private  enterprise  are  doing  much.  We 
have  still  a  duty  to  teach  the  young  people  of  our  Churches  that  God, 
the  Infinite  Creator,  is  as  truly  in  these  growing  wonders  that  open 
upon  their  vision  as  in  that  great  Name  through  which,  and  in  which, 
we  worship  Him. 

The  generation  demands  this  side  of  our  utterance  of  what  God  is. 
Men  are  being  taught — and  I  speak  Irom  knowledge  of  many  of 
our  nothern  towns — that  knowledge  in  its  very  nature  is  anti-religious. 
We  need  to  teach  men  that  nothing  is  so  religious  as  the  reverent 
humble  growth  into  a  better  understanding  of  what  God  is,  and  of 
what  God  is  doing.  And  the  Psalmist  comes  near  to  something  we 
saw  in  the  New  Testament  this  morning— God  not  in  nature  alone, 
but  in  humanity  :  "  Thou  hearest  the  cry,  Thou  satisfieth  the  desire 
of  those  who  fear  Thee." 

Are  there  not  conceptions  of  this  word  Saviour,  Salvation,  that  are 
not  worth  handing  down?  Are  they  not  so  selfish,  so  limited  in 
their  area  that  they  arouse  no  enthusiasm  in  men,  tliat  they  have 
nothing  to  say  even  to  the  dullest  nature  ?  Start  witli  the  conception 
of  a  God  who  seeks  to  work  out  in  humanity  His  own  purpose,  and 
the  word  "  Saved  "  is  the  highest  word  that  a  man  can  speak.  Think  of 
what  we  mean  by  redeemed  man.     Let  him   stand   before  you.     He 


502  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt 

was  a  man  careless  of  physical  law,  he  neglected  and  violated  the 
very  first  principles  of  his  relationship  to  God's  commandments. 
Weakness  and  disease  threatened  Him.  But  he  has  come  to  obedi- 
ence, and  though  he  be  a  weaker  man  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  because 
of  his  past  transgressions,  you  may  see  even  in  that  physical  life  the 
signs  of  a  great  restoration  that  is  going  on.  He  was  an  ignorant 
man,  he  had  no  desire  to  understand  life ;  he  has  come  to  learn  that 
knowledge  is  God-like.  I  have  seen  an  old  pitman,  sixty  years  old, 
trying  to  learn,  like  a  little  baby,  the  alphabet,  that  he  might  learn 
in  this  Book  something  of  what  God  had  to  say  to  him.  It  is  a 
parable  of  what  men  do  all  round.  The  quickened  heart,  the 
deepened  desire  after  goodness  means,  wherever  it  is  true,  the 
quickened  intellect.  A  man  desires  to  know  more  that  he 
may  love  God  more,  and  wherever  you  find  the  true,  honest 
life  you  will  find  it  growing  in  that  direction  also.  Here  was  a  man 
poisoned  with  the  love  of  evil;  his  judgments  were  perverted,  his 
passions  given  to  that  which  was  contrary  to  all  right  and  goodness. 
There  has  grown  in  his  life  a  desire  to  know  God  and  to  serve  Him 
in  all  things ;  the  quest  of  truth  and  of  righteousness  for  God's  sake. 
I  ask  you  whether  one  such  man  would  not  be  an  infinite  gain  from 
every  possible  standpoint  ?  Bring  into  his  life  those  conceptions  of 
what  God  wants  of  him,  body,  mind,  spirit.  Is  not  the  saved  man 
the  redeemed  man,  the  herald  of  all  that  is  best  for  human  life  ? 
Ought  it  not  to  be  he,  and  no  other,  who  puts  himself  at  the  head 
of  men  and  says  to  them  :  "  Follow  me  "  ?  In  the  way  to  all  that  is  best 
for  your  life,  all  round  that  life  and  not  in  any  part  of  it,  we  claim 
that  what  happens  thus  in  the  smaller  circle  ought  to  happen  in  the 
larger  circle ;  that  what  God  means  in  this  age  is  order  for  disorder, 
beauty  for  violence,  goodness  for  evil.  I  went  a  year  or  two  ago  to 
try  and  find  one  of  the  rookeries  behind  Drury  Lane  that  I  had 
explored  with  a  friend  years  before.  I  could  not  find  it.  The  whole 
place  was  changed.  For  great,  horrible,  broken-down  houses,  great 
open  spaces  ;  for  filthy  dwellings,  terraces  of  clean-looking  mansions. 
The  touch  of  the  philanthropist  had  been  there,  the  old  order  had 
given  place  to  the  new.  It  is  a  parable.  Bring  into  your  conception 
of  life  your  conception  of  God.  Start  with  a  belief  of  a  God  Who  is 
in  humanity  and  seeks  to  work  in  humanity ;  come  to  the  aspirations 
and  desires  of  men  with  this  vision,  and  you  are  bound  to  be  a  helper 
of  men. 

Are  we  not  reproached  every  day  ?  Is  the  life  that  you  live 
often  in  the  sermon  on  Sunday  the  life  that  you  live  when  you 
read  the  newspaper  after  Sunday  night  ?  Are  not  the  two  often  one 
to  another  as  separate  planets  :  the  one  concerned  with  theories  and 
speculations  that  are  high  above  our  life  and  above  the  cares  of  our 
life,  problems  that  nobody  wants  to  solve  ;  the  other  full  of  the  stormy 
out-cries  of  to-day,  the  demands  of  men — demands  that  they  cannot 
interpret  for  themselves — for  something  juster  and  better  than  they 
have  known  ?     Dear  friends,  our  work  and  our  bitter  conflict  to-day 


The  True  Conception  of  God.  503 

is  to  break  down  that  separation,  to  teach  men  that  God  is  in  that 
outer  circle  of  the  newspaper  as  truly  as  in  this  inner  circle  of  the 
actual  worship  of  the  Sabbath  Day.  And  when  the  triumph  comes,  as 
it  shall  come,  happy  shall  be  he,  who  out  of  his  self-sacrifice  and  self- 
denial  has  had  some  share  in  bringing  about  this  better  day  that  is 
coming — and  that,  God  knows,  is  such  a  very,  very  long  time  coming — 
so  far  beyond  his  thought  and  desire. 

These  are  not  days  of  despair,  I  think  the  days  were  never  so  hope- 
ful if  only  we  are  strong  enough.  Men  are  craving  for  something, 
they  hardly  know  what.  We  have  a  message  for  them  if  we  will 
deliver  it.  The  great,  passionate,  just  Christ  is,  I  believe,  (hat  which 
men  want  if  they  can  only  see.  Let  the  Churches  stand  aside  if  need 
be  ;  let  all  the  creeds  fade  if  need  be,  if  only  thus  we  can  get  the 
vision  of  the  Cross  back  again,  and  when  we  have  got  it  back  men 
will  begin  to  feel  what  they  felt  when  He  Himself  spoke  and  minis- 
tered to  them.  God  is  not  the  vague  dream  of  selfish  worshippers ; 
God  is  the  real  King  of  those  men  who  profess  to  believe  in  Him. 

To  bring  God  into  man's  present  conception  of  life  is  our  duty.  I 
have  ventured  many  times,  and  will  many  times  again,  to  use  two 
illustrations,  because  they  have  come  within  my  own  knowledge, 
perhaps  in  the  knowledge  of  many  here.  A  poor  half-starved  woman, 
oppressed,  cries  to  God  in  her  garret  for  help  and  comfort, 
and  she  gets  the  comfort  and  nothing  else.  She  has  to  go 
back  again  next  week,  and  next  month,  and  next  year  to 
her  unjust  wages  and  the  wrong  that  she  receives  from  men. 
Why,  why  is  it  that  with  the  Church  of  God  in  England  that  woman 
gets  nothing  but  comfort  and  not  the  righteousness  she  ought  to  have  ? 
A  mangoes  forth,  and  that  night  a  woman  begins  a  life  of  shame,  and 
you  say  :  "  When  the  judgment  day  comes  it  will  all  be  put  right ! " 
Why  wait  till  the  judgment  day  ?  If  God  were  in  our  hearts  and  con- 
sciences as  a  living  reality,  we  should  make  the  judgment  day  now, 
and  that  the  smart  of  that  sin  should  go  where  it  should  go  ;  and  that 
the  oppressor  as  truly  as  the  oppressed,  the  sinner  as  truly  as  the 
one  sinned  against,  should  feel  that  the  God  of  the  Churches  is  not 
afar  off,  but  very  near  at  hand,  the  helper  of  those  who  need  Him. 
Dear  friends,  it  can  only  be  through  great  sacrifice  that  this  can  be 
done,  and  that  is  why,  and  why  alone,  one  trembles.  Shall  we  be 
equal  to  it  ?  If  the  spirit  of  the  early  Church  could  get  into  our  Chris- 
tian homes  to-day,  if  the  broader  conceptions  of  God  that  we  hold 
could  be  as  real  to  us  as  their  narrower  conceptions  were,  we  should 
change  the  face  of  this  land  in  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Shall  we  be 
equal  to  it  ? 

I  claim  some  young  life  here  to-night  for  God  and  for  Christ  and 
for  men.  For  manhood  or  womanhood  will  never  find  its  true  ex- 
pression until,  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  unselfishness,  you  can  arise 
to  this  work  of  teaching  men  that  God  is,  and  that  God  is  love.  And 
if  out  of  your  sympathy  you  can  bring  some  dark  sinful  life  to 
believe  in  the  goodness  of  God  and  to  desire  it,  you  will  have  done 


504  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  work  that  will  be  worth  living  for,  a'work  that  will  make  the  record 
of  a  lifetime,  and  that  will  go  down  to  the  generations  that  follow 
you  an  anthem  of  thanksgiving  that  you  have  ever  lived.  Shall  we 
not  try  so  to  present  God,  so  to  believe  in  Him,  that  in  our  little 
circle,  as  truly  as  in  the  greater  one,  it  shall  be  true  that  "one 
generation  shall  praise  the  works  of  God  to  another;"  ? 


VINET    AND    LIDDON. 
By  Rev.  Principal  King,  D.D. 
Vinet    was     born   toward     the     close   of    the    last     century    in 
Lausanne,   one  of  the   most  beautiful    cities  in  Switzerland,  or   in-    •] 
deed,  in  the  world;  having  at  its  feet  the    blue  waters  of  the  lake      i 
of  Geneva,  and  in  the  distance,  but  in  full  view,  the  majestic  and 
snow-clad  peaks  of  Mont  Blanc.     He  received  his  education  in   his 
native  city,  which  then,  as  now,  was  the  seat  of  an  ancient   school   of 
learning.     He  was  destined  to  the  ministry  by  his  father,  but  having 
early  displayed  literary  and  philosophical  abilities  of  a  high  order,  he      j 
was,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  appointed    professor  of  the   French     I 
language  and  literature  in  the  University  of  Basle,  receiving  ordina- 
tion  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  about  the   same  period.     In  that 
famous  border  city,  even  at  that  early  date  the  scene  of  zealous  mis- 
sionary   enterprise,   Vinet   continued  to  teach   from    1819   to    1838. 
There  probably  he  formed  those  decided  spiritual  views  of  religion 
which  are  found  in  all  his  discourses.     In  1838  he  was  recalled  to 
his  native  city  as  professor  of  theology ;  a  position  which,  first  in  con- 
nection with  the  ecclesiastical    establishment,  and    afterwards   with 
the  newly-formed  Free  Church  of  the  Canton  de  Vaud,  he  occupied 
until"  his  death.     He  was    in  his  day  a  prolific    author,  giving    to 
the  press  as  many  as  twelve  or  fourteen  volumes  on  various  subjects 
of  a  literary,  philosophical,  or  religious  character.     It  is  his  sermons 
only  with  which  we  have    to  do    here.     These    were  given  to  the 
public  at  various  times,  and    comprise  in  all    several    volumes.      A 
large  number  of  the  most  striking  of  them  has  been  made    acces- 
sible to  the  English    reader  in  two  volumes,  entitled  respectively, 
"  Vital  Christianity  "  and  "  Gospel  Studies." 

The  sermon  must  take  its  character  to  a  large  extent  from  the 
audience  to  which  it  is  addressed.  Its  form,  its  contents  even,  must 
be  governed  in  some  degree  by  the  needs,  the  tastes,  certainly  by  the 
intellectual  and  moral  appreciations  of  those  whom  it  is  designed  to 
help.  Vinet  addressed  himself  largely  to  men  of  culture,  many  of 
whom  were  either  uneasy  in  their  hold  on  the  Christian  faith,  or 
had  actually  relinquished  it  under  the  influence  of  the  materialistic 
and  sceptical  thought  of  the  age.  It  was  his  aim  to  recover 
for  them  their  impaired  or  their  lost  religious  convictions.  This 
aim  he  seeks  to  accomplish  by  calling  attention  with  rare 
and    penetrating    insight     to    the    spiritual    in    man,    and    to    the 


Vtnet  and  Liddou.  505 


adaptation  of  the  Gospel  to  all  its  deeper  needs  and  its  loftier 
aspirations.  The  worthlessness  of  all  material  splendours ; 
the  insignificance  of  all  merely  intellectual  achievements,  the 
transcendent  glory  of  the  moral  and  the  spiritual  above  all 
triumphs  of  intellect,  as  seen  in  the  widow's  mite  cast  into  the 
treasury,  in  the  box  of  ointment  broken  by  the  hand  of  prescient 
love  on  the  Saviour's  person,  in  the  tears  of  penitence  washing  His 
feet ;  the  mystery  of  human  sorrow,  the  boundlessness  of  human 
aspiration,  the  blending  grandeur  and  beauty  of  the  Saviour's  char- 
acter, the  power  which  belongs  to  the  heart — to  love — to  apprehend 
and  to  verify  the  Gospel ;  these  supply  him  with  the  lofty  themes  on 
which  he  discourses  with  marvellous  force  and  eloquence.  Without 
being  formally  and  directly  an  argument  for  Christianity,  these  ser- 
mons are  only  the  more  really  an  apologetic  of  the  most  effective 
kind  ;  one  by  which  the  faith  of  many  a  hesitating  believer  has  been 
greatly  strengthened.  A  brief  quotation  will  be  of  more  service  than 
any  description  in  enabling  you  to  understand  and  appreciate  this 
characteristic  of  the  discourses  of  Vinet :  "  Humanity  hath  separated 
itself  from  God.  The  storms  of  passion  have  broken  the  mysterious 
cable  which  retained  the  vessel  in  port.  Shaken  to  its  base,  and 
feeling  itself  driven  upon  unknown  seas,  it  seeks  to  rebind  itself  to 
the  shore ;  it  endeavours  to  renew  its  broken  stands ;  it  makes  a 
desperate  effort  to  re-establish  those  connections  without  which  it 
cannot  have  either  peace  or  security.  In  the  midst  of  its  greatest 
wanderings  humanity  never  loses  the  idea  of  its  origin  and  destiny ; 
a  dim  recollection  of  its  ancient  harmony  pursues  and  agitates  it ;  and 
without  renouncing  its  passions,  without  ceasing  to  love  sin,  it  longs 
to  re-attach  its  being  full  of  darkness  and  misery  to  something 
luminous  and  peaceful,  and  its  fleeting  Hfe  to  something  immovable  and 
eternal.  In  a  word,  God  has  never  ceased  to  be  the  want  of  the  human 
race.  Alas !  their  homage  wanders  from  its  proper  object,  their 
worship  becomes  depraved,  their  piety  itself  is  impious ;  the  religions 
which  cover  the  earth  are  an  insult  to  the  unknown  God,  who  is  their 
object.  But  in  the  midst  of  these  monstrous  aberrations  a  sublime 
instinct  is  revealed  ;  and  each  of  these  false  religions  is  a  painful  cry 
of  the  soul,  torn  from  its  centre  and  separated  from  its  object.  It  is 
a  despoiled  existence  which,  in  seeking  to  clothe  itself,  seizes  upon 
-the  first  rags  it  finds;  it  is  a  disordered  spirit,  which,  in  the  ardour 
of  its  thirst,  plunges  all  panting  into  fetid  and  troubled  waters ;  it  is 
an  exile,  who,  in  seeking  the  road  to  his  native  land  buries  himself  in 
frightful  deserts." 

But  these  discourses  are  much  more  than  a  powerful  argument  for 
the  Gospel ;  they  are  a  singularly  beautiful  exhibition  of  its  contents 
and  of  its  spirit.  They  are  the  former  mainly,  indeed,  in  virtue  ot 
being  the  latter.  They  are  not  less  adapted  to  transform  a  cold,  inert 
faith  into  a  devout  and  living  homage  than  to  conquer  doubt  or  to 
replace  unbelief  by  faith.  They  are  distinctly  evangelical,  brimful  of 
Gospel  truth,  but  it  is  Gospel  truth  in  its  great  principles  rather  than 


5o6  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

in  its  minute  details — Gospel  truth  on  its  ethical  more  than  on  its 
doctrinal  side,  in  its  spirit  more  than  its  letter.  And  they  are  instinct 
throughout  with  warm  Christian  feeling.  The  emotion,  indeed,  is 
not  loud  and  vehement,  it  is  calm  and  repressed  rather  than  stimu- 
lated ;  but  it  is  there  all  the  same ;  now  tender  and  regretful,  now 
elevated  and  joyous,  always  deep  and  healthful.  The  reader  of  these 
discourses  feels  himself  to  be  in  contact  throughout  with  a  man  of 
broad  views  and  of  warm  human  sympathies.  The  harsh  and  narrow 
dogmatism  which  so  often  repels  the  inquirer  on  the  threshold  is  con- 
spicuously absent ;  but  it  is  not  replaced  in  Vinet's  case,  as  in  that  of 
many  preachers  of  liberal  culture,  by  mere  humanitarian  ethics  or 
weak  sentiment.  The  Cross,  with  all  its  offence,  if  with  all  its 
mysterious  power  of  attraction,  is  there  and  is  central,  as  it  should 
be.  "  Stripped  of  the  great  fact  of  expiation,"  says  Vinet,  "  and  all 
that  cluster  of  ideas  connected  with  it,  what,  I  ask,  is  Christianity  ? 
For  ordinary  minds,  an  ordinary  morality ;  for  others,  an  abyss  of 
inconsistencies."-— -Again  :  "  It  is  not  so  much  the  Gospel  that  has  pre- 
served the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Cross  that 
has  preserved  the  Gospel."  "All  the  might,  all  the  reality  of 
Christianity  in  each  Christian  is  there  and  only  there.  Even  the 
lessons  and  examples  of  Jesus  Christ,  in  order  to  become  living 
and  fruitful,  require  a  ray  darted  from  the  Cross." 

But  these  discourses,  marked  by  such  uncompromising  devotion  to 
the  distinctive  truths  of  the  Gospel,  are  worthy  of  our  attention  not 
only  because  of  what  they  say,  but  even  because  of  what  they  do  not 
say.  Their  reticence  itself  is  instructive.  Rather  desiring  complete 
agreement  with  D'Aubigne,  Gaussen  and  others  of  the  Geneva  school, 
in  the  details  of  Christian  doctrine  than  actually  attaining  it,  the 
preacher  scrupulously  abstains  from  statements  which  might  present 
the  appearance  of  a  greater  degree  of  accord  with  these  distinguished 
exponents  of  evangelical  thought  than  he  had  really  reached.  Indeed 
there  is  scarcely  any  feature  in  these  sermons  more  marked,  as  there 
is  none  more  worthy  of  imitation  than  their  severe  truthfulness,  their 
prudent  reserve,  the  determination  of  the  speaker  everywhere  manifest 
to  keep  utterance  well  within  the  limits  of  conviction  and  of  feeling. 
"  We  have  forbidden  our  words,"  he  says,  "  to  transcend  the  limits  of 
our  personal  emotions ;  an  artificial  heat  would  not  be  salutary." 
"  Feeble,  I  address  myself  to  the  feeble,  I  give  to  them  the  milk  which 
has  nourished  myself.  When  some  of  us  become  stronger  than  the 
rest,  we  will  together  demand  the  bread  of  the  strong."  Hence  the 
entire  freedom  from  cant,  the  naturalness,  the  wise  and  attractive 
reasonableness  of  the  discourses  composed  in  such  a  spirit ;  contrast- 
ing, oh,  how  strongly,  with  the  wild  extravagance,  the  vulgar  ex- 
aggeration, the  frank  egotism  which  is  displayed  by  more  than  one 
prominent  pulpit  of  our  day.  Surely  popularity  is  purchased  at  too 
great  a  cost  when  it  involves  the  sacrifice  at  once  of  the  sacredness 
of  the  sanctuary  and  the  self-respect  of  the  preacher. 

There  is  still  another  characteristic  of  Vinet's  sermons  too  striking 


Vinet  and  Liddon.  507 


to  be  passed  over  even  in  this  brief  estimate  ;  they  are  marked  by  a 
certain  tinge  of  sadness — marked,  not  marred  ;  it  is  in  part  even  the 
secret  of  the  charm  which  they  have  for  the  sensitive  reader.  For 
the  tone  of  melanchol}',  if  one  must  designate  it  by  such  a  term, 
which  pervadec  them,  is  that  of  a  pure  and  gentle  spirit  saddened 
and  chastened  by  the  sight  of  human  sin  and  human  suffering.  One 
has  only  to  listen  to  its  strains  to  confess  their  spell.  "  Every  soul, 
doubtless,  carries  within  itself  a  treasure  of  sorrow.  It  is  even  a 
condition  of  our  nature  that  in  all  our  joys,  even  the  most  intense,  I 
know  not  what,  sorrow  ever  mingles,  as  in  a  song  of  gladness,  a 
hollow  murmur  or  a  stifled  groan.  It  might  be  said  that  the  very 
voice  of  joy  awakens  in  the  depths  of  the  soul  a  slumbering  grief;  " 
or  again  :  "  Life  is  passed  amid  temptations  to  joy  incessantly  re- 
pressed. Joy  has  moments,  sorrow  the  whole  of  life.  That  is  a 
moment  of  joy  when  a  cherished  hope  is  realised ;  that  is  a  life  of 
sorrow  when  we  feel  that  the  successive  realisation  of  all  our  hopes 
has  not  filled  the  infinite  abyss  of  the  soul.  That  is  a  moment  of 
joy  which  gives  us  the  smile  of  a  beautiful  day,  the  sun  so  pleasant  to 
behold,  the  free  development  of  any  of  our  powers,  the  feeling  of 
existence  in  the  plenitude  of  health;  that  is  a  life  sorrow  which 
hurries  promiscuously  to  the  abyss  before  us  our  good  and  our  evil 
hours,  our  pains  and  our  pleasures,  nay  more,  our  soul  itself;  for  the 
thoughts  and  affections  of  which  it  is  composed  precede  us  to  the 
tomb,  while  of  all  that  we  possess  and  all  we  have  been  we  can  retain 
nothing,  no,  not  even  our  most  cherished  griefs."  Or  once  more  : 
"  From  the  very  sources  of  our  happiness  spring  forth  bitter  sorrows. 
Our  most  tender  attachments  arm  death  with  some  of  his  sharpest  darts; 
for  although  St.  Paul  hath  said  with  truth  that  the  sting  of  death  is  sin, 
it  is  true  that  this  sting  multiplies  itself  and  makes  sharp  points  of 
all  the  flowers  with  which  we  deck  our  heads.  Every  crown  of 
flowers,  sooner  or  later,  becomes  a  crown  of  thorns."  And  what 
depth  of  reflective  thought,  as  well  as  tenderness  of  plaintive  sorrow 
have  we  not  in  these  words  :  "To  blunt  the  sting  of  grief,  time  is 
better  than  pride  ;  for  time  wears  out  everything.  But  it  wears  out 
the  soul  as  well  as  all  the  rest.  The  power  of  forgetting  is  only  a 
weakness.  Life  thus  becomes  less  sorrowful,  but  it  also  becomes 
less  serious,  less  noble." 

■  It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  add,  after  what  has  been  said  and  what 
has  been  quoted,  that  Vinet  has  found  warm  admirers  in  every  country 
which  his  works  have  reached  ;  not  only  in  his  native  Switzerland, 
but  in  Germany,  in  France,  in  England,  and  in  America.  His  sermons 
are  not  indeed  popular  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  They  are 
for  the  most  part  religious  essays  or  meditations.  They  are  made  to 
be  read  and  re-read.  That  is  perhaps  their  defect  as  sermons.  They 
have  to  seek  and  to  select  their  audience,  but  they  hold  it  without 
difficulty  when  once  found.  How  indeed  could  it  be  otherwise  with 
discourses  which  exhibit  so  rare  a  union  of  intellectual  and  moral 
excellence,  such  originality  of  conception,  such  depth  of  insight,  such 


508  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

elevation  of  sentiment,  such  precision  and  beaut}^  of  expression,  such 
wealth  of  imagination,  such  warmth  of  affection,  such  tenderness,  such 
humihty.  Add  to  this  a  personality  singularly  bright  and  gentle, 
enriched  with  the  best  culture  of  France  and  Germany,  and  adorned 
with  "  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,"  and  it  cannot  sur- 
prise us  that  Vinet  has  won  a  very  high  place  in  the  esteem  and 
affection  of  thoughtful  Christians  in  Europe  and  America.  Years 
before  I  made  my  first  visit  to  the  continent  of  Europe  he  had  passed 
out  of  life,  but  at  one  point  and  another — in  a  lovely  chateau,  the 
home  of  a  refined  Christian  family,  on  the  slopes  of  the  Jura,  and  in 
the  midst  of  a  quiet  Moravian  community  in  Germany— I  met  those 
who  had  known  the  man  as  well  as  waited  on  his  teaching,  and  had 
cause  to  note  the  warm  and  reverent  affection  with  which  they 
cherished  the  memory  of  his  blending  genius  and  goodness.  For 
myself  (if  I  may  be  permitted  a  personal  allusion  on  this  occasion)  I 
confess  I  owe  more  to  Vinet  for  intellectual  stimulus  and  spiritual  help 
than  to  any  uninspired  teacher. 

In  passing  from  Vinet  to  Liddon  we  encounter  many  striking  con- 
trasts ;  the  one  philosophic  and  critical,  the  other  authoritative  and 
dogmatic ;  the  one  timid  and  self-distrustful,  without  the  courage  to 
open  his  mouth  even  once  in  the  beautiful  and  spacious  cathedral  of 
his  native  city,  the  other  to  the  last  filling  with  his  ringing  voice  and 
his  stately  periods  the  far  larger  St.  Paul's  ;  the  one  carrying  concilia- 
tion to  the  verge  of  compromise,  the  other  dogmatism  to  the  verge  of 
defiance.  Each  was  in  a  manner  true  to  his  nationality  ;  in  the  one 
the  light  touch,  the  airy  brilliance  of  the  Frenchman,  in  the  other  the 
vigorous  directness,  the  robust  self-assertion  of  the  Englishman.  In 
Liddon  we  miss  the  philosophic  insight,  the  subtle  beauty,  the  sweet 
persuasiveness  of  Vinet,  but  we  find  in  him,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
massiveness  of  thought,  a  grandeur  of  statement  and  an  authoritative- 
ness  of  utterance  which  Vinet  cannot  claim.  Enquirers  after  truth 
will  hnger  over  the  pages  of  the  one — the  mass,  even  of  the  thoughtful, 
craving,  above  all  else,  certainty  in  regard  to  spiritual  things,  will 
hang  on  the  lips  of  the  other,  or,  as  death  has  now  sealed  these,  will 
turn  to  the  writings  in  which  the  author  expresses  his  unshaken  faith 
in  the  great  Christian  verities. 

In  addition  to  his  great  Bampton  lecture  on  the  "  Divinity  of 
Christ,"  Liddon  published  from  time  to  time  several  volumes  of  ser- 
mons, some  of  them  preached  in  Oxford  before  the  University,  and 
others  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  Those  in  which,  so  far  as  my  ac- 
quaintance goes,  he  is  seen  at  his  best  are  found  in  the  two  volumes 
entitled,  "  University  Sermons"  and  "  Some  Words  for  God."  But 
while  naturally  of  unequal  merit,  they  are  all  strong,  and,  bating  their 
sacerdotalism,  true  to  Scripture  teaching  and  strengthening  to  faith. 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  a  few  weeks  ago,  Liddon  stood  by  almost 
universal  consent  at  the  head  of  the  English  pulpit.  Whenever  it 
was  known  that  he  was  to  preach,  the  great  cathedral  was  filled  with 
an  audience  embracing  indeed  all  classes,  but  in  which  there  were 


Vinet  and  Liddon.  509 


sure  to  be  found  many  men  of  liberal  culture,  and  among  them  some 
of  the  leading  intellects  of  the  da}^  Young  men  of  education  waited 
with  eagerness  on  his  ministrations.  Many  Londoners  had  for  years 
never  missed  an  opportunity  of  hearing  him  ;  and  his  popularity  seems 
to  have  continued  without  diminution  to  the  last.  What  was  its 
secret  ?  No  single  explanation,  we  may  be  sure,  will  suffice.  There 
must  have  been  more  than  one  element  of  power  in  the  preacher  who 
could  attract  and  retain  through  so  many  years  an  audience  so  large 
and  of  such  a  character. 

In  accounting  for  this  success  we  are  safe  in  giving  a  foremost 
place  to  the  prominence  which  the  great  and  supernatural  facts  of 
redemption,  and  the  doctrines  which  grow  out  of  these  facts,  received 
in  his  preaching.  These  are  not  simply  pre-supposed,  argued, 
defended;  they  are  proclaimed,  and  proclaimed  with  an  authority 
which  comes  not  from  the  speaker,  but  from  God  who  has  put  His 
word  into  his  mouth,  and  with  an  enthusiasm  which  is  born  of  his  own 
assured  faith  in  their  verity.  He  is  not  a  philosopher  propounding  a 
theory,  not  a  critic  enquiring  into  the  truth  of  a  system,  not  a  m.ere 
moralist  enforcing  a  code  of  ethics ;  he  is  first,  and  before  all  else  a 
preacher,  a  man  with  a  message  which  he  has  received,  in  which  he 
believes,  which  it  is  his  to  expound  and  apply,  but  in  any  case  to 
proclaim,  and  to  proclaim  in  the  very  terms  in  which  it  has  been 
given  and  \vith  all  the  marvellous  significance  attaching  to  it.  Not 
his  to  reduce  by  a  single  hair's  breadth  the  vast  proportions  of  the 
truth,  not  his  to  tone  down  the  dimensions  of  the  supernatural, 
whether  as  displayed  in  the  Saviour's  incarnation  and  Godhaad  or 
in  the  sinner's  regeneration  to  newness  of  life  ;  his  rather  to  assert 
and  to  emphasise  it,  wherever  Holy  Scripture  teaches  him  to  find  its 
presence,  whether  in  creation  or  in  redemption ;  sometimes,  perhaps, 
as  in  its  sacramentarian  views,  to  discover  and  assert  its  presence 
where  it  is  not. 

Liddon's  preaching  is  thus  distinctively  doctrinal,  even  dogmatic. 
The  great  common-places  of  religion, — God  and  eternity,  sin  and  grace, 
redemption  and  atonement,  death  and  judgment — are  neither  ignored 
nor  thrown  into  the  background.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  con- 
stantly upon  his  lips.  They  form  the  staple  of  his  discourse.  The 
only  effect  on  the  preacher  of  the  destructive  criticism  or  of  the 
impudent  denials  of  the  time — and  it  is  unmistakable — is  to  compel 
a  deeper  and  truer  conception  of  these  essential  and  eternal  verities, 
to  stiffen  the  grasp  with  which  they  are  held,  and  to  intensify  the 
emphasis  with  which  they  are  proclaimed.  It  should  be  added,  as  all 
important  to  an  understanding  of  his  success,  that  these  verities,  so 
often  superficially  viewed,  assume  a  deeper  significance,  become 
invested  with  a  more  solemn  grandeur,  in  the  hands  of  this  great 
preacher.  Set  in  the  light  of  his  powerful  intellect  and  glowing 
imagination,  they  are  seen  to  possess  larger  proportions,  to  have 
deeper  and  wider  implications  in  the  principles  of  human  reason  and 
the  facts  of  human  experience,  than  had   been   previously  discerned ; 


510  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

while  ever  and  anon  there^  flashes  out  some  allusive  phrase,  or 
some  flaming  metaphor,  which  at  once  widens  and  illumines  the 
spiritual  horizon,  or  opens  out  in  it  new  and  boundless  vistas  for 
thought  and  fancy  to  explore.  As  the  result,  the  hearer  is  both 
confirmed  in  his  faith  in  revealed  truth  and  made  to  feel  its  possession 
to  be  a  more  than  ever  inestimable  treasure. 

I  cannot  doubt  that  these  qualities  in  the  sermons  of  Canon  Liddon 
supply  the  main  explanation  of  their  wonderful  power.  Something 
no  doubt  was  due  to  the  speaker's  fine  presence,  to  his  powerful 
and  melodious  voice,  heard  distinctly  at  the  farthest  point  in  that 
vast  building,  to  his  passion  born  of  deep  conviction,  to  his  mas- 
sive and  stately  oratory,  and  to  the  unique  and  attractive  person- 
ality,which  was  behind  the  words  and  lent  them  weight ;  but  after 
due  allowance  has  been  made  for  all  these,  it  still  remains  true 
that  what  more  than  all  else  gave  this  far-famed  preacher  the 
power  to  attract  and  to  retain  his  crowding  audiences,  was  his 
strong  grasp  of  the  fundamental  verities  of  the  Gospel,  his  deep 
and  devout  insight  into  their  meaning,  and  the  assured  and 
assuring  confidence  with  which  he  never  ceased  to  proclaim  them. 

One  point  more,  and  we  take  farewell  of  Liddon.  I  have  spoken 
of  the  vein  of  melancholy  which  is  so  frequently  met  with  in  the  ser- 
mons of  Vinet.  A  similar  tinge  of  sadness  appears,  though  perhaps 
less  obtrusively,  in  those  of  Liddon.  With  all  the  strong,  personal 
faith  which  they  express,  they  cannot  be  spoken  of  as  predominantly 
hopeful.  There  are  frequently  forthcoming  in  them,  not  only  the  sad 
vicissitudes  of  human  life,  its  inconsolable  griefs,  but  also  the  weary 
struggle  of  the  faith,  its  dark  outlook,  the  possibility  of  partial  and 
temporary  defeat  even  before  the  hour  of  final  triumph.  The  sorrow, 
the  unrest,  the  oft-baffled  endeavour  of  the  age  is  again  and  again 
sympathetically  reflected  in  the  words  and  the  tones  of  the  great 
preacher  ;  and  just  therein  lay  a  part  of  his  charm.  You  know  the 
spell  which  is  exercised  over  us  by  the  pathos  of  the  plaintive  song, 
by  the  notes  of  the  minor  tune,  even  by  the  hues  of  the  fading  year. 
You  know  that  that  joy  is  ever  the  most  attractive  in  which  is  heard 
a  faint  undertone  of  sadness,  as  that  beauty  is  the  most  fascinating 
in  which  is  seen  a  tinge  of  melancholy. 


A     PULPIT     PRAYER. 
By  the  Rev.  E.    Griffith-Jones,  B.A., 

Mount     View     Congregational    Church,    Stroud    Green,    Sunday    Evening, 
December   Jth,    1890. 

O  Thou  most  hidden  and  most  manifest,  veiled  from  eyes  of  flesh, 
but  full  of  clearness  to  them  that  are  pure  of  heart,  we  pray  Thee, 
grant  that  all  clouds  may  be  removed  from  'tween  us  and  the  light  of 
Thy  countenance,  that  though  darkness  surround  us  round  about,  may 


A  Pulpit  Prayer.  5 1 1 


the  glory  of  the  Lord  shine  in  our  hearts.  We  bless  Thee  for  that 
inner  light  which  Thou  sent  with  us  into  the  world,  the  light  by  which 
we  learn  the  way  of  life,  and  which  points  out  to  us  the  duties  and 
privileges  or  Thy  service.  And  we  would  pray  that  as  star  answereth 
unto  star,  and  across  wide  wastes  silently  and  effectually  the  bright- 
ness flies  until  it  rebound  in  glory  from  that  which  can  throw  it  back, 
so  may  the  immeasurable  distance  between  us  and  Thyself  be  bridged 
over  by  that  light  which  is  truly  the  light  of  life. 

O  Lord,  we  to-night  pray  Thee,  wilt  Thou  by  that  power  which  Thou 
hast  over  human  wills  and  hearts,  so  touch  us  and  so  overwhelm  us, 
that  we  shall  not  be  able  to  give  way  to  any  wandering  thoughts,  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  show  outward  formality  and  inward  hollow- 
ness,  but  that  we  shall  be  forced  to  worship  Thee  in  spirit  and 
in  truth. 

We  thank  Thee  for  this  institution  of  Thine  house,  for  the  com- 
munion of  saints,  and  the  work  of  the  ministry.  We  thank  Thee  for 
all  the  benefits  which  we  are  able  to  confer  upon  one  another.  We 
bless  Thee  that  as  we  give  we  receive,  as  we  throw  ourselves  away 
we  find  ourselves,  as  we  give  up  our  life  we  realise  it,  because  it  is 
Thy  service.  And  we  pray  Thee  to-night  and  all  other  times  that 
as  we  are  gathered  together  in  Thy  name,  that  Thou  mayst  be  here 
in  our  midst.  Speak  to  us,  O  Lord,  that  word  of  life  that  we  are 
waiting  to  hear.  Whisper  to  us  that  word  of  consolation  which 
many  perhaps  have  come  here  to  listen  to,  and  grant  that  there  may 
be  to  those  in  perplexity  and  fear  and  doubt  something  that  shall 
be  suggested  to  their  inward  mind,  which  shall  bring  light  in  the 
darkness,  which  shall  resolve  perplexity,  and  which  shall  brmg 
harmony  and  peace  into  the  life  that  is  unrestful  and  troubled. 

O  Lord,  we  would  again  pray  Thee  to  hallow  and  sanctify  our 
union  together,  and  to  grant  that  we  may  be  strengthened  in  the 
inner  man  so  to  fulfil  our  relationships  together  that  we  shall  never 
fail  therein,  but  be  able  to  do  the  w^ork  of  God  in  simplicity  and 
in  effectiveness. 

We  pray  Thee  to  grant  Thy  blessing  upon  this  congregation  to- 
night. Bless  those  who  are  going  down  the  hillside  into  the  valley, 
whence  there  shall  be  no  uprising  in  this  hfe.  Wilt  Thou  bless  the 
aged  and  those  who  feel  that  their  steps  are  growing  short,  that  they 
have  not  many  to  make  before  they  vanish  into  the  darkness  from  our 
eyes.  And  we  pray  Thee  that  as  Thou  canst  renew  the  youth  of  all 
those  who  trust  in  Thee,  that  Thou  mayst  make  them  feel  young  in 
heart,  full  of  faith  in  man  and  in  God,  that  while  they  have  the 
wisdom  and  experience  of  age  they  may  also  have  the  vitality  and 
hopefulness  of  youth.  God  gi-ant  that  as  the  dimness  settles  upon 
their  eyes,  and  as  weakness  lays  hold  of  their  physical  members, 
they  may  feel  inwardly  that  there  is  no  fading  of  their  faith,  that 
there  is  no  fear  before  them,  but  into  the  valley  shine  Thou,  and  may 
a  fringe  of  light  gild  even  the  darkness  of  death. 

We  pray    for  those  who  are    in    middle   life,  and   who   have  the 


512  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

peculiar  and  special  temptations  of  their  position.  We  would  pray 
Thee  that  the  multiplicity  of  their  cares  and  their  business  anxieties 
may  not  be  permitted  in  any  way  to  cloud  their  interest  in  Thy 
things,  in  the  things  of  God,  but  that  while  they  are  vigorous  and 
steadfast  and  honourable  in  all  their  relations  to  those  around  them, 
may  they  retain  their  simplicity,  may  they  retain  their  faithfulness, 
may  they  retain  their  keen  and  unfading  interest  in  all  that  pertains 
to  the  spiritual  life. 

We  would  pray  especially  to-night  that  Thou  wouldst  bless  the 
young  people  that  are  here.  O  Lord  our  Father,  we  bless  Thee  for 
that  young  man  Christ  Jesus,  who  was  so  full  of  love  to  all  the 
world  that  we  can  go  to  Him  in  all  our  troubles  and  difficulties 
and  temptations  ;  and  though  we  be  inexperienced,  and  though  we 
be  weak,  and  though  we  be  passionate,  and  though  we  be  way- 
ward, may  we  be  strengthened  inwardly  and  outwardly  to  meet 
the  necessities  of  life,  and  made  pure  and  bright  and  sanctified 
vessels  meet  for  the  Master's  use.  Wilt  Thou  bless  all  those 
young  people  here  who  may  be  in  special  danger  and  difficulty. 
The  Lord  be  with  them  and  guide  them ;  the  Lord  cause  the  light 
of  reality  to  shine  upon  life  that  they  may  not  mistake  the  glamour 
and  the  seeming  beauty  and  the  perplexing  sweetness  of  many 
things  that  appeal  to  them,  but  may  rather  look  for  those  deeper 
and  abiding  sources  of  joy  and  comfort  and  strength  which  shall 
remain  when  the  fires  of  youth  have  grown  cold  and  vitality  is 
fading  away. 

Wilt  Thou  bless  all  Thy  people  gathered  together  to-night  wherever 
they  may  be.  Wilt  Thou  endue  Thy  ministers  with  righteousness 
and  outspokenness  of  mind,  with  insight  into  those  truths  which  shall 
be  meet  for  Thy  people  to  hear,  with  clear,  unfading  attention  to  the 
way  of  life  and  to  the  truths  of  the  Kingdom  ;  and  grant  that  to-night 
Christ  may  be  preached  so  that  men  in  listening  shall  feel  that  He  is 
no  figure  of  long  ago  but  a  present  Saviour,  kind  and  gentle  and 
sympathetic  and  sufficient  for  every  man  and  every  woman. 

The  Lord  be  with  us,  we  pray  :  be  with  us  in  the  after  service,  when 
we  shall  sit  for  the  first  time  together  around  the  table  of  Thy  love. 
O  Lord,  we  would  pray  Thee  to-night  especially — as  we  have  never 
before  experienced  perhaps- — that  it  may  be  made  a  reality  to  us,  which 
shall  be  more  to  us  than  words  can  express,  and  lift  us  out  of  the 
visible  into  the  invisible,  from  the  temporal  to  the  things  which  are 
eternal  and  Divine.  Receive  us  and  bless  us,  inspire  us,  and  for- 
give our  sins  and  imperfections,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Redeemer. 
Amen. 


The  British  H^eekly  Pulpit 

No.  137,  Vol.  III.  DECEMBER  18,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  DISCONTENT  OF  THE  TIMES. 

A    THANKSGIVING    SER!\ION 

By  the  Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D., 

Preached  in  the  Church  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  November  2jth, 

1890. 

"  All  rivers  run  into  the  sea,  yet  the  sea  is  not  full.  Unto  the  place  from  whence 
the  rivers  come,  thither  they  return  again. 

'•  All  things  are  fall  of  labour  ;  man  cannot  utter  it ;  the  eye  is  not  satisfied  with 
seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled  with  hearing. 

"  Moreover  the  profit  of  the  earth  is  for  all ;  the  King  himself  is  served  by  the 
field. 

"  He  that  loveth  silver  shall  not  be  satisfied  with  silver ;  nor  he  that  loveth 
abundance  with  increase  :  this  also  is  vanity." — Eccl.  i.  7,  8  ;  and  v.  9,  10. 

A  VERY  learned,  thoughtful,  and  elegant  writer,  with  some  of  whose 
books  many  of  us  are  no  doubt  familiar,  delivered  a  lecture  recently 
in  this  city  upon  the  present  period  as  characteristically  "  an  age  of 
discontent."  It  was  not  my  good  fortune  to  hear  the  lecture,  nor 
even  to  see  any  full  report  of  it  afterward  ;  and  of  course  I  have  no 
criticism  to  make  upon  any  positions  which  he  may  have  taken — no 
attitude  to  take,  in  fact,  either  of  condemnation  or  of  commendation, 
toward  anything  which  he  said.  But  the  title  of  his  address  struck 
my  eye,  and  awakened  some  thoughts  in  my  own  mind  which  are  of 
interest  to  me,  which  may  possibly  be  of  interest  to  you,  or  to 
some  of  you,  and  which  have  seemed  to  me  not  altogether  unsuitable 
to  the  present  occasion. 

'  Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that  there  is  in  our  time  a  widespread  spirit 
of  discontent.  I  do  not  mean  particularly  among  those  who  have 
always  been  poor,  and  who  are  now  as  poor  as  at  any  time,  who  are 
perhaps  hopeless  of  anything  better  in  the  time  to  come  ;  certainly 
not  among  the  vicious  and  drunken,  whose  discontent  or  discomfort 
docs  not  stimulate  keen  sympathy  in  us,  nor  among  those  who  are 
chronic  grumblers  whatever  happens,  and  whose  discontent  has  only 
a  personal  significance.  But  that  to  which  I  refer  prevails  widely 
among  the  sober  and  industrious  classes,  the  men  who  daily  labour  for 
daily  wage,  who  have  families  dependent  upon  them,  and  who  have, 
perhaps,  some  small  properties  in  hand — a  class  which  is  always  a 


514  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

most  important  and  often  a  controlling  element  in  modern  society. 
Among  these  this  spirit  of  discontent  widely  obtains,  and  it  is  this 
which  I  have  in  mind.  It  is  not  the  bitter  cry  of  the  outcast  poor  of 
which  I  am  to  speak ;  but  it  is  the  continual  and  perhaps  widening 
restlessness  of  those  who  are  comparatively  prosperous,  but  who  have 
not  achieved  their  desires  and  plans  in  the  acquisition  of  worldly 
goods. 

Perhaps  the  fact  of  this  discontent  becomes  the  more  striking  because 
it  contradicts  what  seemed  to  be  years  ago  a  reasonable  expectation, 
that  the  increasing  abundance  of  opportunity  for  labour,  the  diminish- 
ing price  of  commodities,  the  higher  rate  of  wages  paid,  with  universal 
freedom  and  almost  universal  education,  or  means  of  education,  would 
bring  contentment,  tranquility,  and  quietness  of  spirit,  among  the  very 
persons  and  classes  in  whom  this  temper  of  discontent  now  makes 
itself  seen,  a  temper  which  we  hear  expressed  upon  the  platform, 
which  we  see  indicated  in  journalism,  and  which  we  meet  not 
infrequently  in  personal  conversation.  The  facts  to  which  I  refer  do 
not  seem  to  have  excluded  such  discontent  as  I  have  intimated.  The 
experience  of  this  perhaps  widens,  rather  than  is  limited,  as  the  years 
go  on  ;  and  there  is  certainly  a  force  here,  and  a  tendency,  which  we 
shall  do  well  to  recognise,  and,  if  we  may,  to  analyze. 

What  are  the  sources  of  this  discontent  among  these  who  seem,  and 
who  are,  comparatively  prosperous  in  their  affairs  ?  It  does  not 
grow,  of  course,  out  of  any  severity  of  oppression  experienced 
by  them,  either  social  oppression  or  governmental  oppression.  No 
oppression  is  possible  in  this  country  such  as  existed  in  France,  for 
example  during  the  last  century,  the  records  of  which  is  left  on  the 
annals  and  laws  of  the  kingdom,  a  not  exaggerated  picture  of  which 
is  presented  in  Carlyle's  "  History  of  the  French  Revolution,"  or  in 
the  wonderful  "  Tale  of  Two  Cities,"  by  Charles  Dickens.  No  oppres- 
sion of  that  kind  is  possible  among  us.  It  has  almost  ceased  to  be 
conceivable  in  this  land  of  freedom  and  of  peace.  No  oppression  is  here 
known  such  as  was  known  in  Naples  and  the  Sicilies  under  the  Bour- 
bons and  the  Popes ;  none  such  as  is  known  to  day  in  large  parts  of 
Russia,  and  especially,  perhaps,  in  Poland ;  none  such  as  is  known 
among  the  Christian  populations  under  the  dominion  of  the  Sultan  ; 
none  such  even  as  was  known  in  England  in  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  when  labour  was  severely  restricted,  when  wages  were  so  low 
that  one  could  hardly  live  upon  them  at  all,  when  taxation  was 
enormous,  and  when  nearly  three  hundred  offences  were  by  law 
punishable  with  death.  We  look  upon  these  facts  as  spectres  of  the 
past,  with  which  at  present  we  have  nothing  whatever  to  do,  except  to 
wonder  at  them,  and  to  rejoice  that  the  age  in  which  such  abomina- 
tions were  possible  has  long  passed  away.  It  is  not  in  consequence 
of  any  severity  of  oppression  that  the  present  discontent  exists  and 
widens,  nor  is  it  in  consequence  of  any  contrast  between  what  the  pre- 
sent offers  and  what  the  past  did  offer  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  or 
even  in  our  own  earlier  times.     The  contrast,  on  the  other  hand,  is 


The  Discontent  of  the  Times.  515 

altogether  in  the  opposite  direction.  As  I  have  said,  commodities  are 
cheaper  now  than  ever  before,  while  the  prices  of  labour  are  higher 
than  before,  and  opportunities  are  multiplied  for  remunerative 
industry.  If  we  go  back  to  the  time  of  our  own  childhood,  forty  or 
fifty  years  ago,  we  see  a  vast  change  for  the  better.  If  we  go  back 
one  hundred  years,  or  two  hundred  years,  comparison  almost  ceases 
to  be  possible  ;  it  is  simply  an  absolute  contrast  which  appears 
between  what  then  was  and  what  now  is.  Those  who  established  this 
festival  of  Thanksgiving  in  our  country,  and  those  who  early  main- 
tained and  rejoiced  in  this  festival,  lived  in  poorer  houses  than  the 
poorest  known  among  us.  They  were  oftentimes  clothed  in  raiment 
which  the  very  beggars  now  would  despise ;  and  they  fed  upon  the 
foods  which  never  appear,  some  of  them,  at  least,  upon  our 
tables.  They  had,  as  we  should  say,  a  hard  lot.  They  were  down  on 
the  bare  surface  of  the  earth,  struggling  for  life ;  and  yet  in  the  midst 
of  all  their  povert}^,  with  apparently  hopeless  discouragement  before 
them,  they  sang  and  gave  praises  where  now  is  this  spirit  of  angry 
discontent.  They  triumphed  in  God  in  spite  of  hardness ;  and  they 
lifted  this  festival  of  Thanksgiving,  now  become  national  in  its  range, 
like  a  tropical  palm  amid  the  icy  hills  of  New  England — in  the  autumn 
of  the  air  gathering  to  give  thanks  to  God  for  their  scanty  harvest, 
and  to  consecrate  themselves  in  their  weakness  and  poverty  afresh  to 
his  service. 

No,  it  is  not  any  contrast  of  what  is  with  what  has  been  which 
arouses  and  maintains  this  feeling  of  discontent ;  nor  is  this  the  con- 
sequence of  any  special  icommercial  panics.  There  have  not  been 
many  such  in  recent  years,  and  those  which  have  occurred  have  been 
chiefly  local.  There  has  been  none,  perhaps,  like  that  of  1837,  for 
example,  when  all  the  banks  suspended  payment,  when  States  as  well 
as  persons  were  insolvent,  when  bankruptcy  was  almost  universal, 
and  when  property  seemed  for  the  time  to  be  wiped  out  from  the  face  of 
the  country.  Nor  has  there  been  a  panic  recently  like  that  of  1857, 
which  many  of  us  clearly  remember,  or  that  of  1869,  nearer  still, 
when  money  seemed  impossible  to  be  got,  and  when  all  credits,  even 
the  strongest  and  solidest,  were  shaken  or  overwhelmed. 

And  it  is  very  observable  that  this  spirit  of  discontent  comes  to 
light  most  distinctly  in  times  of  commercial  prosperity.  The  murmurs 
which  sometimes  fill  the  air  in  periods  of  prosperity  are  stilled  when 
a  great  commercial  storm  sweeps  across  the  land  ;  they  are  no  more 
heard  than  the  voices  of  conversation,  or  the  outcries  of  pain,  are 
heard  in  the  midst  of  the  rush  of  a  terrific  storm  in  the  air.  It  is  in 
days  of  prosperity  that  men  arc  discontented  with  what  they  have,  are 
eager  and  sometimes  angrily  eager  for  more  ;  when  the  great  com- 
mercial houses  go  crashing  to  the  earth  there  is  no  sign  of  discontent 
among  those  who  are  not  themselves  involved  in  the  catastrophes. 
Those  commercial  panics,  which  sometimes  certainly  have  reached  out 
to,  have  enveloped  and  impoverished  multitudes  of  far  distributed 
households,  are  not  the  cause  of  this  present  and  recent  discontent. 


51^  The  Brtttsh  Weekly  Pulptt. 

Nor  does  it  come  from  any  fear  of  what  the  future  may  bring  us,  or 
may  bring  to  those  in  whom  this  special  temper  is  apparent ;  because 
here  again  all  tendencies  are  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  industrial 
classes,  even  in  England,  to  a  great  extent — but  here  eminently  and 
controllingly — have  the  command  of  legislative  action  in  their  own 
hands ;  and  they  are  perfectly  aware  of  the  fact.  It  is  not  the  great 
capitalists  of  the  country  who  can  direct  legislation  into  particular  chan- 
nels. If  they  ever  try  to  do  that,  they  have  to  work  secretly.  It  it  were 
understood  that  they  were  generally  conspiring  for  that  end,the  public 
sense  of  the  country  would  so  rise  against  them  as  to  make  their  efforts 
wholly  futile.  The  industrial  classes  either  put  into  position,  or  dis- 
place from  position,  those  who  make  the  laws ;  and  laws  which  give 
security  to  labour,  which  multiply  market  for  its  products,  which  assure 
to  it  its  ample  and  prompt  reward,  are  as  certain  to  be  ordained  and 
enforced  as  the  sun  is  to  arise  from  the  horizon  to  the  zenith.  It  is  not 
any  fear  of  what  the  future  may  bring  in  the  way  of  oppressive  legis- 
lation— any  fear  of  calamities  not  experienced,  but  possibly  to  be 
experienced  in  after  time — out  of  which  this  temper  of  discontent 
arises.  And  yet  it  exists ;  and,  if  it  does  not  come  from  either  of 
these  sources,  whence  does  it  come  ?  If  it  is  not  in  consequence  of 
any  severity  of  oppression,  or  any  sharp  contrast  between  what  is 
and  what  used  to  be,  or  any  effects  of  commercial  panic,  or  any 
fear  of  the  future,  how  comes  it  that  it  is  distributed  so  widely  as 
>t  is  ? 

There  are  four  facts  which  we  have  to  recognise,  I  think,  in  order 
to  obtain  any  fair  and  clear  explanation  of  it.  One  is,  that  the  wealth 
of  all  civilized  countries,  and  pre-eminently  of  this  countr}',  is  im- 
mensely and  rapidly  increasing  in  recent  years.  In  our  own  country 
it  comes,  of  course,  from  the  opening  of  mines,  from  the  perfecting  of 
mechanism,  from  the  coal  fields  and  the  cotton  fields,  the  sugar 
plantations  and  the  oil  wells,  and  from  the  multiplication  of  railroads 
stretching  over  the  whole  extent  of  the  country  and  almost  of  the  con- 
tinent. And  so  it  increases — this  public  wealth — with  enormous 
rapidity,  in  vast  ratio,  and  to  an  extraordinary  and  unprecedented 
extent.  Remember  that  in  1889,  for  example,  the  assessed  valuation 
in  thirty-eight  States  of  this  Union  was  nearly  twenty-three  thousand 
millions  of  dollars,  the  true  valuation  being,  of  course,  more  than 
double,  or  between  fifty  and  sixty  thousand  millions  of  dollars. 
Remember  that  in  1888  a  part  of  the  States,  only,  reported  more  than 
thirteen  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  dollars  in  the  Savings  Banks, 
due  to  more  than  four  million  depositors.  Remember  that  in  1880, 
at  the  last  census  preceding  the  recent  one,  the  value  of  farms  in  the 
country  was  over  ten  thousand  millions  of  dollars,  and  the  manufac- 
turing capital  was  nearly  twenty-eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 
That  in  1887  the  capital  of  the  railways— the  stocks  and  bonds— in 
this  country  was  upon  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  miles  of  rail- 
way, eight  thousand  three  hundred  and  seventy-eight  millions  of 
dollars;  that  in  1887  there  were  thirty-three  millions  of  gold  produced 


The  Discontent  of  the  Times.  5 1 7 

in  this  country  and  fifty-four  millions  of  silver;  or  an  aggregate  of 
eighty-seven  millions,  and  more,  of  the  metals  which  represent  wfalth, 
and  which  in  circulation  produces  wealtli.  Remember  these  fdcts, 
and  then  you  understand  how  it  was  that  two  years  ago  there  were 
imported  into  this  country  ten  and  a-half  millions  worth  of  precious 
stones;  while  in  the  same  year  there  were  imported  of  silk  materials  and 
fabrics  fifty-three  and  a-quarter  millions  of  dollars' worth. 

I  need  not  multiply  such  examples.  We  all  know  that  there  is  an 
enormous  lift  in  the  wealth  of  the  country,  unexampled,  peihaps,  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  making  this  rapidly  the  richest  nation 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  same  is  seen  to  a  large  degree  in  Eng- 
land, for  example,  or  in  France,  or  in  Germany.  The  same  even,  to 
a  lesser  degree,  in  Italy  or  in  Austria.  Wherever  Christianity  goes 
it  carries  riches  in  its  train,  by  the  push  which  it  gives  to  human 
enterprise,  and  the  education  which  it  gives  to  human  faculty,  by  the 
public  spirit  and  the  domestic  spirit  which  are  nurtured  by  it.  "  As 
poor,"  said  the  Apostle,  "  yet  making  many  rich  " ;  whether  he  had 
material  riches  in  his  eye  or  not — perhaps  he  had  not — his  word  was 
true.  It  applies,  in  even  the  physical  sense,  to  every  community  in 
which  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel  goes  on.  Preaching  the  Gospel  is 
the  means  of  accumulating  and  augmenting  the  riches  of  the  world, 
through  its  influence  upon  the  spirit  and  character  on  the  life  and  the 
minds  of  those  who  receive  it. 

So  it  comes  to  pass  that  this  enormous  multiplication  of  wealth  in 
our  own  times,  within  this  country,  has  gone  on  in  other  lands  as 
really,  if  not  as  swiftly  as  in  this.  We  are  to  bear  this  in  mind  ;  and 
then  we  are  to  remember,  of  course,  that  the  instances  are  not 
infrequent — perhaps  they  are  becoming  more  frequent  all  the  time — 
in  which  immense  and  shining  riches  are  attained  by  those  who  do 
not  acquire  them  by  productive  labour,  or  by  the  quiet  prosecution  of 
any  branch  of  honourable  commercial  work,  but  who  acquire  them,  as 
we  say,  not  uncommonly  by  "  luck  " ;  and  men  call  such  persons 
especially  fortunate  who  have  attained  great  wealth  as  in  a  moment. 
"  Luck  "  sometimes  means,  of  course,  the  improvement  of  a  fortunate 
opportunity  which  comes  to  some  in  distinction  from  others.  But 
sometimes,  it  has  been  a  process  certainly  involving  fraud,  involving 
an  iniquitous  disregard  of  the  interests  and  rights  of  others,  involving 
a  fierce  selfishness  which  has  overridden  all  rules  of  kindness  or  of 
morality.  So  it  has  occasionally  come  to  pass  that  men  have  suddenly 
become  possessed  of  enormous  wealth,  uncounted  millions.  The 
humble  mechanic,  or  dealer  in  hardware,  the  surveyor  of  land,  or  the 
captain  of  a  tug  boat,  are  able  after  a  little,  to  build  palaces  for  them- 
selves which  outvie  the  palaces  of  the  nobility  of  Europe ;  they  are 
able  to  outmarch  the  possessions  of  vast  hereditary  estates,  in  the 
purchase  of  jewels,  pictures,  and  ancient  heirlooms ;  if  they  wish,  to 
marry  their  children  to  the  representatives  of  the  most  ancient  and 
the  highest  nobility.  They  are  able,  if  they  choose,  to  be  served 
upon  gold  plate ;  to  ride  across  the  continent  in  their  own  luxurioatj 


5i8  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

palace  cars ;  to  circumnavigate  the  globei  in  steam  yachts,  fine  as  a 
jewel  case,  elaborate  as  a  breast  pin,  and  mighty  as  an  ocean  steamer. 
All  the  mastery  and  privilege  of  wealth  have  suddenly  come  to  them. 
They  can  ransack  the  world  for  the  objects  of  their  desire.  Yet  it  is 
only  a  few  years  between  this  position  of  supremacy  in  wealth  and 
that  position  of  humble  daily  labour  which  before  was  familiar. 
These  instances,  no  doubt,  have  been  occurring  always  in  the  history 
of  the  world ;  more  or  less,  we  know  they  have,  as  in  ancient  Rome, 
or  as  in  the  later  France,  or  in  England.  But  they  occur  more  fre- 
quently among  us  ;  and  men  starting  from  very  humble  positions  in 
life  make  themselves  suddenly  conspicuous  and  magnificent  to  the 
amazement  of  the  country,  by  these  immense  and  immeasurable 
resources  of  riches. 

Still  another  fact  is  that  there  is  a  growing  tendency,  apparently, 
in  this  country,  to  make  wealth  hereditary  in  these  vast  masses  of  it ; 
and  to  transmit  it  from  one  generation  to  another,  to  a  third,  a  fifth, 
and  a  sixth,  perhaps,  in  unbroken  amount,  and  even  accumulating  all 
the  time.  The  expectation  of  the  law  is  that  estates,  particularly  if 
of  enormous  amount,  are  to  be  broken  up  with  the  death  of  him  who 
has  been  first  to  possess  them.  It  is  felt  to  be  in  the  interests  of  the 
public  welfare  that  they  should  be.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  ten- 
dency now  is,  as  I  have  said,  to  carry  them  on  through  successive 
generations,  and  so  to  build  up  by  degrees  an  hereditary  aristocracy 
of  wealth — an  aristocracy  not  founded  on  great  deeds  for  the  State, 
in  council  or  in  arms ;  not  founded  on  great  character,  and  pre-eminent 
wisdom,  for  civil  and  military  affairs ;  an  aristocracy  founded  simply 
upon  skill  and  luck  in  trading  or  in  speculation ;  which,  therefore, 
stirs  no  awe  or  reverence  toward  itself;  which  excites  envy,  perhaps, 
certainly  wonder ;  but  which  does  not  impress  the  public  mind,  espe- 
cially does  not  impress  the  classes  whose  discontent  we  are  consider- 
ing with  any  sense  of  superior  virtue,  or  even  of  superior  capacity,  in 
those  who  are  its  representatives.  This  tendency,  as  I  have  said, 
appears  to  be  on  the  increase  in  the  country  rather  than  to  be  dimin- 
ishing ;  and  vast  fortunes,  suddenly  acquired,  vauntingly  exhibited, 
and  carried  on  through  successive  generations,  become  a  real  menace 
to  our  civilisation. 

Then  it  is  to  be  observed,  as  a  fourth  fact,  that  in  consequence  of 
this  immense  increase  in  national  wealth,  of  this  vast  and  sudden 
accumulation  of  property,  and  of  this  tendency  to  transmit  immense 
possessions  to  generation  after  generation,  the  popular  estimate  of 
wealth  in  this  country  has  become  enormously  exaggerated.  It*  is 
higher,  by  far,  than  it  ever  has  been  before^ — higher,  certainly,  than 
in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  when  wisdom,  high  character,  were 
reckoned  as  the  chief  goods  in  public  men,  or  in  private  life  ;  higher 
than  in  the  days  of  the  Civil  War,  when  men  honoured  heroism  in 
spirit  and  in  action,  when  they  wanted  the  largest  power  in  council 
or. on  the  field — a  power  disciplined  in  tactics,  but  especially  a  power 
for  the  grand  strategy  which  was  to  move  vast  masses  of  men,  and 


The  Discontent  of  the  Times.  519 

make  them  converge  upon  the  point  of  decisive  attack.  Character 
was  honoured  then — the  spirit  which  was  ready  to  risk  everything 
for  the  rescue  of  the  nation.  But  now  in  place  of  that  has  come  this 
immensely  exaggerated  popular  estimate  of  wealth.  Perhaps  it  is 
natural  in  a  country  like  ours,  where  there  is  no  kingly  estate,  where 
there  is  no  hereditary  nobility,  where  there  are  no  fixed  distinctions 
of  rank,  where  there  is  no  legal  class  privilege.  At  any  rate,  it  exists, 
and  more  and  more  it  widens  in  the  land,  so  that  the  doings  of  the 
rich  man  are  chronicled  in  the  papers  ;  he  is  pointed  out  to  those  who 
are  strangers  in  the  city  as  being  the  real  king  in  his  community ; 
his  death  flings  such  a  shadow  over  the  city,  and  over  the  land,  as 
the  death  of  a  great  philanthropist  would  not,  or  the  death  of  a  great 
statesman,  or  of  one  who  had  rendered  great  historical  service  to  his 
country. 

This  exaggerated  estimate  of  wealth  is  to  be  taken  into  account  in 
connection  with  the  forces  which  I  have  before  refeired  to,  and  then 
the  four  facts  stand  before  us  together.  The  immense  and  rapid 
accumulation  of  wealth  in  the  country  ;  the  vast,  sudden  acquisition 
of  wealth  by  individuals;  the  tendency  to  transmit  it  unbroken 
through  successive  generations  ;  and  the  inordinate  estimate  of  it  on 
the  part  of  the  whole  people,  taking  the  place  of  reverence  for  high 
character,  or  of  popular  honour  for  large  wisdom  and  large  moral 
power. 

Here,  then,  we  get  a  glimpse  of  the  secret  of  the  existing  discontent 
— not  among  the  hopeless  poor,  not  among  the  drunken  and  vicious, 
but  among  those  who  are  industrious,  sober  and  temperate,  who 
desire  for  themselves  and  for  their  families  a  prosperous  though  a 
modest  advance  in  the  things  of  the  world.  There  is  a  wide  feeling 
that  the  industrial  classes  are  not  gaining  their  fair  share  of  this 
enormous  and  rapid  accumulation  of  wealth.  It  may  be  unintelligent, 
but  it  exists.  Two  dollars  a  day,  three  dollars,  four  dollars,  five 
dollars,  how  small  they  seem  in  comparison  with  these  prodigious 
increments  of  private  and  of  public  property.  The  small  saving  of  a 
few  dollars  a  month,  how  almost  pitiful  it  looks  in  comparison  with 
these  vast  and  rapid  accumulations.  The  small  interest  of  the 
savings  bank,  three  per  cent,  perhaps,  how  almost  microscopic  it 
seems  in  comparison  with  the  huge  interest  of  which  men  hear, 
jthough  of  which  they  have  probably  no  personal  experience,  where 
stocks  are  doubled  in  nominal  value,  are  trebled,  quadrupled,  and  are 
still  all  the  time  paying  high  interest  even  upon  the  ultimate  nominal 
amount.  Men  become  discontented.  You  cannot  help  it.  It  is 
human  nature,  and  no  man  can  expel  human  nature  from  popula- 
tions, even  with  pitch-forks.  So  it  is  that  the  man  who  had  been 
content  with  his  modest  shelter,  when  he  sees  the  new  and  showy 
palace  rising  in  front  of  him  begins  to  grumble.  He  is  discontented 
with  the  simple  household  equipment  which  before  he  enjoyed,  when 
the  palace  of  one  who  started  on  the  same  level  with  himself  in 
respect  to  property  is  filled  and  glittering  with  all  objects  of  luxury  ; 


520  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

when,  he  trudges  along  on  foot  in  the  mud,  you  cannot  very 
severely  blame  him  if  he  wishes  sometimes  that  it  was  equally 
possible  for  him  to  ride  in  the  carriages  of  the  newly-made  rich, 
which  go  flashing  by  him.  Man  is  so  made  that  he  desires  that 
which  others  attain,  and  he  is  restless,  not,  certainly,  to  pillage  it 
from  them,  but  to  get  an  opportunity  for  himself  to  do  the  same 
thing  which  they  have  done.  Man,  let  us  not  forget,  is  a  creature 
of  aspiration,  whose  desire  naturally  outstrips  his  attainment.  That 
is  the  order  of  the  human  constitution  ;  that  is  the  way  in  which 
God  built  man,  to  make  him  at  last  the  lord  of  the  earth.  Your 
horse  is  contented  with  his  daily  food,  his  comfortable  covering,  and 
not  too  much  work.  Your  dog  is  contented  if  he  is  well  taken  care  of, 
and  now  and  then  caressed  ;  he  wants  nothing  beyond  it.  Man, 
when  he  gains  one  level  wants  immediately  to  attain  a  higher.  It  is 
the  birthright  of  his  nature  ;  it  is  the  prophecy  of  immortality  in  him  ; 
it  is  the  aspiration  which  God  created  in  him,  and  by  which  He  is 
pushing  him  forward  and  pushing  the  race  forward  toward  better 
ages  in  the  future. 

So  it  is  that  a  man  is  not  contented  with  his  small  wages,  with  his 
modest  house ;  he  wants  to  build  another  and  a  larger ;  he  wants  to 
equip  the  house  with  better  furniture  ;  he  wants  more  ways  of  enjoy- 
ment, more  power  of  entertainment,  more  facilities  of  travel,  he  wants 
a  social  position  above  the  present  through  which  he  can  come  into 
contact  with  other  more  enlightening  and  stimulating  minds  than  he 
now  meets.  You  cannot  blame  him  for  it.  He  sees  others  sur- 
passing him  in  attainment  of  goods  upon  which  their  desires  are  alike 
eagerly  and  vehemently  fixed  ;  and  he  is  discontented  until  he  gets 
the  opportunity  to  spring  level  with  them,  and  to  go  with  them  abreast 
in  the  great  race. 

Then  it  is  an  added  grievance  to  many  that  the  small  property  of 
the  industrious,  slowly  and  sometimes  painfully  acquired,  is  peculiarly 
precarious.  Savings  banks,  of  course,  have  done  an  immense  work 
at  this  point  in  relieving  a  tendency  which  otherwise  might  have  be- 
come too  strong  to  be  controlled  ;  in  administering  comfort  and  quiet- 
ness of  mind  to  increasing  multitudes.  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  the 
very  best  thing  that  the  Savings  Bank  system  has  done,  in  all  the 
hundred  years  of  its  operation  in  England  or  in  this  country.  It  has 
given  men  and  women  assurance  that  small  savings  would  be  securely 
guarded  at  a  minimum  of  cost,  and  would  yield  a  moderate  but  a 
secure  interest  to  those  making  deposits ;  and  as  long  as  one  is 
content  with  the  small  interest,  he  has  a  refreshing  sense  of  quiet- 
ness and  of  safety,  but  the  moment  he  becomes  dissatisfied,  and  wants 
a  better  interest  or  a  larger,  he  is  hopelessly  at  the  mercy  of  persons 
whom  he  does  not  know,  and  of  events  and  tendencies  which  he  can- 
not foresee,  and  cannot  control. 

The  rich  man  may  distribute  his  investments  in  many  quarters, 
making  profit  and  loss*  balance  each  other,  and  bringing  out  the  aver- 
age on  the  whole  on  the  right  side;  or  if  the  rich  man  is  in  troiible, 


The  Discontent  of  the  Times.  521 

he  may  find  plenty  of  able  assistants  and  helpers  behind  him — 
as  the  Bank  of  England  has  lately  advanced  fifty  millions  or  more  of 
dollars  in  co-operation  with  other  bankers,  in  order  to  protect  the 
credit  of  the  Barings — doing  it  not  out  of  benevolent  sympathy,  but 
out  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  in  a  desire  to  avert  the  wide 
calamity  of  such  a  tremendous  shock  as  the  downfall  of  that  house 
would  have  been.  The  poor  man  has  nobody  to  help  him  ;  he  cannot 
watch  the  market,  even;  he  is  really  and  wholly  dependent  upon  the 
advice  of  others.  When  stocks  fall,  he  holds  his  little  proportion  un- 
til he  is  frightened,  and  then  sells  at  a  sacrifice ;  or,  perhaps  he  holds 
on  to  the  end,  and  loses  everything.  There  is  that  in  this  sense  of 
precariousness  in  property  where  the  property  is  small,  which  be- 
comes an  added  grievance  to  those  who  have  been  acquiring  property 
with  great  labour  and  long  self-denial.  My  friends,  the  very  saddest 
thing  about  great  commercial  reverses  when  they  come  is  the  re- 
morseless swing  and  sweep  with  which  the  little  properties  solely  ac- 
quired, transmitted  perhaps  to  widows  and  to  orphans,  are  swallowed 
up  and  lost  in  the  tremendous  maelstrom  of  the  event. 

Then  it  is  to  be  remembered,  as  .well,  that  all  the  teaching  of 
democracy — the  elementary  teaching  of  democracy,  as  embodied,  for 
example,  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  that  all  men  are  created 
equal,  and  have  equal  and  inalienable  rights  to  the  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness— tends  to  lift  men  who  are  willing  to  work,  eager  for  it,  willing 
to  save  for  the  benefit  of  those  coming  after  them  ;  but  it  makes 
them  certain  that  they  have  a  right  to  provide  for  their  households 
as  well  as  for  themselves,  and  to  give  their  children  a  better  oppor- 
tunity in  life  than  they  themselves  have  had.  When,  then,  they  see 
others  able  to  do  this  rapidly,  on  the  largest  scale,  and  find  that  they 
cannot  do  it  themselves,  that  they  are  fatally  hindered  in  their  effort 
to  do  it,  affection,  parental  and  domestic  love,  comes  in  as  a  fresh 
power  of  discontent;  a  power  that  works  inevitably  toward  murmur- 
ing and  dissatisfaction  with  the  existing  order  of  things.  It  is  love, 
and  not  mere  greed ;  it  is  affection,  and  not  mere  mercenary  ambition, 
which  is  at  the  bottom  of  very  much  of  the  existing  discontent.  A 
man  feels,  as  1  have  said,  that  if  he  is  equal  before  the  contempla- 
tion of  the  law  when  he  stands  beside  others  equal  before  God  the 
Creator  and  God  the  Governor,  equal  before  the  Cross  and  the  Judg- 
ment Throne,  he  must  have  equal  rights  in  the  world ;  not  to  the 
property  which  others  have  acquired,  but  to  the  opportunity  to 
acquire  such  property  for  himself,  to  give  to  his  household  the  ad- 
vantage of  it. 

You  cannot  avoid  the  influence  of  that  teaching  of  our  whole  con- 
stitution of  government,  and  that  teaching  of  Christianity  itself 
When  the  merchant  and  his  drayman  stand  side  by  side  before  the 
ballot-box,  each  having  his  vote  ;  when  the  man  building  the  state- 
liest mansion,  and  the  humblest  mechanic  at  work  upon  it,  are  equal 
before  the  law,  and  before  the  Divine  tribunal ;  when  the  great  states- 
man or  capitalist,  who  owns  a  large  part  of  the  territory  of  a  district, 


522  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

is  equal  before  the  law  and  before  God's  Throne  with  the  humblest 
man  who  tills  his  field,  you  must  expect,  as  human  nature  is  made, 
that  the  humble  man  will  wish  the  opportunity  to  do  what  the  other 
has  done,  or  will  wish  the  opportunity  that  his  children  after  him 
may  be  enabled  to  tread  in  the  same  distinguished  and  lofty  path. 

These  are  some  of  the  causes  of  the  discontent  which  we  recognise. 
In  the  face  of  the  great  accumulations  of  national  wealth,  of  the 
sudden  acquisition  of  enormous  riches  by  individuals,  of  the  tendency 
to  transmit  them  through  successive  generations,  almost  in  direct 
consequence  of  these  facts,  the  inordinate  estimate  of  wealth  has 
come  to  be  general,  almost  universal,  and  the  industrial  classes  feel 
that  they  do  not  get  their  fair  share  of  it;  they  feel  that  their 
small  investments  are  peculiarly  unsafe  and  uncertain;  that 
they  cannot  gratify  the  new  desires  which  rise  always  with  success ; 
that  they  cannot  make  sure  of  the  prosperity  which  they  wish  for  the 
families  that  come  after  them ;  and  that  while  they,  in  contemplation 
of  the  law  and  of  the  Gospel,  are  naturally  equal  with  all  those  to 
whom  this  vast  success  has  come,  they  have  no  real  chance  for  an 
equally  shining  and  splendid  success. 

There  is  the  secret  of  the  discontent.  It  is  a  discontent  which 
works  into  manifestation  on  every  side.  As  I  have  said,  you  hear  it 
in  conversation,  you  hear  it  on  the  platform,  you  meet  it  in  the  press. 
It  is  not  a  sympathetic  temper;  but  rather  an  aggressive,  self- 
assertive  temper,  which  works  toward  making  the  day  of  labour  an 
eight  hours'  day ;  toward  organisations  of  labour  that  shall  be  wide 
in  extent,  and  weaponed  with  strikes.  It  is  the  same  force  which 
works  toward  novel  experiments  in  social  custom  and  legislative 
enactment ;  the  same  force  which  prompts  the  alliances  of  farmers 
and  others  to  control  legislation ;  the  same  force  which  pushes 
toward  making  silver  equivalent  to  gold  in  purchasing  power — which 
is  simply  another  way  of  trying  to  swim  up  Niagara.  It  is  a  temper 
which,  unquestionably,  unless  there  can  be  just  education  of  it,  with 
direction  of  it  to  better  methods,  threatens  in  a  degree  the  future 
prosperity  of  the  country.  And  yet  some  things  are  to  be  remem- 
bered. For  instance  this,  that  it  is  not  a  temper — except  in  indi- 
vidual instances — of  jealousy  or  of  rage.  It  is  a  temper  simply  of 
unsatisfied  aspiration.  Desire  outstrips  success;  that  is  the  whole 
of  it.  The  Nihilist  element  rarely  appears — never,  as  born  in  this 
country — and  where  it  does  appear  the  police  and  the  military  always 
can  take  care  of  it.  It  isn't  a  Nihilistic  fury — it  is  not  an  anarchical 
and  destroying  force — this  discontent  to  which  I  refer  ;  it  is  simply 
unsatisfied  aspiration.  And  we  are  never  to  combat  that,  or  to  be 
frightened  because  of  it.  It  is  generically  the  same  force  which  took 
our  ancestral  pirates  and  painted  savages  and  built  them  up  into 
Christian  commonwealths.  It  is  precisely  such  unsatisfied  aspiration 
which  has  been  lifting  the  race  forward,  from  the  advent  of  Christ 
till  this  hour.  It  is  just  this  unsatisfied  aspiration  which  God  has 
planted  in  its  element  in  the  human  soul,  and  to  which  He  presents 


The  Discontent  of  the  Times.  523 

the  hidden  riches  of  the  earth ;  locked  up  behind  deserts  and  seas, 
and  lodged  under  mountain  crests,  which  a  man  must  work  for  that 
he  may  gain  them,  but  which  he  can  gain  if  he  will  patiently  and 
courageously  work. 

That  is  the  power  that  has  moulded  civilisation.  That  is  the 
power  with  which  history  is  filled ;  and  we  are  not  to  quarrel  with  it 
because  it  appears  in  a  way  just  now  to  give  us  perhaps  a  temporary 
and  timid  discontent.  If  there  was  wrath  in  it,  if  there  was  anarchi- 
cal ambition  and  destruction  in  this  discontent,  then  we  might  dread 
it ;  but  as  it  exists  among  the  industrial  classes  of  the  time,  and  of 
the  land,  it  is  the  desire  for  a  success  not  yet  attained,  and  that  has 
alwaj'S  promise  in  it,  and  not  threat. 

Let  us  remember  as  well  that  moral  influences  come  in  properly,  to 
give  men  at  large  a  nobler  estimate  of  the  real  good  of  life.  I  know 
ttiat  men  of  the  world  sneer  at  the  idea  of  ever  persuading  the  popu- 
lation of  a  country  Hke  this  that  wealth  is  not  the  chiefest  ideal.  If 
it  cannot  be  done,  then  our  ruin  is  not  remote  !  I  believe  that  it  can 
be  done ;  that  men  can  be  made  to  feel  that  domestic  comfort,  per- 
sonal happiness,  culture  of  the  individual  and  of  the  household,  are 
not  dependent  upon  wealth  as  an  indispensable  external  condition. 
The  greatest  men  by  whose  advent  our  history  has  been  signalised 
have  come  from  humble  cottages ;  small  villages  among  the  distant 
hills  have  sent  senators  and  great  representatives  into  Congress, 
have  put  leading  soldiers  at  the  head  of  our  armies.  Men  may  be 
led  to  feel 'that  wealth  is  not  necessary  to  domestic  happiness,  or  to 
domestic  education ;  that  character  is  greater  than  wealth ;  that  the 
true  riches  are  those  of  the  spirit — that  those  are  the  only  riches 
which  history  recognises  and  celebrates ;  the  only  riches  which  are 
dear  to  God's  mind ;  the  only  riches  which  can  be  carried  forward 
into  the  illustrious  immortalit3\  The  Gospel  works,  of  course,  always 
in  that  direction.  It  bears  upon  its  very  front  the  motto  :  "A  man's 
life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth." 
Sometimes  men  hate  it  on  account  of  that  very  motto ;  but  there  it 
stands  blazing  in  lucid  letters  before  the  world  for  ever ;  coming 
from  the  Divine  mind  which  gave  the  Gospel  to  the  world.  In  it  is 
the  secret  of  all  noblest  prosperity  and  progress. 

And  there  is  no  greater  duty  resting  on  Christian  men  and  women 
than  to  take  that  motto  of  the  Master,  and  transmute  it  into  character, 
'and  illustrate  it  in  life.  I  would  send  the  Gospel  to  every  distant 
island  of  the  sea,  make  it  at  home  on  every  remote  and  darkened 
shore ;  but  I  would  count  this  a  duty  prior  even  to  that,  and  supremer 
in  importance — that  men  and  women  living  in  our  time,  and  them- 
selves prosperous,  should  illustrate  in  character  and  in  life  that 
divine  maxim  ;  should  regally  show  that  wealth  if  it  comes  is  to  be 
used  honestly,  nobly,  beneficently,  but  that  wealth  is  itot  the  chief 
good  of  human  life  ;  it  is  only  an  instrument  to  that  which  is  better 
and  higher,  and  "  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth." 


524  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

Let  us  rejoice  that  our  institutions  of  government  are  the  safest 
in  the  world  because  they  give  free  opportunity  to  this  force  of  un- 
satisfied aspiration  to  press  forward  in  its  own  direction.  The  law 
requires  that  it  be  done  peaceably,  that  it  be  done  benignly,  with 
no  injustice  or  injury  to  other  people ;  but  then  the  law  leaves 
every  man  to  be  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune.  It  sets  before  him 
"  an  open  door,"  and  says,  "  Go  in  and  out,  and  find  pasture  where 
you  can."  That  is  the  safeguard  of  our  institutions.  It  is  upon  that 
right  of  every  man  that  the  whole  structure  rests.  It  is  that  right 
which  constitutes  the  solid  corner-stone  of  our  fabric  of  government  ; 
and  the  edifice  will  never  fall  or  tremble  while  that  corner-stone  and 
firm  foundation  remain  unchanged.  Liberty  gives  security.  You 
explode  dynamite  or  gunpowder  in  a  tight  box — and  you  have  made 
the  box  of  iron,  perhaps,  to  make  it  strong — yet  the  explosion  tears 
and  splits  and  rends,  in  spite  of  all  your  guards.  You  explode  the 
gunpowder  on  the  open  floor,  in  the  open  air,  and  it  leaves  a  smoke 
and  a  scorch,  perhaps,  but  nothing  else.  So  it  is  that  this  discontent 
should  lead  us  to  recognise  more  clearly  than  ever  the  wisdom  of  our 
institutions  of  government,  to  value  them  more  highly,  and  to  be 
more  grateful  to  Him  who  gave  our  fathers  the  wisdom  and  the 
counsel  from  which  they  have  come. 

And  let  us  gladly  anticipate  the  time  when  man's  ambition,  not  being 
so  concentrated,  as  often  it  is  now,  on  the  mere  external  good  of 
money,  and  of  what  external  things  money  can  purchase,  but  being 
concentrated  on  the  higher  goods,  which  are  intrinsic,  which  are 
spiritual,  which  are  immortal — when  this  aspiration  shall  lift  society 
toward  the  higher  levels,  and  the  better  times  for  which  the  noblest 
aspiration  looks  and  longs.  Ah,  my  friends,  we  are  not  to  quarrel 
with  .this  discontent,  which  is  simply  desire  outstripping  achievement. 
We  do  not  quarrel  with  the  steam  force  because  it  beats  against  the 
cylinder  head,  for  that  is  the  force  which  is  to  drive  the  vessel  on- 
ward, or  to  propel  the  mighty  train.  We  do  not  quarrel  with  the 
strong  wind  which  strikes  our  sails  upon  the  sea.  We  do  not  wish 
to  be  upset ;  but  within  the  limit  of  security  we  rejoice  in  the  wind 
because  it  carries  us  forward  on  our  path.  We  are  not  to  quarrel 
with  this  unsatisfied  desire,  which  reaches  after  something  better 
than  has  yet  been  gained.  It  may  incommode  us  sometimes,  it  may 
sometimes,  possibly,  make  us  timid ;  but  it  is  the  power  which  is  to 
carry  persons  and  households,  the  people  and  the  nation,  forward, 
and  still  forward,  to  the  illuminated  ages  of  universal  attainment  of 
the  highest  good,  and  to  the  final  universal  content!  God  grant  it, 
and  to  Him  be  the  praise ! 


The  Inscription  of  Siloam.  525 

THE  INSCRIPTION  OF  SILOAM. 
By  Professor  J.  Rendel  Harris. 
The  famous  inscription  of  Siloam  is  known  to  all  archceologists  as 
one  of  the  most  precious  monuments  of  the  earl}'-  history  of  our 
race;  and  its  indisputable  evidence  has  thrown  much  light  on  the 
state  of  civilisation  in  the  earliest  times  of  the  Jewish  monarch}'',  on 
the  development  of  the  Jewish  literature,  and  on  the  genesis  of  the 
Western  alphabets  from  their  commom  Semitic  ancestral  form. 

When  we  say  that  all  archaeologists  know  the  worth  of  the  Siloam 
stone,  perhaps  we  might  go  on  to  say  that  by  the  workings  of  a 
kindly  Providence  we  are  all  of  us  becoming  archaeologists,  especially 
in  Oriental  matters;  for  the  right  understanding  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  and  the  right  estimation  of  the  Jewish  literature  and 
ethics,  are  more  and  more  seen  to  depend  upon  that  revived  sense  of 
the  life  of  past  ages  which  comes  to  us  more  keenly  in  the  study  of 
archaeology  than  by  any  other  means.  It  may  be  assumed,  then, 
that  any  new  information  with  regard  to  this  important  monu- 
ment will  be  welcome,  even  though  it  should  seem  to  be  of  the 
nature  of  a  tragedy. 

Up  to  the  present  time,  the  story  of  the  Siloam  stone  has  been 
rather  of  the  nature  of  a  romance ;  it  often  happens  so  in  archaeo- 
logical work,  and  perhaps  this  makes  the  study  so  much  more 
attractive  to  ordinary  minds  than  that  of  philology.  The  romance 
of  the  search  after  a  lost  root  or  a  lost  linguistic  form  is  nothing 
compared  to  the  concrete  excitement  provoked  by  the  discovery  of 
an  inscribed  stone  from  a  vanished  temple,  or  a  piece  of  the  wall  of 
an  ancient  city.  Imagine,  for  example,  the  excitement  of  M.  Cler- 
mont Ganneau  when  he  saw  protruding  from  the  ground  the  stone 
inscribed  with  Greek  letters,  which  had  once  formed  a  part  of  the 
fence  between  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  Court  of  the 
Israelites  in  the  Jewish  temple.  Or  take  the  case  of  Mr.  Wood,  the 
explorer  of  Ephesus,  when  he  found  the  first  tokens  of  that  great 
temple  of  Artemis,  which  had  been  so  long  sunk  deep  below  the 
surface  of  the  marshy  soil  on  which  the  first  builders  had  placed  it, 
that  it  might  enjoy  immunity  from  the  shock  of  earthquake.  No  less 
interesting  than  these,  nor  less  valuable  from  a  scientific  point  of 
view,  was  the  accidental  discovery  of  the  famous  Siloam  inscription, 
by  the  boys  in  Jerusalem,  who  wandered  from  the  pool  of  Siloam 
into  the  southern  end  of  the  ancient  tunnel  that  connects  the  pool 
with  the  Fountain  of  the  Virgin  in  the  Kedron  Valley,  and  detected 
the  incised  letters  upon  the  side  of  the  tunnel  not  far  from  its 
entrance. 

This  was  ten  years  ago.  In  February  of  1881,  Professor  Sayce 
made  his  copy  of  the  inscription  by  candle-light,  and  a  paper-squeeze 
of  the  inscription  was  taken,  as  well  as  a  plaistcr  cast.  F'inally,  the 
inscription  was  treated  with  hydrochloric  acid  by  Professor  Guthe  in 
order  to   dissolve  out  the    lime  which    had   settled    in    the  deeply 


526  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

incised  letters  (an  unfortunate  proceeding,  according  to  my  judgment). 
Copies  of  the  plaster  cast  of  the  inscription  have  found  their  way 
into  the  West ;  and  the  original  mould  from  which  they  were  made 
is  in  my  possession  (the  artist  who  made  it  caught  a  fever  from 
working  in  the  foul  air  of  the  tunnel).  So  that  we  can  say  that 
we  are  very  well  placed  for  a  knowledge  of  the  inscription,  and 
may  console  ourselves  over  that  fact,  for  now  we  come  to  the  tragic 
part  of  the  story — the  inscription  itself  has  disappeared  ! 

In  order  to  explain  more  fully  about  this  piece  of  vandalism,  let 
me  now  communicate  some  bits  of  information  which  are  not 
generally  known. 

For  some  time  past  there  have  been  rumours  in  Jerusalem  of  the 
discovery  of  a  new  Hebrew  inscription,  which  may  be  thus  trans- 
lated : 

"  This  channel  (or  drain)  was  made  at  the  command  of  ninety,  and  labourers 
ninety,  and  the  outlay  ninety  :  remember  thou  wilt  find  before  thee  ninety,  and 
behind  thee  ninety  :  take  it,  and  thou  shalt  raise  it  to  a  river,  and  the  work  is 
strengthened  from  Mount  Oarha  from  thy  work  to  the  place  which  men  will  call, 
and  thou  shalt  remember  it,  Shiloah." 

Now  this  inscription  evidently  has  reference  to  the  tunnel  of  Siloam. 
Further,  it  is  a  forgery.  The  author  of  it  has  fortified  himself  for 
the  work  by  a  study  of  the  famous  Moabite  stone,  in  which  he  found 
a  word  which  has  never  yet  been  satisfactorily  explained ;  namely, 
the  word  "  Qarha."  We  find  Mesha,  king  of  Moab,  recording  that 
there  was  no  cistern  in  the  wall  in  Qarha ;  but  no  one  seems  exactly 
to  know  what  "  Qarha  "  means, — whether  it  was  a  place  or  a  citadel, 
or  something  different  from  either.  Accordingly  the  author  of  this 
inscription  of  which  I  have  given  the  rough  transcript,  will  have  the 
doubtful  word  to  represent  a  mountain  connected  with  the  Siloam 
tunnel  in  some  mysterious  manner,  perhaps  because  of  the  mention  of 
a  cistern  in  Qarha. 

The  reports  which  vi/ere  current  in  Jerusalem  showed  that  the 
Moabite  stone  had  something  to  do  with  the  "find;"  for  it  was 
reported  that  the  stone  was  a  new  Moabite  stone  in  the  possession 
of  a  certain  wealthy  Greek.  It  may  be  doubted,  however,  whether 
the  wealthy  Greek  wished  the  Moabite  stone  to  be  mentioned  in  the 
matter.  His  object  was  something  quite  different.  It  is  suggestive 
enough  from  the  transcript  that  we  have  here  an  attempt  to  complete 
the  Siloam  inscription,  which  is  known  to  be  imperfect  and  illegible 
at  the  end,  the  concluding  sentence  being  generally  given  as  follows  : 

"And  the  waters  flowed  from  the  channel  into  the  pool  for  a  distance  of 
one  thousand  cubits,  and  [a  part  of]  a  cubit  was  the  height  of  the  rock,"  etc. 

Now,  it  would  seem  that  the  forger  of  the  new  stone,  seeing  that 
the  tunnel  inscription  had  ended  incompletely  with  numerical  details 
of  the  work,  was  disposed  to  fill  up  the  lacuna  with  statements  about 
the  number  of  men  employed,  and  other  similar  matter;  all  of  which 
is  very  clever,  but  absolutely  useless  unless  the  actual  Siloam  in- 
scription were  removed  from  its  place,  so  that  no  tests  for  the  newly- 


Sermonette  for  Children  on  the  International  Lesson.       527 

read  letters  might  be  employed.  A  horrible  suspicion  of  vandalism 
thus  rises  in  the  mind.  But  we  are  moving  too  fast ;  let  us  return  to 
sober  history. 

The  reports  current  in  Jerusalem  said  that  the  stone  was  in  the 
ancient  Phenician  character.  This  was  what  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. Phenician  alphabets  are  a  speciality  amongst  the  forgers  of 
inscriptions  in  Syria  (only  they  make  mistakes  sometimes ;  I  myself 
was  offered  some  Phenician  inscriptions  by  the  youth  of  Sidon,  in 
which  the  artist  had  mingled  early  forms  of  the  Greek  alphabet, 
evidently  from  some  Western  hand-book,  in  which  the  two  languages 
were  compared  as  to  their  early  alphabetic  forms). 

To  bring  the  matter  to  a  point,  a  correspondent  of  mine  succeeded, 
on  the  1 8th  of  last  October,  in  getting  an  intoduction  to  the  wealthy 
Greek  of  whom  report  had  been  speaking,  and  an  invitation  to 
examine  the  newly-discovered  stones.  Accordingly,  he  paid  a  visit, 
and,  by  good  luck,  the  Greek  was  away  from  home,  and  his  wife  was 
well  pleased  to  show  the  inscriptions. 

First  and  foremost  {horresco  7rfcreiis),  there  was  lifted  on  the  table 
an  ancient  stone  with  Phenician  characters,  which  a  glance  showed 
to  be  nothing  more  or  less  than  the  great  inscription  of  Siloam.  Next 
came  the  Phenician  inscription  of  which  v/e  gave  a  copy  above.  An 
examination  of  this  stone  showed  it  to  be  a  forgery.  Where  the 
copy  has  a  Hebrew  p,  the  stone  had  a  b.  The  Arabs  cannot  pro- 
nounce a /y  with  them  Tripolis  becomes  Tarabulus ;  and  a  steam- 
boat {i<apore)  is  baboor. 

It  was  clear,  then,  that  the  stone  was  a  forgery  of  some  Arabic- 
speaking  person,  and  was  meant  as  a  pendant  to  the  Siloam 
inscription.  My  correspondent  tells  me  he  returned  to  Jerusalem,  and 
lost  no  time  in  making  the  necessary  visit  to  the  tunnel  of  Siloam. 
Every  evil  suspicion  was  verified  ;  the  inscription  had  indeed  been 
removed.  As  my  correspondent  was  coming  away  from  the  exami- 
nation of  the  tunnel,  he  met  Fra  Lievin,  the  famous  Franciscan 
archaeologist,  the  authority  of  authorities  on  all  Jerusalem  antiquities. 
To  him  he  communicated  the  discovery  ;  and  the  reply  which  he  re- 
ceived was,  "  Mais  c'est  un  vandalisme  ! "  ["  Why,  that  is 
vandalism  !  "] — a  sentiment  in  which  I  think  I  may  assume  that  all 
scholars  will  join. 


SERMONETTE  FOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 

LESSON.* 

Lesson  for  December  2\st.    Z«,ti?  xxiv.  44-53.    Golden  Text,  John  x\\\  3. 

Jesus'  Parting  Words. 

During  these  forty  days  the  Lord  often  had  conversations  with  His 

disciples.     Before  His  resurrection  the  disciples  were  very  slow  to 

*  These  Seiinonettes  are  original  or  abridged. 


528  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

understand  very  simple  truths.  When  the  Lord  had  said,  "  Whither 
I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way  ye  know,"  Thomas  had  rephed,  "  We 
know  not  whither  Thou  goest,  and  how  can  we  know  the  way  ?  " 
But  now  the  disciples  understood  His  instructions,  because  Jesus 
opened  their  understandings.  No  other  teacher  possessed  the  power 
of  opening  the  understandings  of  his  pupils.  Jesus  still  exercises  this 
power.  He  bestows  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Bible  perplexes  those  who 
are  not  taught  by  Him.  The  Lord  conversed  with  His  disciples  not 
only  about  His  own  past  sufferings,  but  also  about  their  future 
labours.  He  told  them  what  they  were  to  preach,  and  where  they 
were  to  preach. 

I.  What  were  they  to  preach  ?  Not  vengeance,  but  mercy,  "  and 
that  repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His 
name  among  all  nations."  The  gifts  that  sinners  need  are  repentance 
and  pardon.  To  be  pardoned  without  repentance  would  be  no  bless- 
ing. Repentance  simply  means  a  change  in  the  state  of  the  mind — 
a  change  from  the  state  of  mind  that  will  not  believe  to  a  state  of 
mind  that  will ;  from  the  state  of  mind  that  does  not  love  God  to  the 
state  of  mind  that  does.  No  true  penitent  shall  be  without  the  pardon 
and  remission  of  sins. 

n.  Where  were  the  apostles  to  preach?  Among  all  nations,  but 
they  were  to  begin  at  Jerusalem.  The  murderers  were  to  have  the 
first  offer  of  pardon.  When  Napoleon  was  once  urged  to  visit 
Jerusalem,  he  answered,  "Jerusalem  does  not  come  within  the 
line  of  my  operations."  But  Jerusalem  was  the  starting-point  and 
centre  of  Christ's  operations  when  He  began  the  conquest  of  the 
world.  The  Apostle  Peter,  speaking  to  the  Jews  of  the  Divine  order 
by  which  the  first  place  had  always  been  given  to  the  Jews  in  the 
history  of  Revelation,  says,  "  Unto  you  first,  God  having  raised  up 
His  Son  Jesus,  sent  Him  to  bless  you." 

"  At  the  village  of  Bersham,  near  which  I  reside,"  says  Williams  of 
Wren,  "  there  is  a  foundry  for  casting  cannons.  After  they  are  cast, 
they  are  tested  by  the  founders,  who  first  of  all  put  in  a  single  charge, 
and  then  a  double  charge,  and  if  they  bear  that  without  bursting, 
they  are  pronounced  fit  for  the  battle-field."  The  Gospel  was  a  new 
and  untried  instrument.  It  had  to  be  tested,  and  where  was  there  a 
more  fitting  place  than  Jerusalem  for  making  the  first  experiment  ? 
If  the  sinners  of  Jerusalem  could  be  converted,  then  no  sinner  need 
despair.  And  what  was  the  result  ?  Peter  tested  the  new  gun,  and 
three  thousand  were  converted  in  one  day. 

Let  us  remember  that  this  Divine  charity  does  not  begin  far  away, 
but  "  begins  at  home."  We  are  to  witness  for  Jesus,  and  we  are  to 
begin  ?t  our  Jerusalem— just  at  home. 


The  British  Weekly  Pulpit 

No.  138,  Vol.  III.  DECEMBER  25,  1890.  One  Penny. 


THE  NATIVITY   OF  THE  REDEEMER. 

Preached  in  thejorenoon  of  Sabbath,  21st  December,  1890. 

By  the  Rev.  Thomas  Cochrane, 

The  Pleasance  Church,  Edinburgh. 

"  Unto  us  a  child  is  born,"  etc. — Isaiah  ix.  6. 

There  are  three  great  and  marvellous  epochs,  in  connection  with  the 
wondrous  scheme  of  Redemption,  the  memory  of  which  will  never  be 
effaced,  either  in  time  or  eternity  ! 

These  three  noted  epochs,  haloed  by  a  peerless  circumstance  and 
glory,  need  it  be  affirmed,  are  the  birth,  death,  and  resurrection  of 
the  Redeemer  ;  and  these  amazing  events  and  ever-memorable  epochs 
in  the  history  of  the  redemption  of  the  Church  and  people  of  the 
Lord,  all  over  the  far-reaching  realms  of  Christendom  are  regularly 
and  statedly  commemorated,  even  as  they  have  been  in  ages  past,  and 
will  be  in  the  years  to  come.  These  are  events  the  Church  of  Christ 
will  not,  cannot  permit  to  die  !  Hence  Christmas,  Good  Friday,  and 
Easter,  when  the  eye  of  the  Christian  world  is  turned  to  the  cradle, 
the  cross,  and  the  sepulchre  of  the  Redeemer,  respectivel}^,  while  the 
heart  throbs,  in  unison  with  the  earnest  gaze  of  faith,  and,  in  imagina- 
tion, we  visit  the  manger,  where  the  infant  Redeemer  was  cradled  ; 
the  cross,  where  He  suffered,  the  just  one  for  the  unjust;  and  the 
open  sepulchre,  whence  He  rose,  triumphant  over  death  and  the 
grave — a  conqueror  mighty  to  save  ! 

We  do  not,  now,  propose  to  enter  upon  the  consideration  of  these 
great  events,  generally ;  but  to  draw  attention,  especially,  to  the  first 
of  these,  which  the  Christian  world  is  now  commemorating,  and  to 
meditate,  briefly,  upon  the  nativity  of  our  Redeemer — gazing  with 
rapt  and  holy  wonder  upon  the  manger-cradle,  and  uniting  in  holy 
adoration  with  the  angel  hosts  in  the  heavenly  song — 

"Glory  to  God  in  the  highest. 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Goodwill  toward  men  !  " 

Who  is  He  that  is  born  in  Bethlehem  ?  Who  is  He  that  is  thus 
born  in  Bethlehem  ?     Who  is  He  that  is  cradled  in  the  manger  ? 


530  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

The  answer  we  give,  not  in  our  own  words,  but  in  the  language  of 
God's  holy  book;  and  thus  we  read,  Isaiah  ix.  6 — "The  mighty- 
God  !  The  Father  of  Eternity  !  The  Prince  of  Peace !  " 

And  why,  then,  in  yon  manger,  in  such  poverty,  did  the  Virgin 
Mary  bring  forth  her  "  first-born  son  "  ?  The  answer  should  come 
home  with  power  and  deepest  pathos  to  every  heart,  and  thrill  and 
penetrate  every  affection  and  emotion  within  us.  He  was  born,  and 
He  was  thus  born  and  thus  cradled,  because  "  He  became  poor," 
that  we  "  might  be  rich  ;  "  and  He  thus  came  "  to  seek  and  to  save 
that  which  was  lost;  "  "foxes  have  holes,  and  birds  of  the  air  have 
nests,  but  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  lay  His  head." 

Here,  then,  and  now  in  thought  let  us  visit  the  stable,  and  look 
into  yon  manger  !  Lo  !  there  a  babe  in  helpless  infancy  !  Behold  ! 
the  evidences  of  poverty,  that  meet  us  at  every  point  of  view  !  See  1 
the  swaddling  bands,  in  which  the  infant  lies  ;  how  truly  and  clearly 
they  indicate  the  deep  depths  of  humiliation,  in  which  that  babe  was 
born;  and  when  we  realize  or  attempt  to  realize  the  heights  of 
exaltation  from  which  He  came  to  earth,  and  strive  to  fathom  or 
conceive  the  unutterable  and  inconceivable  depths  of  His  humiliation 
■ — from  the  cradle  to  the  cross,  and  from  the  cross  to  the  sepulchre; 
and  when,  yet  again,  we  attempt  to  solve  the  problem,  and  resolve 
the  reason  and  ground  as  to  such  humiliation,  we  shall  be  led  heartily 
and  adoringly  to  join  in  the  angelic  song — 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Goodwill  toward  men  ! " 

Look,  yet  again,  at  yon  cradle-bed  !  See  there,  not  only  the 
evidences  of  poverty,  but  the  manifest  tokens  of  the  weakness  of 
infancy — the  feebleness  of  humanity  in  all  its  utter  helplessness. 
That  infant  cry  how  feeble  ;  that  infant  arm  how  weak  !  How  unable 
to  do  anything  to  overcome  the  utter  incapacity  of  infancy  !  There 
lies  the  "  child  born,"  the  son  of  Mary  "  given  "  ;  and,  as  regarded 
mere  nature.  His  holy  human  nature,  there  might  be,  we  suppose 
there  would  be,  no  difference  outwardly  between  this  babe  and  any 
other,  save  that  every  part  of  the  physical  framework  was  perfect,, 
and  that  there  was  no  inherent  sin ;  but  yet  that  "  holy  thing  "  was 
called  "  The  Son  of  God,'^  and  "  The  Mighty  God  ivas  still  His  name!' 
Ay ;  and  while  the  arm  of  infancy  was,  outwardly,  like  any  infant 
arm  (the  arm  of  a  true  and  proper  humanity),  the  arm  of  Divinity 
was  poising  the  mighty  worlds  that  roll  in  the  dim  distance  of  an 
unexplored  and  inconceivable  immensity — ruling  over  all,  in  the 
kingdoms  of  Creation,  Providence,  and  Redemption,  and  swaying 
that  sceptre  of  universal  love,  on  account  of  which  the  adoring  hosts 
of  heaven  were  singing  their  grand  new  glory  song,  and  the  Magi, 
laden  with  their  free-will  offerings,  were  being  attracted  by  the  star, 
which  had  been  trimmed,  like  a  lamp  in  heaven's  azure  vault,  to  tell 
where  the  Saviour  was  born  ! 


The  NaUvity  oj  the  Redeemer.  531 

Surely  there  is  something  here  worthy  of  "  Everlasting  remem- 
brance ; "  surely  there  is  here  the  manifestation  of  a  love,  whose 
"  breadth,  and  length,  and  depth,  and  height  "  pass  all  knowledge ! 
Mystery  there  doubtless  is,  for  ^' great  is  the  mystery  of  godluiess, 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh ;  "  but  while  great  is  the  mystery,  as  great 
are  the  mere}-,  the  grace,  and  the  love ;  and  we  will  sing  again  "  a 
new  song  to  the  Lord,"  and  swell  the  angel  chorus — 


'Glory  to  God  in  tlie  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Good- will  toward  men.'' 


Another  key-note  still  we  touch,  evoking  sweet  and  solemn  har- 
mony. 

Why  was  "  the  Son  of  God  "  a  babe  ?  Why  born  in  the  flesh 
at  all  ?  Why  the  poverty  of  His  birth — the  helplessness  of  His 
infancy — the  feebleness  of  His  human  nature  ?  We  can  only  answer 
— in  order  that  He  might  be  the  Saviour  !  It  had  been  humiliation 
deep  enough  to  come  to  earth,  in  such  a  condition  at  all ;  it  had  been 
a  stooping  from  infinite  heights  of  glory  to  depths  of  infinite  humilia- 
tion, even  to  be  born,  as  born  the  Saviour  was  ;  but  when  you  try 
to  realise  the  fact  that  yon  infant  arm  was  yet  to  be  nailed  to  the 
accursed  tree,  and  when  you  attempt  to  conceive  that  yon  radiant 
infant  brow  was  yet  to  be  wreathed  with  thorns,  and  His  blessed 
side  pierced  with  the  soldier's  cold  and  cruel  spear,  you  find  beneath 
that  depth  so  deep,  as  manifested  to  the  eye,  a  lower  deep  of  sorrow 
and  suffering,  a  pathway  to  the  tomb,  all  traced  and  tracked  by  the 
blood  of  His  atoning  sacrifice,  and  you  realise  in  these  words  of 
inspiration  a  deeper  and  fuller  meaning  (Is.  liii.  4),  "  Surely  He 
hath  borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows,"  and  "  Christ  hath 
redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us." 
What  heights  of  glory  were  His  !  what  depths  of  humiliation  did 
He  fathom  when  in  the  deepest  depths  thereof  He  cried,  "I  am  a 
worm  and  no  man."  "  Is  it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by  ; 
behold  and  see  if  there  be  any  sorrow  like  unto  my  sorrow  ?  " 

If,  then,  the  birth  of  Christ  Jesus  were  in  order  to  His  being  the 
Saviour  of  men  ;  if  His  birth  were  in  order  to  His  life  of  holy 
obedience  and  death  of  agony  and  shame  in  the  room  and  stead  of  the 
guilty :  and  if  these  were  in  order  to  man's  acceptance  with  God, 
when  justified  by  faith  in  the  obedience  and  work  of  a  risen  and 
exalted  Redeemer,  surely  we  have  cause  again,  and  anew,  to  sing  the 
angel's  song — 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Good-will  toward  men ! " 

We   wake   again    a   new  or  higher  key   to   praise    the    Redeemer, 
"  almighty  to  save." 


532  The  British  Weekly  Pulptt. 

Over  every  birth-place  and  cradle-bed  since  the  fall,  with  con- 
spicuously few  exceptions,  you  may  write  the  words — 

"  Born  to  die  !  " 
The     few    notable    exceptions    only    confirm    the   rule — "all    have 
sinned  " — all  must  die  ! 

Look,  now,  at  the  cradle-bed  of  the  Redeemer.  Surely,  if  ever 
there  were  to  be  exception,  it  would  be  here  !  No,  it  could  not  be — 
it  must  not  be,  here  !  The  very  ground  of  a  world's  hope — of  man's 
salvation — was  based  on  the  doing,  and  the  dying,  of  Him  who  lay  a 
babe  in  Bethlehem ;  for,  in  taking  the  sinner's  place,  He  must  bear 
the  sinner's  doom ;  and  in  bearing  our  sins,  and  the  full  penalty 
thereof.  He  bore  these  sins  away,  "as  far  as  east  is  distant  fromi 
the  west."  The  preceptive  and  penal  obedience  of  the  Saviour 
thoroughly  and  completely  meet  the  requirements  of  God's  holy  law 
and  infinite  justice,  so  that  He  is  "  The  Just  God  "  while  justifying 
the  ungodly  who  believe.  Through,  or  by,  the  manger  in  Bethlehem, 
let  us  look  to  the  cross  on  Calvary,  yea,  to  the  crown  of  glory,  where- 
with the  Redeemer  is  now  crowned  in  Heaven  above  ;  and  as  we 
stand  with  upturned  gaze  to  glory,  let  us  strike  anew  a  grand  key- 
note to  the  praise  of  the  Eternal  Trinity  : 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Good-will  toward  men  ! " 

Every  cradle  tells  of  a  grave ;  for  every  birth  we  have  a  death  ;  and 
for  every  death  we  find  a  place  of  burial.  Nov/,  even  so  here  ;  we 
stand  by  the  cradle  to-day,  and  we  look  through,  or  by,  it  to  the  cross, 
and  beside  the  cross,  or  near  it,  we  have  the  new-made  tomb  of 
"Joseph  of  Arimathea,"  where  leal  and  true  disciples  lovingly  and 
tenderly  laid  the  blessed  body  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  died  !  He  was 
buried  !  It  was  no  dream,  no  myth,  but  a  solemn  reality — death  and 
sepulture,  as  really  and  truly  as  ever  happened  to  mortal  man,  obtained 
in  this  case  ;  and  if  so,  in  the  death  of  Jesus  have  we  not  the  death  of 
Him  who,  by  His  dying,  overcame  death  ;  and  who,  hy  His  being  laid 
in  the  grave,  after  being  proved  to  be  truly  dead,  gave  evidence  that 
by  His  death  there  would  be  ground  of  hope  for  the  very  chief  of 
sinners,  for  the  death  of  Jesus  was  the  death  of  Death  ;  and,  if  so,  on 
account  of  Death,  dead  and  buried,  we  will  raise  our  loud  acclaim 
with  the  angelic  throng — 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace. 
Good-will  toward  men  !  ' 

Once  more  we  unite  in  praising  the  name  of  our  God  and  glorious 
Redeemer. 

If  the  cradle  lead  us  to  the  cross,  and  the  cross  to  the  sepulchre, 
that  tomb  we  find  open  and  empty  !  The  Saviour  could  not  be  holden 
of  death.     He  died,  but  revived,  and  rose  again,  and  we  now  look  into 


The  Nativity  oj  the  Redeemer.  533 


"  the  place  where  the  Lord  lay."  Lo  !  it  is  empty.  "  He  is  not  here, 
but  is  risen  ";  but,  if  risen,  then  death  is  robbed  of  its  sting,  and  the 
grave  of  its  victory,  and  the  tomb  is  open  for  every  believer  ;  for  "  now 
is  Christ  risen  from  the  dead,  and  become  the  first-fruits  of  them  that 
slept." 

Here,  then,  as  we  stand  around  the  Saviour's  cradle,  we  have 
abundant  cause  to  raise — and  shall  we  not  sing  as  we  have  never 
sung  before  ? — our  songs  of  gratitude,  "  unto  Him  that  loved  us  ;  "  and 
join  in  the  angelic  song,  with  hearts  of  truest,  heartiest  thanksgiving  : 

"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
And  on  earth  peace, 
Goodwill  toward  men  !  " 

On  all  these  grounds,  and  on  every  other  ground,  implied  in  or 
suggested  by  the  subject  before  us,  let  us  swell  the  chorus  of  the 
Saviour's  praise  !  Sureh^  we  have  the  very  highest  grounds  for 
remembering  the  Advent  of  the  Redeemer ;  and,  so,  we  look  to  His 
cradle.  His  cross,  and  His  tomb.  We  see  the  babe  of  the  Advent, 
when  "  low  lay  His  head  among  the  beasts  of  the  stall ; "  we  follow 
Him  through  life,  and  see  Him,  when  He  had  not  "where  to  lay 
His  head."  The  world  that  had  no  room  for  Him  in  the  inn,  at 
His  birth,  had  no  home  for  Him  during  His  life.  **  He  came  unto 
His  own,  and  His  own  received  Him  not."  We  follow  Him  to 
Calvar}',  and  behold  the  blood  of  His  cross,  the  grand  panacea  for 
the  sinner's  guilt  and  the  world's  woes  !  We  solemnly  stand  b}'  the 
tomb,  and  o'er  that  open  grave  we  behold  the  dawning  of  hope  and  a 
blessed  immortality  !  Nay,  through  the  cradle,  we  not  only  look  to 
the  cross,  but  through  the  cross  to  the  crown  and  the  throne,  and 
behold  the  Saviour  crowned  with  "  many  crowns";  for,  "because  He 
humbled  Himself,  and  became  obedient  to  death,  even  the  death  of 
the  cross,  God,  also,  hath  highly  exalted  Him,  and  hath  given  Him  a 
name  that  is  above  every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  ever}'  knee 
should  bow,  of  things  in  Heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things 
under  the  earth,  and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  !" 

Here,  then,  and  now,  in  spirit,  we  begin  the  doxology  of  the  sky  : 

"Unto    Him    that  loved  us,   and   washed  us   from  our  sins    in  His 

-  own  bfood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God   and  His 

Father,  to  Him  be  glory  and  dominion  for  ever  and  ever.     Amen." 

"  Who  is  He,  in  yonder  stall. 
At  whose  feet  the  shepherds  fall  ? 
'Tis  the  Lord  !  O  wondrous  story  ! 
Tis  the  Lord,  the  King  of  Glory  ; 
At  His  feet  we  humbly  fall ; 
Crown  Him  !  crown  Him  Lord  of  all !" 


534  ^^^  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

READING.* 

By  the  Rev.  Thomas  Champness. 

When  Paul  the  aged  wrote  to  his  young  friend  Timothy,  he  bade 
him  give  attention  to  reading,  and  showed  his  own  practice  by  asking 
him  to  bring  the  books.  If  you  are  not  a  reader,  those  who  hear 
3'ou  preach  lose  by  listening  to  you ;  for  while  it  is  true  that  some 
men  have  read  what  has  prevented  them  from  becoming  useful 
because  of  the  way  their  minds  have  been  lifted  out  of  the  groove 
of  everyday  thoughts,  it  is  quite  as  true  that  some  of  us  are  weaving 
cotton  when  we  might  have  had  silk,  and  others  are  letting  the  shuttle 
cross  the  warp  with  nothing  in  it ! 

We  have  had  letters  on  this  subject,  and  some  young  men  write 
to  ask  what  they  should  read.  Our  reply  is — Read  that  kind  of  a 
book  that  is  somewhat  foreign  to  your  natural  bent.  If  you  are 
imaginative  and  poetical,  read  Butler,  Pearson,  Wesley,  and  other 
writers  that  will  call  the  reason  into  the  field  of  action.  If  you  are 
logical  and  calm,  read  poetry  and  works  of  imagination.  Pollok, 
Young,  Herbert,  will  do  you  much  service  in  making  what  your 
preaching  needs.  Your  are  sure  to  read  that  which  your  mind 
loves :  we  say  read  till  you  like  that  which  at  first  seems  irksome. 

Read  only  what  you  can  digest.  In  reading  you  must  feed  the  soul 
as  you  ought  to  feed  the  body — slowly,  and  with  the  things  that 
nourish.  Poisonous  books,  like  poisonous  food,  must  not  be  touched. 
But  there  are  other  books,  harmless  it  may  be,*  but  nothing  in  them 
that  you  can  assimilate.  All  you  read  which  cannot  make  material 
for  thought,  and  be  of  use  to  your  preaching,  is  like  some  kinds 
of  food,  pleasant  it  may  be  to  the  taste,  but  nothing  in  it  to  make 
bone  and  muscle. 

You  will  do  well  to  keep  a  Bible  on  your  table,  with  wide  margins, 
where  you  can  write  the  place  in  any  book  that  illustrates  a  text.  In 
this  way  men  who  began  the  habit  when  young  have,  by  the  time 
they  are  forty  years  of  age,  made  a  commentary  simply  invaluable.  It 
is  easily  done,  and  in  the  course  of  years  gives  you  the  help  of  all 
the  books  you  have  ever  read  towards  making  a  sermon. 

Of  course  you  think  as  you  read.  If  you  do  not  think,  do  not 
waste  your  time  in  reading.  You  could  use  it  much  better  in  other 
ways.  As  you  grasp  your  author's  meaning  ask  yourself  the  question  : 
"  Is  this  true  ?  Can  I  reply  to  this  ?  What  can  be  said  against  it  ? 
Have  I  met  with  this  idea  before,  or  is  it  something  new  ?  "  Ponder 
the  style.  See  if  you  could  amend  it.  Put  the  thought  into  your 
own  words,  and  you  may  fill  your  pockets  with  coins  with  your 
own  image    and    superscription.     Weigh    the  adjectives,   see  if  you 

»  From  "The  Young  Preacher's  Guide."  \Joyful  News  Depot,  Rochdale- 
Sixpence. 


Rcadiiii 


535 


have  another  that  is  more  fitting.  You  will  find  some  authors  use 
gold  when  silver  would  have  done,  aye,  and  done  better.  And  there 
are  others  who  use  copper  when  more  precious  metal  is  within  their 
reach,  and  the  subject  is  worthy  of  the  finest  of  the  gold.  Weigh  the 
metaphors,  and  try  if  you  can  recollect  them  being  used  before,  and 
where  ?  By  following  this  plan  you  will  add  largely  to  your  own 
treasure  house. 

Some  preachers,  when  they  have  read  a  book,  preach  it.  Mr.  Drum- 
mond's  book  has  made  hundreds  of  sermons.  It  has  done  for  some 
pulpiteers  what  the  Roman  Wall  has  been  doing  for  those  who 
wished  to  build  without  taking  pains  to  quarry  their  stone.  Those 
who  know  the  Roman  Wall  can  point  to  the  stones  in  many  a  north 
country  farm-house.  After  all,  it  is  only  wearing  stolen  clothes,  if  we 
may  be  allowed  to  change  the  figure. 

The  Bible  must  be  first  or  nowhere  in  the  life  of  a  preacher.  It 
was  the  book  which  at  the  beginning  of  our  days  took  hold  of  our 
mind.  Well  do  we  remember  how  its  stories,  leaving  so  much  for 
the  imagination,  caused  us  to  paint  mental  pictures  of  the  events  of 
sacred  history.  Even  yet  we  love  the  stories  of  the  Old  Book  better 
than  any  other  part  of  it,  and  believe  that  in  the  other  world  one  of 
our  first  employments  will  be  to  seek  out  its  heroes  and  heroines,  and 
to  tell  how  much  pleasure  and  instruction  we  have  learned  from  the 
tale  of  their  lives  and  actions. 

SERMONETTE  EOR  CHILDREN  ON  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
LESSON. 

Lesson  for  December  2'6th,  Review  of  the  Quartei's  Lessons.  Golden  Text^ 
Hebrews  v.  8. 

The  Finished  Picture. 

In  the  church  of  St.  Mark's  at  Venice,  high  over  the  main  door  in 
the  inside,  there  is  a  large  picture  of  Jesus  seated  upon  a  throne, 
with  His  mother  and  Mark  standing  beside  Him.  It  is  a  wonderful 
picture,  made  of  many  pieces  of  coloured  stone  and  glass — red,  blue, 
yellow,  green — fitted  so  closely  together  that  the  joinings  cannot  be 
seen,  and  the  picture  looks  as  if  it  had  been  painted  with  a  brush 
upon  a  background  of  gold,  and  set  in  a  frame  of  red  marble. 
Through  this  door  the  young  people  come,  and  as  they  enter  they 
turn  and  look  upon  the  figure  of  Jesus  shining  and  sparkling  in  gold 
above  them,  and  read  these  words  written  upon  the  red  marble  fillet  : 
— "  Who  He  was,  whence  He  came.  .  .  .  Do  thou  remember."  So 
in  our  lessons  for  the  past  year  we  have  seen  who  Jesus  was  and 
whence  He  came;  we  have  followed  Him  over  the  green  hilJs  and 
by  the  blue  Lake  of  Galilee,  and  the  end  is  "The  Finished 
Picture  "  looking  out  upon  us  from  that  background. 

We  have  seen  Him  in  His  boyhood  and  in  His  manhood,  toiling  as 


536  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit. 

a  carpenter  in  the  village  shop  of  Nazareth.  We  have  seen  Him  lay 
aside  His  tools,  never  to  take  them  again,  to  be  a  teacher  of  the  will 
of  God  to  men.  He  walked  from  village  to  village  and  taught,  and 
wherever  He  went  He  was  kind  and  gentle,  healing  the  sick,  and 
speaking  loving  words  to  little  children.  After  a  little  over  three 
years  of  teaching,  His  work  was  finished,  and  His  time  was  come  to 
die.  We  have  seen  how  He  was  crucified  while  still  a  j^oung  man — 
thirty-three  years  and  four  months  old.  Then  we  have  seen  His 
glorious  resurrection  and  ascension  to  God's  right  hand.  And  now, 
dear  children,  what  is  He  to  you  ?  Whether  you  are  a  gentle  girl 
or  a  valiant  boy,  His  life  and  death  are  all  for  you  as  though 
there  were  none  else  but  you  in  the  world.  The  smallest  child 
can  believe  in  the  beautiful  life  of  Jesus,  and  have  faith  in  what 
He  said,  and  can  tr}^  to  be  patient  and  gentle  as  Jesus  was. 
Jesus  loved  little  children  dearl}^,  and  clasped  them  in  His  arms 
and  blessed  them,  and  set  them  before  His  disciples  as  examples 
of  the  kind  of  minds  that  have  Heaven  about  them.  Are  not 
you  going  to  love  Him  in  return  ?  He  calls  for  your  love  and 
trust.  Listen  to  His  words  as  they  are  read  to  you.  Listen  to 
His  voice  within  you,  guiding  you  into  right.  Pray  to  Him  to  help 
you  to  obey,  and  to  give  you  more  of  His  Spirit.  When  you  are 
in  doubt,  ask  Him  to  tell  you  what  is  right  for  you  to  do,  and  do 
what  His  voice  in  your  conscience  tells  you  is  right.  The  more 
you  do  right  and  refuse  wrong,  the  easier  will  it  become  to  you,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  within  you  will  grow  stronger,  and  your  little  lives 
will  become  purer  and  more  like  His.  Living  thus,  you  will  by-and- 
by  rejoice  that  by  early  turning  to  Jesus  your  life  has  not  been 
spent  in  gathering  a  heap  of  gold,  or  in  idle  pleasure-seeking,  or 
in  doing  or  saying  harmful  things  ;  but  that,  by  following  His  love, 
truth,  and  peace,  you  did  what  in  you  lay  to  leave  in  the  world  a 
little  more  of  the  flower  and  seed  of  goodness  and  beauty,  grown 
openly,  scattered  freely  in  the  name  and  for  the  sake  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

TO  OUR  READERS. 

As  the  contents  of  The  British  Weekly  Pulpit  are  of  permanent 
value,  the  numbers  are  usually  bound  in  volumes.  But  the  exigencies 
of  a  weekly  publication,  involving  varieties  of  type,  headings,  and  the 
like,  somewhat  mar  the  appearance  of  the  books.  It  has  been 
resolved,  therefore,  to  discontinue  the  weekly  issues,  and  to  publish 
the  Pulpit  henceforth  in  yearly  volumes.  The  fourth  volume,  con- 
taining many  of  the  choicest  sermons  preached  during  1891,  will  be 
published  in  November,   1891, 

in  an  elegant  and  attractive  form. 


Date  Due 


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